The only thing missing is the London Marathon...

In 2002 I took Judy along with me on a bidness trip to London.  We stayed through the last weekend to celebrate her half-century birthday at the Selsdon Park Hotel in Croyden - a truly bucolic setting.  That Sunday was a special day for sports, much like today.

First, there was the London Marathon, which was won by Paula Radcliffe in record setting time.
Next there was the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Italy, run at Imola and won by Michael Schumacher.
And, of course, the Masters from Augusta won by Tiger Woods.

I watched these events in succession from the hotel room.  But, alas, the grand event that I was most interested in viewing was not shown on the cable service in the hotel room - the greatest one-day cycling race, one of the monuments of the sport - Paris-Roubaix.  A bit of dejection over-layed on much satisfaction, we sauntered down to the hotel pub for a late lunch.  There was another family there, but fairly deserted.  I noticed the large screen projection TV was receiving a different feed than the TV in the hotel room.  Hmmm, could it be?  It could, a quick switch of the channels and Paris-Roubaix was live, on the big screen, in the bar...voila!

Finally, Paris-Roubaix, The Hell of the North, won by Johann Museeuw.  This was the year that big George Hincapie was in the break with Johan, off the front and storming to the velodrome in Roubaix.  Unfortunately, George crashed of to the side of the road.  I think he was just worn out by 50 km of cobbles and Johann was ripping his legs off.  He remounted and came in tied for 4th position at +4 minutes.  It was a great race.

And, I am expecting another great day of racing today!  London Marathon is next week, so I should be able to substitute the NASCAR race at none other than the spectacular Texas Motor Speedway!

This is the best weekend every year for sports watching, says me!