Sports Roundup - British Open And Tour de France

All the sports action was in Europe this weekend as golfers competed for the claret jug at the British Open and cyclists finally ended the three week marathon of the Tour de France with the traditional final stage on the Champs Elysees in Paris. And in both events, the top contenders came out with victories.

The famous golf saying is "drive for show and putt for dough" and Jordan Spieth showed exactly why the saying exists. Spieth held off fellow American Matt Kuchar in the final round, closing it out by going five under par over the last five holes after giving up his two stroke lead with a brutal start to his round. Spieth had pretty much made every putt all tournament long until missing several short ones early in his round and struggling to hit the fairways. When he drove it wildly right on 13 and had to take an unplayable lie, it looked like the wheels might have totally come off. But he salvaged bogey and then made consecutive bombs on 15 and 16 to basically put the tournament out of reach.

As usual with links courses, everything depends on weather and often your tee time on the first two days can determine whether you win or lose the tournament. Spieth managed to avoid the worst of that weather and the Royal Birkdale course was exposed when the winds went down and the greens had been softened by rain, with the course yielding multiple rounds of 63 and a major record of 62 by South African Branden Grace.

Spieth's adventures on the 13th hole today also show what's wrong with some of the rules of golf. After hitting his drive into an unplayable lie, Spieth spent the next 20 minutes taking his drop further from the hole and then determining line of sight relief from various obstacles until he finally found what was virtually fairway to finally hit his third shot which landed just short of the green. From there he was able to salvage bogey. One of the absurdities of the rules is the fact that, having taken the unplayable lie, Spieth was essentially able to hit his next shot from the fairway. Even greater was the fact that it took 20 minutes to do so while Spieth and Kuchar had already been warned for slow play.

Over in Paris, Chris Froome and his powerful Sky team once again enjoyed the ceremonial ride into Paris with the knowledge that the yellow jersey was his, making it four victories in the last five years for the Englishman. The Columbian Rigoberto Uran came in second and the Frenchman Roman Bardet squeaked into third place by just one second over Sky's Mikel Landa after 3 weeks of grueling racing. Uran truly deserves some credit because he largely did it on his own without much help from his Cannondale teammates.

This was the most exciting Tour in years. Going into the time trial in the second to last stage in Marseilles, there was under a 30 second difference between the top 3 riders. In addition, there were huge crashes and/or fantastic attacks on virtually every stage. Sprinter Mark Cavendish crashed out when he tangled in a sprint with the perennial green jersey winner Peter Sagan. Sagan was essentially disqualified from the race for his actions in that crash. Richie Porte, a serious contender for the yellow, had an even more brutal crash as he lost control on a speedy descent. The relentless Dan Martin and Thomas de Gendt just kept on attacking on virtually every stage as did Warren Barguil in the mountains.

Barguil ended up taking the polka dot jersey and it was truly well deserved. Barguil recovered from going out in a breakaway in a mountain stage and then losing it at the line to winning two subsequent mountain stages and thoroughly deserved the best climber jersey. With the departure of Sagan, Marcel Kittel put a stranglehold on the green jersey, winning four sprints before crashing out himself.

Meanwhile, Team Sky simply kept control of the peloton for Froome at every stage. Michal Kwiatowski and Mikel Landa just kept pushing the pace for Sky whenever Froome needed it. Landa, especially, seemed like he was actually in better shape to make a run for the yellow than Froome at certain points in the Pyrenees. Landa was desperate to make the podium and just fell one second short to Bardet. Expect to see him move to another team and become a serious contender for yellow in next year's Tour.

Regardless of who wins, just the fact that any rider actually finishes this race is a remarkable achievement. The race covers 2,200 miles in 21 stages over 23 days on the flats, up mountains with grades reaching 20% at times, in rain, wind, heat, and cold. It is truly an ultimate test of endurance and yet, as we saw this year, the difference between being on the podium or not could come down to just a single second.