By Justin Davis
July 5th 2009 @ 6:56am
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We didn’t expect any less, says Astana boss Bruyneel
Astana boss Johan Bruyneel made a dramatic re-entry to the world’s biggest bike race after seeing his team dominate the top ten on the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday.
While Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara claimed the stage and the first yellow jersey of the race Astana were left well within sight of the [...]
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![Groundsmen around the world, please note: bowlers do exist. But the way you are preparing the pitches, they may become extinct. Ditto for Test cricket.
I realise you must be under instructions to prepare a pitch like a billiard table so that it lasts for five days and more spectators turn up to swell the organisers’ [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: There’s too many tall scores and small thinking](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tall-scores-small-thinking-tendulkar-th.jpg)
![Danny Tiatto has cultivated a controversial headline or two throughout his career, but the hardman showed his softer side this week when committing to a guest role with the Melbourne Knights. It’s a poetic homecoming for one of the club’s favourite sons in the dwindling twilight of his football journey.
Tiatto trained for the first time [...] Paddy Higgs: Knights to gain from Tiatto’s poetic homecoming](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/tiatto-roar-th.jpg)
![Make no mistake, we are currently witnessing one of the most intriguing and wide-reaching expansion phases in the history of Australian sport with codes venturing into uncharted waters like never before.
In the last week alone we’ve seen:
- The AFL’s Gold Coast FC launching their inaugural membership drive.
- An AFL NAB Cup match being held in [...] Adrian Musolino: Where will the codes look to next for further expansion?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/sheedy-gws-th.jpg)
![There was jubilation this week as I flipped over the newspaper to find the words “troubled footballer”, “nightclub” and “urinate” co-located in a sentence! It was the perfect opportunity to bust out a team that a couple of mates and myself have selected and re-selected many times over the years.
With its genesis in some [...] Andrew Jones: The Nitespots XI, part one](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/craig_gower-photo-th.jpg)
![Queensland rugby going broke. Melbourne struggling to find players. The ARU hemming and hawing over requests for the Force to bring in replacements for their staggering injury toll. The Waratahs losing ugly.
And all four provinces out of the five on the Super 14 table.
It seems that there’s nothing but bad news in rugby at the [...] Andrew Logan: Winning grassroots gold at Mudgee Rugby Festival](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mudgee-rugby-th.jpg)
![Finally, some commonsense from Football Federation Australia, with Frank Lowy realising the game is up for the A-League and the Australian World Cup bid if drastic changes aren’t made – and made now.
At a function hosted by Melbourne Victory, Lowy acknowledged the future of the game wasn’t in being squirreled away on pay-TV and said [...] Jesse Fink: Why SBS must screen the A-League](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/newcastle-jets-grand-final-th.jpg)
![It’s becoming almost ridiculous now. Refresh your page on any football news site on the net and another Australian player is heading off to north Asia. Sasho Petrovski, Mark Bridge and even that great flop John Aloisi are all rumoured to be mulling over offers to go to the Chinese Super League.
Before you know [...] Jesse Fink: The A-League’s bleeding of players must stop](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/a-league-th2.jpg)
![Each week Andrew Jones will select a list of sports people united by some feature other than competence.
This week it is the correlation of their name with their talents. As always (well, since this column started last week) Jonesy welcomes your alternative line-ups.
My Top 5 Apt Sporting Names
1. Usain Bolt (c) – [...] Andrew Jones: The top 5 apt sporting names](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/bolt-th.jpg)
![I got a lot of personal satisfaction a year ago in anointing Mark Milligan “Where’s Wally” for his habit of leaving clubs without notice and jetting off overseas, but I’m starting to think it could also be a good nickname for Mark Viduka.
Not playing in the Premiership and AWOL with the Socceroos, the V-Bomber has [...] Jesse Fink: 24/7 football coverage is not all it’s cracked up to be](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/viduka-shot-in-arm-th.jpg)
![The spectre of international cricket schedules has raised its ugly head again in recent weeks, not just because of, but certainly highlighted by, Australia’s suddenly chronic injury toll.
Fresh from losing several key players during the Ashes tour and Champions Trophy series in South Africa, five more Australian players have succumbed to injury during the current [...] Brett McKay: Dodgy cricket schedule, more headaches for players](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/dodgy-cricket-schedule-moises-henriques-th.jpg)
![That was one of the most disappointing Socceroos performances in recent memory. Far from being a result we can take some comfort from (in that it’s getting Australia a step closer to South Africa 2010), it’s actually highlighted how dangerous the gambit of what I would call containment is becoming for our national team looking [...] Jesse Fink: Is South Africa 2010 a road to nowhere?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/mark-bresciano-soccaroos-th.jpg)



