RadioSchack Flags Are Reborn!

I finally did it - I took apart my Leopard Trek flags from last year, and amended them, adding red stripes and another white stripe to match the new kit.

Well, there wasn't much point keeping them otherwise, was there?

I dithered about this for some time - after all, last year I was the only person in the whole of Tunbridge Wells, and then the only person in the whole of London waving a Leopard Trek flag, and they didn't even notice me!

(Memo to self: might have to be a bit less self-effacing if wish to be be "seen" by the team.) (Thinks: do I actually wish to be "seen" by the team? Errr, maybe not...)

So here they are now - here's the big one:

 As you can see, it now features a red stripe and an extra white stripe to match the jerseys, and I added the O logo as well, for good measure.

It's a bit wobbly as I did it freehand, but I doubt anyone will notice.

 And here's the little one, as seen in the video from London Tour of Britain final day last year.

Trouble is, the proportions of this one have gone wrong now: it's too tall, and not wide enough.

On the other hand, as OGL is tall and not very wide, perhaps I should leave it like this as a tribute to pro-cycling climbers everywhere?

And here are the two new flags, once again propped up in the stair well proudly displayed in my house.

Roll on, Tour of Britain!

LLB and I are planning to go to Omloop this year, but guess what - RadioSchack aren't going!

Boo!

It's not a UCI race, so they don't have to go, and clearly they are choosing not to do so, which means that these flags won't be seen there. Instead I will be supporting my second team, Sky, and as I don't have a Sky flag, I will probably be waving a Union Jack, as an easy option.

Hmmm, have I actually got a Union Jack? *rummages in spare room's cupboard* Hey! What are you lot doing in there?

Andy looks up guiltily: "Hey, Coug, sorry about this, we needed somewhere for a private meeting."
Frankie leans forward into the light and waves a hand: "Hey Coug! Any chance of tea and biscuits?"
Andy: "Aww, yeah, would you mind? We've been talking for hours, and we're all gagging for a drink."

Coug: "All? How many of you are there in there?"
Andy:  "Well, um, most of us, actually. It's a nice cupboard, isn't it?" He bats his eyelashes at Coug, who is trying to look stern and Auntie-like.

Coug: "Don't give me that puppy face, you bad boy - what's going on in there?"
Andy: "We wanted to talk about Stuey, they're saying some really mean things about him."
Coug: "I know - we don't know what to think anymore. Is he really a violent, drunken psychopath?"

Frankie and Andy look at each other. They start to smile, then grin widely.

Frankie: "No, no, of course not - he's a typical Aussie though, give him a few beers and he's the life and soul of the party. But not a psychopath."
Andy: "No, not at all."
Jakob: "I've seen him get pretty boisterous at times, and he can be quite, what's that word, stroppy?"
Andy: "Yes, stroppy. And sometimes his language is a bit strong, but then that's what Aussies are like. You ask Joshi, he says that Leelu can really scorch the flowers when she gets going!"

There are murmurs of agreement from within the cupboard.

Fabian: "And I have seen him get a bit, well, physical, from time to time, but he's not a psychopath."

Coug: "Oh, hi Fabu - how are you?"
Fabian: "Ver' well, thank you."
Coug: "Are you keeping this lot in line, then?"
Fabian: "No, no, I leave that to Jensi, it's his job to keep us all on our best behaviour."
Coug: *leaning forward* "Jean Vois? Are you in there?"

A voice calls out from the distance "Ja! Hi there, Cougie - I am sitting at the back so that I can see all of them and make sure the liddle Smurfs are behaving theirselves!"
Coug: "Themselves, Jensi, not theirselves."
Jens: "Vhoops! I get this wrong all the time!"
Coug: "So what are you telling this lot today? How to behave in front of the press?"

Andy: "Yes, we are reminding ourselves that we have to be careful all of the time, and to remember that we are always being watched and photographed..."
Frankie: "And that the people who use the photos are not our friends, and if they can put a bad twist on it, they will do so."
Jakob: "I have also reminded everyone that although it's easier to give interviews in your own language, they will be translated into English, so you have to be very clear about what you are saying, otherwise it gets translated wrongly and comes out making you look really stupid -"

Jakob ducks as he is pelted with paint rollers, bits of fabric and assorted odds and ends - memo to self, must turn out this cupboard later -  as the others laugh at him. There are calls of "not happy here any more, huh?" and "going to another team next year, are you then?!" and so on. There is much laughter.

Jakob: "OK! OK! I said I was sorry!"

Coug: "Guys, I have to ask, why aren't you going to Omloop this year? I wanted to wave my new flags for you."
Fabian: "Sorry, Coug - we can't go to all the races, and this year, well, new manager, you know, we are doing what we are told."
Jakob: "But we really like the new flags - very good!"
Frankie: " And some of us are sure to be at the Tour of Britain this year..."

Coug gives him a "look": they all know that the Tour of Britain is a very small race, and they are unlikely to send a strong team. Coug smiles.

Coug: "So look, is there a Union Jack flag in there anywhere? Is anyone sitting on it? You know what it looks like, nice stripey thing in red white and blue?"
Andy: "Good choice of colours, I have to say."
Coug: "Huh, at least we have a good shade of blue, not poofy turquoise, as you have!"

Andy leans out to poke her, but misses and falls over Frankie.

Frankie: "Gerroff, you are too heavy!"  There is general laughter in the cupboard.

Jakob: "So why do you want the Union Jack flag, Coug?"
Coug: "Well, if you lot aren't going to be there, I shall have to support my second team, Sky. And I don't have a Sky flag, so it will be the Union Jack."

Andy turns to Frankie and smiles smugly: "See, we get flags made for us, but Sky don't!"

Coug starts to close the door. "Get on with your meeting then, and don't make too much mess in there."

As the door closes, a plaintive voice is heard calling out "What about the tea????!"

Andy Schleck Girlfriend 2012

Anything to boost my page views - ha! ha!

No, seriously, here we are more than halfway through January, and still no official confirmation that Andy and TinkerJil (real name Jil Delvaux in case you didn't know) are engaged.

I'm wondering if, as has been suggested, they are keeping it quiet for any one of a dozen really good reasons, and that the report I saw early in the new year has been "pulled" at their request.

So I'll stop talking about it, then!

Just in case you don't know what she looks like, here she is with little brother Max and sister Lau (presumably Laura? Laurie? Who cares?), showing up how incredibly slender she is in real life.

When not standing next to Andy, that is!

Jensi gives RadioSchack the thumbs up

This gives me a strange feeling of confidence: Jens Voigt (or Jean Vois as we know him) has indicated that he might not retire at the end of this season, after all.

In a report in Velonation, he says that he has a lot of confidence in the team now, despite what he calls a "bumpy start", and I find this really heartening.

And hey look, he's wearing one of the new RadioSchack caps - I'm getting quite keen on them. Wonder how I can get hold of one?

Oh, I know, I have to go to a race, don't I Leelu, and I have to smile nicely at Joshi... but Leelu, he doesn't know me!

I did manage to get a musette at the Tour of Britain last year, that was my entire goal for the year: so maybe I'll set my sights on getting a cap this year.

The flags are making progress, by the way, I have added the red strips and the extra white stripe, which turned out to be not quite as trivial as it sounded: it's always easier to make things from scratch than to alter existing ones, I find.

So, it looks as though Sky will still be my second team for next year.

But I'm not going to shout "Up the Rs!"

Stuey in Trouble

Oh, Stuey!

Here in the UK we are starved of information about the Tour Down Under, as there's no TV coverage at all, and because of the time-zone difference, there's not much chance of catching it on a computer stream either.

All we get are the scandals.. apparently Stuey is "in trouble" after attending an event as a guest speaker earlier this month: the chauffeur has complained about "aggressive behaviour" and ""very bad language" and has said that felt threatened, blah blah woof woof.

The Sydney Morning Herald would seem to be the best report to read, as all the others in the cycling press have been copied from that one.

And as an aside - check out the very top left of this screencap of the page.  Just overlook the fact that I've included my headers, which tells you that as well as blogging, I was on Twitter - see, multi-tasking - and had taken the trouble to read every report I could find before blogging... and look at the time.  See it? 4:15am Wed 18th. I am writing this at 17:45 on Tuesday...... hey, I'm a time-traveller!

Basically, this Chauffeur bloke waited from the 10th Jan - the date of the alleged assault - until the day before the TdU began before going to the press with his story. Not the police - he went to the press first.

How suspicious is that?

Stuey has roundly rebuffed it, and frankly I'm on his side on this one, even though I wasn't there. He points out that he was with his wife and two friends in the car, and I can't quite see Stuey, family man, getting violent with a chauffeur, with his wife in the car.

And what is this driver thinking about? If you are a professional chauffeur, and you get an unpleasant customer, you tell your boss "I'm not driving them again" and the boss either blacklists that client, or if they know them, they have a quiet word and remind them that their staff expect a certain level of behaviour, otherwise they will find themselves blacklisted.

You don't go blabbing to the press about it - and you certainly don't hold on to the story until the most damaging time possible to release it.

Yes, I know that Stuey isn't technically one of Our Boys any more, but come on, it's Stuey, we love him, and he'll always have a place in Schleckland.

Mr Becca - What Are You On?

Note for non-UK readers: the phrase "What are you on?", normally pronounced in a very low-class accent, like "Wot ah yew orn?" is heavy sarcasm, indicating that the person concerned must be deeply and horribly affected by drugs of some kind, to have said the things that they said.

According to a report in Velonation, the results of Contador's arbitration hearing have been delayed yet again, this time until at least the end of January, and the report blames the media.

Last week, the media reports to which they are referring were to do with WADA ("War Against Drugs -Again") allegedly having one of their witnesses barred from speaking.

But now it appears that the fault lies with dear Mr Becca, who apparently has been suggesting that Saxo Bank held their training camp in Israel merely to influence the Israeli member of the CAS panel.

Presumably he means that holding a training camp must bring money into that country.

But would it? Unless the CAS panel member concerned actually owned the hotel, what benefit would he get? Training camps must cost the team a fortune: there are hotel fees, all those bikes to be shipped, bodies to be shipped, trucks and support vehicles to be shipped: there must be insurance, medical support, your own chefs, PR, photographers, etc, but that doesn't really benefit the country, does it? OK, they buy fuel and presumably some of their food (but not the meat, ha ha!) locally, but I can't see how one person would benefit from this.

So what is Mr Becca playing at?

I have no idea: the only thing that comes to mind is "stirring for the sake of it."

If he somehow hopes to be seen as a nice person, I can't help thinking this is not the way to go about it.

So, thanks to Mr Becca and the media, poor old Contador is on the hook for another couple of weeks. And apparently he has also now been summoned to appear in the dreaded Operation Puerto case: in case you've forgotten about this one, it's the big drugging ring in Spain that was "broken" back in May 2006, where Spanish Police launched a huge investigation against a Dr Fuentes, who was responsible for running it.

Several pro cyclists were implicated, and several teams were badly affected by the operation, not least being the newly formed Astana team, who were then barred from the Tour in 2006. Contador was, of course, in this team.  Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and Michele Scarponi were all found guilty of doping offences. It was a huge operation, and the repercussions are still rattling around.

And now they're calling Contador back to appear in court - as far as I can remember, because there was talk that a bag of blood with his initials on it was amongst the material seized by the Spanish police.  This is all a bit feeble, considering that, for example, Michele Scarponi's blood etc was labelled "Zapatero", and Jorg Jashke admitted to being "Bella" (*snigger, snigger*),  and you would rather expect that anyone doing anything illegal like this would take great care to have some sort of code name for each participant, wouldn't they?

Well, I'm now feeling sorry for Contador - as if he hasn't suffered enough questioning and waiting, and now he has to go through it all again.

New Kit - Rear View

With thanks to Elle for sending me the link - at last, confirmation that the back of the kit does not feature anything revolting or scary, unlike this kit which Barbara so kindly brought to our attention:

After seeing certain tee-shirts that Andy and Jakob have been wearing ("still" wearing, come on girls, make them throw them out!) we were all getting a bit worried about what was going to appear on the new kit. But it's ok, it's quite grown-up:

It is, in fact, identical to the front.

Oh good!

The shorts are black, they have Nissan in big letters across their backsides, which pleases me, and yes! the "O" logo is still there, although it's been lifted up a bit, which is not a bad thing.

Also, the shorts are shiny black on the outsides of the legs, but nice safe matte black on the, er, modesty panel. Well done, whoever designed them.

Weirdly, they seem to have the name "Leopard" written along their sides, which is what we'll be seeing a lot of in the camera-bike footage. Pity they didn't follow Sky's lead and put the riders' names on the side... but that's a small quibble.

There were lots of other photos there, too - errr, it was Facebook I think - and some of them were just begging for comments. I tried to resist. Really, I tried.

But I couldn't.

So here, for your amusement, is my version of the training camp.

Camera man falls off bike whilst filming

"Come on mate, we'll race you!"

"How did you keep your yellow armband up? Everyone else's has slipped down."

Fabian receives instruction on where his riding style can be improved. Frankie listens in amazement.

Lux National jersey: check! Lux national jersey - errrrrr....

I have to carry ALL these bottles?

"Don't come crawling to me for help - it's your turn, you carry them!"

"OMG, how am I going to carry all that lot?"

"Ha ha! I don't have to carry the water today!"

"So, where shall we attach the carrier for the water, then?"

"Dude, I'm getting thirsty, who's got the water?"

"Where's the water, then?"

"Come on lads, follow me, let's GET that water!"

"Shall we search them and see if they have any water?"

"Shhhhhlllllllluuuuuuuuuurrrrrrp"

Brave Cameraman spots Illicit Water Drinking

The Water Thieves

The Last Water Smuggler

Errr, Congratulations?

I'm a bit confused, as I haven't seen a single mention anywhere else about OGL proposing to TinkerJil over the holidays.

I can't even find the report that I read: I can clearly remember the picture of the two of them, Andy in a jacket and white shirt, TinkerJil in a bright blue sleeveless dress (which looked fabulous, and brought out the colour of her eyes really well) with her hair in an Updo, and - not to be mean about it - covering her forehead in a very flattering way. They looked as though they were at a party or a social gathering of some sort. She was all brown arms and big eyes, he was all smiles. They looked lovely.

But I haven't seen anything else about it: I didn't dream it, did I?

Confused!!

Giro? Not a chance...

There's been a lot of speculation (no, not Schpleculation, sorry - well, maybe later...) that Andy and Frankie might forego the Tour this year in favour of the Giro.

Why? Well, in a nutshell, the Tour parcours doesn't really suit them: not enough mountains, too much time trialling.

(NB parcours = course: route + obstacles + road surface + activities along the way)

And of course a  lot of people, who presumably have nothing better to do with their time, have been saying that Andy should try to win stuff, instead of concentrating on the Tour: that he should not use the earlier races as training, but should aim to get a few solid wins on his palmares, instead of "merely" coming second in the Tour for the last three years running.

At this point, being a staunch supporter of OGL, I will of course curl my lip, make the "Pfff!" noise and wave my hands about in a Gallic fashion. I'm pretty impressed with three podium finishes, personally, although of course I'd like to see Our Andy up there on the top step. And I would repeat that it's very easy to sit in a comfy chair and criticise other people, especially if you have (if "one" has)  never actually been a pro cyclist, or a DS for that matter.

Bjarne Riis has been making rude remarks about Andy, he gave an interview to the Danish media with the headline: “Andy Schleck lacks the will to win the Tour de France” . Oh Bjarne, how grown up of you ("not"). Not only did he fling various insults at Andy, but he sang the praises of Contador in a sky-high, "I have been sniffing glue" sort of way. Well, frankly, that's pretty much what you would expect from someone who had Andy, then lost him:  and whose entire team's points (nearly) came from just one rider, Contador, who is still riding under a cloud of suspicion. Not a nice situation for poor Mr Riis. Not to mention his sponsor problems.

Andy responded in a mature, sensible way, with thanks to Elle for the link to this VeloNews article - as she said in her comment, "Well ladies - I think our boy is all grown up...".  As Andy says, "It's time for me to win the Tour".

In the article, Andy makes the point that although Bjarne paid him, it was Alain Gallopin or Kim Andersen who were in the car on the race days, which is a clear "Nyaar nyaaar nyaar" to Bjarne, in a very grown-up way. He also comments that he will be training harder. I don't think we can ask for any more than that. (Apart from more photos, possibly...)

But to get back to the original point, Andy may or may not be doing the Tour - if you read that article carefully, he doesn't actually say that he and Frankie will be there this year. However, he almost definitely won't be doing the Giro.

Why? Tour of California, that's why. The dates clash, and if you remember last year, the pair of them went to the ToC even though it's a non-UCI points race. And the reason for that? Well, that would be sponsor pressure. Trek - US company -  were a major sponsor of Leopard, and oh look, the biggest stars of the team went to the ToC. This year, both Trek and the Shack are sponsoring the team, both are US companies, and both are going to want their major stars to do the US race.

I would have thought that Andy, Frankie and Chris Horner would be definites for the ToC, leaving Kloden and Jakob to head up the Giro team.

So it seems likely that the Schlecks will still be participating in the Tour this year ("Yay!") and we will have the chance to cheer them on again: and earlier in the year, we will all be dropping in on Boulderado to stay for the Tour of California, in the hopes that they will go through Boulder again, and that she will be able to do some top quality Schleck-stalking on our behalf.

---

Now for a slight digression: could it be an omen?

Today, my Leopard flags fell off the wall.

They've been up there, in my hall, (right, sorry about the quality, no flash on my camera-phone) since the Tour of Britain. But today they fell down.

I put them back up - and they fell down again. Are they trying to tell me something?

(And yes, I have bookcases on the half-landing of my stairs, I have books everywhere, they are taking over the house...)
Perhaps they are prompting me to update them with a red stripe and possibly some colouring-in of the logo.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll go to my haberdashery shop and see what they have in the way of red ribbons...

Thought RadioShack-Nissan were a Lux team?

Yet in the start list for the Tour Down Under, they are clearly listed as being an American team.

Whoops!

Or is this more sinister than it appears?

Was the merger really a take-over after all?

Sharp-eyed Schlecklanders will spot from the tabs in that screen-cap that I was also blogging at the same time - well, yes, here I am writing and researching simultaneously, it's what I do - and that I also have the UCI site open.

Aaargh, my soul, my soul! Actually, it's ok, it's only reading the rules that sucks out your soul, just checking up on the teams is not so bad. So here I go, wish me luck, and if I'm never seen again, I leave my blog and all the Schlecklanders to... *fades off into the distance...*

Aha! It's all right, I'm back safely from the depths of the UCI site, and according to them, team RadioShack Nissan (no mention of Trek of course) are indeed a LUX team, so that's ok.

Phew!

And now we know who's going to the Tour - Leelu and Nim are lucky, they're getting Jean Vois. We did have him here in the UK for a very, very short time *pulls grumpy face* for the Tour of Britain,  but on one of the first few days he broke a finger really badly, and had to go home. Boo! Poor boy!

Let's hope this season has fewer injuries than last year, eh?

New Year, New Kit

Apparently this is it:

With thanks to Boulderado for the link. Well done, you! Photo pinched unceremoniously from the blog Tour de Jose, and I'll repeat her comment that in the Netherlands, Jose is a girl's name. (Sorry, can't do the accent over the e.)

First thoughts: "Mmmmmmm!". Oh, whoops, sorry, first thoughts about the kit: "Hmmmmm."  Think I'll wait until I see the back before deciding - and of course, the shorts: I am assuming that they will be black ("Please be black, PLEASE be black!") in which case it actually might look ok.

I'm particularly struck with the inclusion of the "O" logo, and you will note that not only did it survive the alleged merger, it has gone technicolor! Yes, look closely, it's red white and blue. For a UK person, always a good choice of colours.

On the other hand, I can't say enough bad things about the new team's "casual" daywear:

Come ON guys - cardigans? Grey cardigans? Old men-wear-these grey cardigans?

Teamed with v-neck stolen-from-ER white tee-shirts?

Ugh!

Bring back the Fugl-scarves!

New Year, New Team....

Hello Schlecklanders!

Yes, at long last I'm back again, and thank you all so much for your good wishes, and for the comments on the last post. I hope you all had an enjoyable time over the holidays, and I hope that you are all eager for the new season to start.

Firstly - what news is there? Well, apart from Andy proposing to TinkerJil ("Awwww!") which I think we were all expecting, not a lot so far.

Except for The Expatresse, Amanda, of course - who, AT THIS VERY MOMENT,  is actually meeting Frankie, Andy and Laurent Didier in Lux. She was one of 10 lucky readers who won a prize in a local mag to meet the guys today.

Go, Amanda, Go! And thank you for sharing the news with us (see Comments on previous post) and I hope that the suggestions for questions were useful. Can't wait to see the result: her blog is here, and I expect it will take a little while before it appears - if it were me, I'd be squeeing for at least a week afterwards!

See, Figgy,  I told you that people living in Lux were able to just look out of the window to Spot-a-Schleck. Trust your Auntie Coug, I know about these things...

Tomorrow, 6th,  there will be the long-awaited launch in Lux of Team RadioBlecch, so we might to get to see the new kit at long last.

In the meantime, we know that SaxoBlank have had a washing machine accident, and their kit is exactly the same but somewhat darker blue, perhaps they washed it with the Movistar kit?

It's certainly a much prettier blue, which is a good thing - the back is hilarious, it has "SAXO"  in huge letters at an angle across the shoulders, with the "O" just being cut off by the shoulder yoke seam.

Oh dear.  Let's assume it was a design choice, and not a mistake, shall we?

Sky appear to be sticking to the same kit, thank heavens: we have an expression in the UK, not particularly elegant but quite useful: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Luckily someone at Sky seems to have been aware of this.

GreenEdge have come up with a not-exactly-scintillating kit, but then they did say that they would be launching the new kit at the Tour Down Under, so we hope - ie "Leelu told me" - that this is only a temporary kit. I was wondering if the pockets on the jersey would be in front rather than behind... no, that's just silly. Sorry.

That's it for today, no other news, we'll have to wait to hear from Amanda, and we'll have to wait to see what reports we get from Lux tomorrow.

Oh, and I can tell you that in Mondorf today, it's dull and overcast (left) but of course Andy isn't there today, he's MEETING AMANDA !! (bit more squeeing there) presumably in Lux City.

At least it was easy enough to get there today, as the Howald Tunnel - ah, be still my beating heart - is running freely in both directions.


Alas, poor Ken Sommer won't be driving across it any more, as he has left Leopard True Racing, we don't know why: did he jump, or was he pushed? We'll probably never know. Unless he emails me.....