infection that produced concussion-like symptoms.The Verizo

Throughout the Tour de France, Australian professional cyclist Richie Porte will be checking in. Here is his latest entry, as told to ESPN contributor Rupert Guinness:Stage 19: Albertville to Saint Gervais Mont Blanc, 146kmWith one mountain stage to go in this Tour de France on Saturday and so little time between second place and me in fifth, the best way to prepare for one of the greatest opportunities of my career is to keep it simple by focusing on finishing on a good note.Thats how I am going to take it when we line up to start the 146.5km 20th stage from Megève to Morzine that is in the Alps and will be the penultimate stage of this years Tour.Saturday will decide the Tour winner and who joins him on the podium, with Sundays final and 21st stage from Chantilly to the Champs élysées tailor made for the sprinters to race.So there is no doubt about how big a stage Saturdays race will be, and what is at stake. But you can complicate big occasions by making too much of it.So I just want to go in and race. The drama of Fridays finish to the 146km 19th stage from Albertville to Saint Gervais Mont Blanc served as another reminder of how tenuous any riders fate is in the Tour - literally from race leader Chris Froome (Sky) down, as Froome crashed as I did after the rain fell.Fortunately, my injuries were not serious, and even if I am stiff and sore for Saturdays stage, I will not let that impede how I plan to race in the last mountain stage of the Tour.Its great to know that my team are right behind me, as they showed on Friday when they pulled me back up to the group with Froome and the other main challengers after my crash.It was great to see guys like Micky Sch?r, Greg Van Avermaet and Damiano Caruso up there. It wasnt easy for them. I think a couple of teams rode to make it harder for me then.Thats how it is, but you dont forget it. Saturday may provide a moment to repay the favour. Look ... crashing like I did didnt help.And I felt it later when I tried to get away on the final climb to the finish as Frenchman Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) was in the throes of finishing off a terrific solo ride to win the stage and also move up to second place overall.Froome still leads overall by 4:11 on Bardet, but now with Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in third at 4:27, Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) in fourth at 4:46 and myself in fifth at 5:17.But crashes were the curse for many on Friday, with rainy conditions making the road extremely slippery.I felt I had too much pressure in my tyres. I sensed it early and should have stopped and let some out then, but at the time the race was so fast I didnt have time. It was on the whole day. The next I know I was flying on the ground on my chest.I have never had a crash like that. I should have also changed my bike as it didnt feel right after. Still while it wasnt ideal to get gapped there in the finale and lose a bit of time, it was good to get today behind us - and without serious injury.?I was neither the only rider to crash.Even better ... the Tour is not over yet, even though there is only one mountain stage left.The Col de Joux Plane and the tricky descent from its summit to the finish could be critical. On top of that, it looks like it is going to be a wet one again, which will add to the suspense.How I race is something I will decide after speaking to our sports directors before the stage. But similarly when it comes to the descent to Morzine, lets make it clear: I am not the sort of guy who is going to risk everything racing down the Joux Plane.There are calculated risks, but I think it is better to make time up on the Joux Plane than when descending it. Its a tricky technical descent and I dont think it is worth putting everything on the line there.But Im still focused on trying to get on to the podium for Sundays finale in Paris; and I know I am not the only rider who is not just thinking of that, but actually believing they can. I believe I can.Whether I do is another question. But I will try my best to fulfill that ambition. If its not this year, whatever happens in this Tour can only help for the years to come. Ryne Sandberg Jersey Large . - After leading the Saints to a fourth playoff appearance in five seasons, Drew Brees expressed confidence in the direction of his team and, perhaps more importantly, showed a willingness to listen to contract proposals if the team needs his help getting under the NFLs salary cap. Kerry Wood Jersey Large . Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck of the Vancouver Giants were each charged with assault causing bodily harm on Aug. 18, according to the B.C. court services. http://www.customcubsjersey.com/ . 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When we last left Texas Motor Speedway on June 12, James Hinchcliffe was leading the Firestone 600, Josef Newgarden was in the hospital, and Simon Pagenaud had an 80-point cushion over Scott Dixon in the Verizon IndyCar Series standings.Oh yeah, and it was raining.That two-day deluge halted the proceedings at TMS two and a half months ago, with Hinchcliffe leading a slightly depleted field after 71 of the 248 scheduled laps were completed. Out of the race at that point was Newgarden, who was swept into a frightening crash by a spinning Conor Daly that landed him in a Dallas hospital with a broken wrist and fractured clavicle.Its not injury that will keep Newgarden from participating when the Texas race resumes on Saturday night. No, the INDYCAR rulebook mandates picking up where the red-flagged contest left off rather than starting fresh with a full field of cars.Newgarden and Daly will instead participate in an autograph session and join speedway president Eddie Gossage to take tickets at the turnstiles, one of several promotions designed to get fans to attend (or re-attend) a race that wasnt on anybodys radar in June.Fortunately, the weather radar is not likely to be an issue this time around, leaving the 20 remaining drivers free to concentrate on the remaining 177 laps of racing. Theyll be granted a 10-minute practice session, but will otherwise take the restart cold.We are excited to get back to Texas to finish off the Firestone 600, and certainly we hope the Arrow Electronics car ends up where we are now -- in the lead! remarked Hinchcliffe. But we know its a pretty unique situation with the restart and the parc ferme, so we will see how it plays out.Im going to miss people reminding me Im leading on Twitter, so hopefully we win and can keep the trend going.Hinchcliffes toughest competition may come from the fellow Honda drivers who dominated at Pocono Raceway last weekend. Smooth speedways are just about the only places the Honda aero kit has worked in 2016, and Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mikhail Aleshin will line up right behind Hinchliffe for the restart.Hunter-Reay drove through the field twice at Pocono on the way to a heartbreaking third-place finish, while Aleshin led 87 laps at Pocono and came very close to notching his first IndyCar Series win.Aleshin is Hinchcliffes teammate at Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports.Both of our cars looked good there last time with James in the lead and us in third, so we just need to do the same job weve been doing already and we will be up there at the front, Aleshin said. After our second-place finish this weekend in Pocono, we know we have the speed to do it.The plan to continue the existiing race rather than start from fresh has not been popular with everyone and its highly likely that INDYCAR will make a rule modification to prevent something similar from occurring in the future.ddddddddddddDixon, who has fallen 113 points behind championship leader Pagenaud, knows he needs a win in Texas to remain in title contention.I think there are obviously some strong opinions on each side of this race, he said. Its out of our hands as drivers, though, and we all have the same set of circumstances to deal with now. For me, I think the biggest challenge will be getting your car right for much different conditions than when we started the race.The subplot at Texas is the IndyCar Series championship, the complexion of which has changed considerably over the last 11 weeks.Since crashing out of the first race of the Detroit doubleheader the weekend before the Texas rainout, Power has racked up four wins and a pair of seconds in his last six starts.Before winning the second half of the Detroit doubleheader, he was 12th in the standings, 124 points behind leader Pagenaud. Now Power is just 20 points behind his Team Penske teammate and riding a wave of confidence.Power earned his first oval win at Texas in a half-length twin race in 2011 and hes coming off an accomplished victory at Pocono. Even more impressive, Power has worked his way into this position after missing the season opener with a severe sinus infection that produced concussion-like symptoms.The Verizon Chevy was awesome in Pocono and restarting fourth in Texas puts us in a great position to continue our momentum, said the Australian. Everything has been feeling great recently after starting off the season in such a bad place, personally. The whole team is clicking on all cylinders now and you have to get all you can when its going that way.Pagenaud, who will take the Texas restart from 15th place, vows to aggressively defend his points lead. Only two road races remain after Texas: at Watkins Glen International Sept. 4 and Sonoma Raceway Sept. 18.Pocono didnt go very well, but that happens, Pagenaud said. I wish it hadnt, but we have to move on and put it behind us. We dont lose sight of the big picture, but thats not the strategy. We got to where we are by attacking and being on the offensive. Thats not going to change. Well focus on winning races.P15 is not indicative of the car we had or will have, he added. We pitted later in the sequence than some of the other teams and theres a lot of racing left.Its going to be an exciting race. ' ' '