Tour de France Grand Depart 2014 Is Almost Upon Us

In just a few short days, Tour de France Grand Depart 2014 will begin. This weekend 22 of the world’s top cycling teams will compete across 3 days covering a total of  546km throughout various locations in the UK. There will be 3 stages in the UK including Leeds, Yorkshire and Cambridge before the tour reaches French soil. In France there are a further 18 stages of the tour. The first stage sets off at 11am on Saturday 5th July in Leeds.

The first leg of the tour this Saturday is a 190km flat ride from Leeds to Harrogate.  Despite a typical journey from Leeds to Harrogate being just shy of 25km, the route the cyclists must take will bare west to Skipton, continue north up to Aysgarth and Muker, before declining back down to Ripon and finally in to Harrogate.

The second stage takes place on Sunday 6th July and riders will start at York and cycle down to Sheffield. The second day is the hill stage and cyclists will have many inclines to tackle throughout the ride which is 201km, the longest of all 3 stages. This route takes riders across to Addingham, down to Huddersfield and continuing down to Sheffield.

The final stage of the route follows on Monday 7th July starting at Cambridge and cycling down to London. Stage 3 is 155km, the shortest of all the races. During this route, cyclists will travel down through Finchingfield and continuing to Chelmsford, across to Harlow and leading down to London. The last route, similar to the first is predominantly flat and in comparison to stage 2, the final leg will be less challenging on a flat, shorter route to finish off the tour.

Prior to the event starting, on Thursday 3rd July there will be an opening ceremony held at Leeds arena. The evening will feature music rom Alistair Griffin and Kimberley Walsh, who will together perform the official anthem of the Tour de France, ‘The Road’ along with band, hope and social, Ghost Peleton and Opera North who will perform opera conducted by composer Philip Sheppard, who also composed during the London 2012 Olympics. The opening event starts at 5pm and finishes approximately 8:45pm.

Throughout the 3 days there will be designated spectator hubs along various parts of each route for more information on these spots and general information regarding the event, see the Tour de France website.

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Wimbledon Is Well Under Way

This week Wimbledon got underway with the first round of the men and womens singles commencing on Monday and throughout the week the second single rounds and doubles first rounds also took place. Last years champion, Andy Murray has so far won all of his matches and is playing on top form. The annual championships is nearly half way through and the final takes place on the 6th July, next week. Murray will continue to play his best in order to retain his title, however he faces tough competition with other favourites playing at Wimbledon.

Some of the dark horses in this competition include Ernests Gulbis. The Latvian turned pro back in 2004 and has played in 6 Wimbledon championships. His best singles performance was last year in the mens singles third round. He currently ranks number 10 in the singles. Grigor Dimitrov is another favourite to do well. He is currently ranked 13 in the mens singles and has played at 4 previous Wimbledon championships. He has been playing tennis professionally since 2008. Finally, Milos Raonic of Canada is ranked 9 in the mens singles and is another player to watch. Since turning pro in 2008 he has took part in 3 Wimbledon championships.

Aside from the potential under dogs, there are four favourites to win the competition. Rafael Nadal is currently ranked number one in the singles and is a popular choice to win. Since turning pro back in 2001, Nadal has played in 9 Wimbledon tournaments. Nadal has previously won two Wimbledon tournaments back in 2008 and 2010. Last years winner Andy Murray is still in with a good chance of retaining his title for a second year. Murray ended Britain’s 77 years wait for a men’s single champion at Wimbledon in 2013, a year after he took home a gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics. Murray has been playing tennis professionally since 2005 and is currently ranked number 5 in the singles. Another favourite is Roger Federer, the Swiss pro has been playing since 1998 and has achieved virtually everything in his sport including 17 grand slam titles and an impressive 7 Wimbledon championships. Federer is currently ranked 4th in the singles. Novak Djokovic also has the potential to go ahead and win this years championships. Currently ranked number 2 behind Nadal in the singles. Djokovic has been playing pro since 2003 and won Wimbledon back in 2011.

Today the third round of ladies and gentlemen’s singles take place along with the first round of mixed doubles. Anticipation is high to see who will make it through to the later stages of the competition and which of the favourites or under dogs could be seen in the final.

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SportsDirect.com Takes A Look At England’s Progress In The World Cup

Saturday 14th June saw England defeated 2-1 by 4x world champions, Italy in their first game of the World Cup. England have two matches remaining in which they will compete for a place in the next round. England ideally need to win their next two games, however there is a possibility for England to go through if they draw or lose any of the two games, depending on how the scores turn out for the other teams in their group. Wayne Rooney admits their next match is “do or die” and following criticism of his performance against Italy, the pressure is on to do well.

During Saturday’s match, Marchisio scored the first goal for Italy after 35 minutes, 2 minutes later Sturridge equalised for England. At 50 minutes, Balotelli headed in the second goal for the Italians to take the win. With a missed goal set up by Rooney, 2-1 was the final score. In the excitement of England’s equalising goal, the teams physio, Gary Lewin ended up being stretchered off with a dislocated ankle after falling on the astro turf. Lewin was flown back to the UK and is now waiting for surgery on his ankle following the event.

During the game, England had 44% possession of the ball and 18 shots, 5 of which were on target. Italy had 13 shots, 4 of which were on target. England had 9 corners and Italy 2 and finally England made 8 fouls, one of which Sterling was given a yellow card for, while Italy made 11 fouls.

England’s next game is tomorrow evening against Uruguay. Luis Suarez sat out of Uruguay’s first game due to injury but is fully fit again to play against England. With the exception of their most recent friendly in 2006, Uruguay have never lost a game against England at a World Cup, winning 4 and drawing 3 games.

Expectations may be low for England’s World Cup chances, however the possibility to go far in the competition is there. The England squad are now back in Rio at their training ground preparing for their next big game.

SportsDirect.com’s Father’s Day Competition

Sunday 15th June is Father’s Day and there’s just over week left to find the perfect gift to say thanks. Father’s day has been celebrated for just over 100 years, with the first father’s day being held on the 19th June 1910. The holiday was not nationally recognised until US President Richard Nixon signed a law in 1972 declaring father’s day as the 3rd Sunday in June each year. In the UK and many countries a like, father’s day is also celebrated on the 3rd Sunday.

In honour of this celebration and to give people the chance to thank their dads SportsDirect.com are running a competition to win a father’s day sports bundle. The competition is aimed at everyone with a sports loving father who wants to be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes.

The competition asks entrants to simply Retweet and Follow @SportsDirectUK using the hashtag #dadlovessportsdirect. Only one entry per person will be counted and the winner will be notified via Twitter provided they have a UK address. The competition closes on Monday 9th June at 5pm and the winner will have 2 working days to claim their prize.

To enter the competition, follow the link to the SportsDirect.com Twitter page where entrants can follow and Retweet to be entered into the competition. www.Twitter.com/SportsDirectUK

Full Terms and Conditions:
Promoter is SportsDirect.com, Unit A Brook Park, Shirebrook, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG208RY
Entrants must RT and FOLLOW @SportsDirectUK with the #dadlovesportsdirect hashtag in order to enter.
Competition closes Monday 9th June at 5pm.
Only one entry per person will be counted.
Winner will be notified by Twitter and must hold a valid UK address.
Winner has 2 working days to claim their prize, should a winner not come forward another winner will not be chosen.
T&Cs subject to change.


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SportsDirect.com Takes A Look At England’s Preparations For The World Cup

With only 10 days until the World Cup 2014 kicks off, England’s preparations are off to a good start with a 3-0 win over Peru in the international friendly last Friday. The game at Wembley Stadium was England’s last match on home soil before the World Cup begins. During the game, Daniel Sturridge, Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka all scored a goal each to secure the 3-0 win. Following their first friendly, the England team flew over to Miami, where they will be staying for the next week or so to play their next two friendly matches between Ecuador on the 4th June and Honduras on the 7th June. After these two matches, on the 8th of June the team will head to Rio De Janeiro ready for the start of the World Cup.

England’s first game takes place on Saturday 14th June against Italy and will be played at Manaus Stadium. Shortly after they will play Uruguay at Sao Paulo on the 19th and Costa Rica at Belo Horizonte on the 24th June.  England’s approach to the World Cup is to study each game in detail and analyse potential opponents’ game tactics and weak areas. Football analysts Steve O’Brien and his assistant Mike Baker will compile the facts and statistics from each game and feedback to Roy Hodgson in Brazil. This research should give the England team a good insight into how to play against each competitor and know where their strengths and weaknesses lie.

With only 10 days to go, the opening match venue in Sao Paulo is not yet ready for the opening. Due to on going delays the Corinthians arena will be less than three quarters full for Sundays last test match to assess whether the stadium is ready. As it stands, with temporary seating unfinished, only 40,000 fans will be able to attend the league match. All facilities need to be tested and up to standards. Fire fighting authorities have not authorised the host club to open one of the seating areas and only 5000 fans will be able to watch from another unfinished seating  area. With so little time, the pressures on for the stadium to be completed.

The starting places for the England team are yet to be confirmed, however there is speculation as to whether Wayne Rooney will start, while Daniel Sturridge looks a strong possibility following his performance against Peru last Friday. Prior to kick off Roy Hodgson has told the boys they must sing that  national anthem and belt it out loud and proud. This will help build up emotions before they play. Fans across the UK are now gearing up for England’s first match in just under two weeks. With pubs set to open later and games being aired on national television, everyone will have an opportunity to watch the match live.

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