Newco provided some excellent entertainment over the last few months, helping to take the pain away from the no footie summer period. The Euros helped as well. Since then I've moved onto the Tour De France (anyone else watching it?) but even that is having a rest day today. Bored, bored, bored.
I used to follow le tour every year. Kinda stopped years ago and canny seem to get back into it at all.
Aw Gambol! I like to start a fight and then **** off, so I thought I'd try a slightly different tack. Love the TdF. Every year I'll sitting for freaking hours watching it. can't wait for the mountain stages coming up, so I can see the battles between Wiggo & Evans. Allez Wiggo!
Ah, the King of the Mountains. That's what got me started watching the coverage on CH4. It was the year Robert Millar was king and came 3rd overall in the tour. Bloody hell. That was over 20 years ago
I know. I was thinking the other day about the Greg LeMond/ Laurent Fignon tussle when GLM won by 8 seconds after 3500 km of cycling. 1989!! A great year for a lot of reasons but a helluva long time ago. Get back into it and watch a Brit win this year!
Trying to think of the 5/6 time winner of the time. Wisny Fignon. Portugeuse/Spanish guy. Wait, was it Fignon?
Yeah he was fantastic. Of course, there weren't any drugs or steroids in cycling in those days. Lots of guys stamping their feet and braying like horses, but no drugs
I think I heard recently that Lance "Wan Baw" Armstrong got caught doping. They've tried to clean up the event but surely there no way they can do the entire event without some "help".
Nah, the sport did have a hellish time a few years ago, and there is another guy from the, I think, Confidis team suspended today. Mark Cavendish gets tested all the time and, I've got to take my hat off to him, he never complains. Even when there was a slight discrepancy in his diary and he went out for a meal with his girlfriend, they turned up at his house and he scooted back from the restaurant to get tested. Armstrong is a bit of a story and his profile at Le Tour has dropped off the map, which is no surprise as insiders have been saying he was doping up for years. Anyway, it starts in Macon tomorrow, so I think I'll have a glass or two of that stuff tonight - just as a bit of solidarity with the Team Sky boys, you understand.
I think Mark Cavendish is not normal. I don't want to be rude anout him because I really don't mean to be. He is so utterly ridiculously focused that I can't imagine him doing anything but cycle. He can come across as rude and brash but it isn't that at all. He just doesn't talk ****e and he won't tolerate it. It is a trait you only really see with social ******s and extremely driven sportsmen. I heard him interviewed before the tour and he was asked about retaining the green jersey. He literally could not give a **** and said as much. Paraphrasing a bit "Nobody cares about the green jersey. People only care about the yellow jersey. Mu job is to help Wiggins get the yellow jersey and that is what we are going to do"
Paul Kimmage has been all over Lance for years. Some cracking youtube stuff from Kimmage [video=youtube;nZgns7CXeUI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZgns7CXeUI&feature=fvwrel[/video] Sometimes people are too humble to say "I telt ye". Kimmage ****in' telt ye.
On the best sports show on the radio last year [video=youtube;NiwfV9i-yco]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiwfV9i-yco&feature=related[/video]
The only jersey colours worth competing for are the yellow and the polka-dot and the main guys from each team tend to focus on one or the other. The other jerseys are an added bonus and are competed for by the team domestiques(sp) while they support the main guys to the main prizes (yellow and polka-dot). Le Tour also has a pretty impressive history of Irish guys competing in it as I recall.
Sean Kelly was world number one and Stephen Roche won it one year (Drugs cheat). His son is a cyclist now as well. He has the maddest accent. Paul Kimmage was a pro as well and I think that is the reason he has such a bee in his bonnet over cheating If you can spare 7 minutes and can speak dutch as well as English, this is really well worth a watch http://nos.nl/video/210777-lance-armstrong-gebruikte-doping.html I was just shocked with the way Cavendish was so honest about it. The green jersey did not matter and he had no qualms about saying it. I guess I am conditioned to hearing people talk **** about how important minor trinkets are.
