A DAY WITHOUT (AMERICAN) SPORTS: YOUR OPTIONS

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Option No. 1, The Tour de France, is kicking arse and taking names this year.

The slowest day in American sports? Really? Sadly, it's true. But just because the big acronyms have taken a break doesn't mean you have to. Look beyond our borders and you'll find plenty of interesting things to watch—did you know there's a place in Austria called Bad Gastein? They're holding a women's tennis match there today. In fact, if you look really hard, you may even find some action stateside (Can you say SuperLiga?)



Tour de France:
-Stage 11, Lannemezan > Foix, 166 km: Med Mountains

We're smack in the middle of the most exciting Tour in years. With a field left wide open from all the doping scandals, a handful of young unknowns are stepping into the spotlight. Today, after a day of rest, the spoke-folk will resume with the 11th stage of the tour. Keep an eye on Stefan Schumaker of Germany, Mark Cavendish of England and Cadel Evans of Australia. Evans had a 60 kph crash on Monday that was so bad it cracked his helmet and put him in bandages, but he returned the same day to win the tough Pyrenees mountain stage.

Track and Field:
-The Spitzenleichtathletik, Lucerene, Switzerland

The Spitzenleichtathletik, which means really awesome track event in Switzerland, is a chance to see how a couple of American sprinters on the Olympic team do against Europe's best. Beijing qualifiers Wallace Spearmon (200m), Lauryn Williams (100m) and Tiffany Ross Williams (400m hurdles) will all be running.

Surfing:
-Billabong Pro J-Bay, South Africa

The third round of the Billabong Pro Jeffrey's Bay started this morning in South Africa in building four-foot surf. At 36 years-old Kelly Slater has been on a tear this year, winning 3 of the first 4 events. He's pretty much got the year (and an unprecedented 9th World Title) locked up, but a win here would virtually close the door on the entire field. One potential threat: Zaffer rookie Jordy Smith, who racked up the highest score of the previous round.

Tennis:
ATP
-Dutch Open, Amersfoot, Netherlands
-Austrian Open, Kitzbuehel, Austria
-Studena Croatia Open Umag, Umag, Croatia
-Indianapolis Tennis Championships
WTA
-Gastein Ladies, Bad Gastein, Austria.
-Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, CA

There are six sanctioned ATP or WTA events in action today. How Austria allowed the Dutch to hold their Open on the same day is a mystery.

Soccer:
North American SuperLiga Fixtures:
-New England Revolution v CF Pachuca , Gillette Stadium, Boston, MA.
-Chivas USA v Santos, The Home Depot Center, Los Angeles, CA.

Japanese J League Fixtures:
-Consadole Sapporo v Oita Trinita, Sapporo Atsubetsu Park Stadium
-Kyoto Purple Sanga v Kashima Antlers, Kyoto Stadium
-Vissel Kobe v Yokohama F. Marinos, Kobe Wing Stadium
-FC Tokyo v Gamba Osaka , Anjinimoto Stadium
-Albirex Niigata v JEF United Ichihara-Chiba, Niigata Stadium

SuperLiga just sounds cool. And just because NAFTA has been kind of a bust, doesn't mean that soccer between the U.S., Mexico and Canada has to be, too. The Revolution plays last year's SuperLiga defending champ Pachuca. Also, there's plenty of Japanese soccer.

Cricket:
-Canada v Scotland at King City (NE), ICC Intercontinental Cup
-Leicestershire v Bangladesh A at Leicester, Tour Match
-Middlesex v Warwickshire at Uxbridge, County Championship Division Two
-Northamptonshire v Derbyshire at Northampton, County Championship Division Two
-Somerset v Kent at Taunton, County Championship Division One
-Surrey v Durham at Guildford, County Championship Division One
-Sussex v Hampshire at Arundel, County Championship Division One
-Essex v Yorkshire at Chelmsford, Pro40 Division Two

All of the world's cricket matches today seem to be happening over in Old Blighty. We're picking Somerset v Kent at Taunton as the match of the day if for no other reason than we like W. Somerset Maugham because he used to hang with Hemingway.

Boxing:
-San Antonio (ESPN2): Delvin Rodriguez vs. Oscar Diaz, 12 rounds, welterweights; Terrance Cauthen vs. Alexis Camacho, 8 or 10 rounds, welterweight.

-Temecula, Calif. (FSN): Hasim Rahman vs. James Toney, rematch, 12 rounds, heavyweights; Francisco Santana vs. Alejandro Bogarin, 6 rounds, junior middleweights; Rico Ramos vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior featherweights; Mike Dallas Jr. vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior welterweights.

With the explosion of UFC its good to know that someone is still beating people up with nothing but fists and a bunch of really old rules. There are actually two cards today and both are on TV! On ESPN's "Wednesday Night Fights" former welterweight champ Delvin Rodriguez (22-2-1) takes on Oscar Diaz (26-2) for the USBA Welterwieght Championship. The other headliner, Rahman/Toney, is being dubbed "The Last Chance." Dan Rafael of espn.com says this about it: "Never has a fight been more appropriate. The loser of this fight is done as a heavyweight."

WNBA:
-Chicago @ Detroit, 12:00pm
-Atlanta @ Indiana,1:00pm

Bill Laimbeer is coaching hoops in Detroit and doing it well (He had 2 rings in 4 years). And did you know Rick Mahorn is an assistant coach? There's more NBA players on the Shock bench then there are on the Timberwolves'.

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