BananaMan!

Amazingly, Leelu didn't realise that Contador is Mr BananaMan, and has been for a couple of years - honest, he has!

Here he is, showing his amazing hands-free banana tackling procedure.

Very handy for those moments in the  peloton when an unexpected obstacle appears - you know, dog, journalist, random piece of road furniture - and both hands are required on the bars.

Now, I know that lemons come in waxed and unwaxed, and if  you want to use the peel in baking, then you have to buy the unwaxed type.

Does anyone know if banana skins get waxed? It seems unlikely.. let's hope that they don't get sprayed with chemicals to slow down the maturing process, otherwise someone sucking on the skin like this might accidentally ingest.......

Here's Contador sharing a banana moment with a friend.

I wonder what they do with the skins?

Do they lob them into the crowds, as they do with the bidons?

Do they ever fling them playfully at each other?

Do they ever accidentally-on-purpose drop them in front of a rival's front wheel?

This is the original Astana banana train in action, bringing fresh stocks up through the peloton to Mr Contador.

Note how well they fit into the specially-designed banana carrying modules (or "pockets" as we call them) and how the colour harmonises with the yellow panels on the back of their jerseys.

A lot of thought goes into jersey design, you know. (If only Leopard-Trek had put in just a bit more...)

Of course, sometimes one domestique doing the Banana Run just isn't enough, so that's when Astana call in the heavy-duty Banana Bike.

Domestiques vie with each other for the honour of being the BananaBike rider......

Couldn't resist adding this one: captions invited. "OOh what a whopper" comes to mind. The original photo was captioned "Cavendish + banana" which makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Here, Contador demonstrates how to peel a banana with the bare teeth.

What a man!

Note the splayed-fingers grip, to ensure that none of that slow-release glucose escapes.

Incidentally, useless fact: why is a banana called a banana? Apparently:

'Banana is so called because Spanish or Portuguese adopted the word from the Wolof language of Senegal, where their word for the fruit was "banana".'

So they called it a banana because that's what it was called by the people from whom they first obtained it. Well, there's logic for you.

 

And once peeled, he can just stuff it right in there!

I believe the phrase is "nom, nom nom!"

(Those lolcats have a lot to answer for...)

Sometimes, it's good to share with a friend.

Now to round things off with a final "eeeeeeew!" moment:this is a banana slug.

Uuuuuurrrrrrr!

Just imagine if one of the domestiques handed one of these over instead of a banana - aaaaaaaaaakkkkk!