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.
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.....
It was wonderful, and I have some pictures, but I am looking for the story online as it should have more and better ones.
ReplyDeleteOh, he was SOOOOOO cute.
Laurent Didier was funny. At least I think so--a good part of this event was in Luxembourgish and, although I am currently in a class, my vocabulary is severely limited. So I would get the topic, but not the specifics. Laurent got a lot of good-natured chuckles from the crowd. Which was nice as we were told to make sure we remember to ask him questions, too.
But it IS true you can run into The Boys here. Friends of my kids posted photos on Facebook recently of Andy at a local paintball place. He is a regular in the local night club scene. I have gotten text messages saying friends just spotted Frank in the beer aisle of the grocery store. That sort of thing.
Still squee-ing . . . it's true.
XOXO
Oh, and in a Six Degrees of Separation moment . . . my kids are going to dog sit tomorrow night for the guy who is the new team mechanic. His wife is part of my Friday Hiking Group. I'm sure you all heard me squeal when she revealed that her husband works for Leopard Trek. The dog howls when left alone.
ReplyDelete(I was too slow to get myself tickets . . . but I figure being in a room with The Schlecks and 10 other people beats being in a room with The Schlecks and 25,000 other people.)
How do you know he proposed?
ReplyDeleteOkay, would someone please hit me over the head with a heavy object and yell, "get a life!"?? Please??
ReplyDeleteI'm a mature professional, dressed in her professional big-girl clothes and yet I'm practically bouncing in my office chair because Coug has posted her first blog post of the new season, The Expatresse is sharing her experiences in Lux and there will be news of the team presentation (and pictures of the new kit!) tomorrow. The new season is finally here! Yay!
And yet in all my holiday season cyber cycling skulking, I managed to miss the news of "the proposal" and have been left wondering if Auntie Coug was given a ring too just for being a fantastic Auntie. If not, please re-direct that knock to the side of the head to OGL instead and ask, "helllooo ... what were you thinking??" :D
*sigh* And clearly I've already broken my new years resolution to not read or post comments during work hours ... and everyone else must be keeping all their new resolutions because where are everyone's comments?
Happy New Year CG & Schlecklanders! Bring on the new season!!
Kat
I'm still getting over the proposal bit!! When did that happen?! (not that I'm upset, it's just... surprising!)
ReplyDeleteI really like the Saxo kit. I like the 'SAXO' on the back too! I did wonder if the cut-off part of the 'O' was deliberate or a mistake, but let's just go with it! I like that they will be so easy to spot in the peloton from the chopper-shots now! :D
GreenEdge have been having a good time of it over here lately. Winning the men's and women's overall in the Bay Criterium series in Melbourne this week. Nationals are on at the moment and Sunday's road race should be pretty exciting!! GreenEdge has 16 riders in the race. Which, to me, seems a little unfair. But it's nationals and everyone who wants to race it should have the chance. There seems to be a kind of an 'us against them' mentality going into the race, as far as GE and the rest of the peloton goes. I'm hoping Mark Renshaw can pull on the green and gold jersey afterwards, but it's not exactly a course that suits him. Also it may clash horribly with his Rabo-kit! Word on the street is that Stuey is the favourite actually!
Expatresse - "I figure being in a room with The Schlecks and 10 other people beats being in a room with The Schlecks and 25,000 other people" definitely! Go you! :)
Leelu
Hey, Expatresse, sooo glad to hear that you are still squeeing! We all agree that Schlecks + 10 beats Schlecks + 25,000 people, hands down, every time! Well done you, so glad that you enjoyed it: I'm thrilled to hear that there might/will be an official report of the event, do please, please let us know when it appears, as those of us not lucky enough to live in Lux and buy the local paper (grits teeth in envy) might otherwise miss it.
ReplyDeleteThe proposal? It was some time over the holidays, I wasn't at home so I couldn't look it up/link to it at the time. It was just a short headline somewhere - I thought it was Velonation, but I can't find it again. I was expecting to come back and find that everyone else was full of the details!
Hey Kat, Happy New Year - what was that whooshing sound? Oh, your resolution going out of the window, was it? *papers flutter off the desk*. Aww, never mind, cycling is more fun than work. Anyway, think of it as multi-tasking....
It's today! New kit today! What's the time difference again? *looks at watch*
Hey Leelu, your boys are doing really well, aren't they?! Who cares if they outnumber the other competitors, they deserve it!
Yes, a proposal is a bit surprising, to us it all seems a bit too soon, but we don't know how long they've known each other. For that matter, we don't know exactly how long they've been going out, I got the impression that they'd been keeping it a private for some time before the ToC. But they could have known each other for years and years. And if it's right... why wait?
Of course, Frankie took a long time about it, but that doesn't mean that Andy should also take 8 years to propose. Possibly he's seen how happy Frankie and Martine are, we know that he loves little Leea, we know that he wants "heaps of kids" (see the Eindhoven video for a reminder) and maybe he just felt that the time was right.
Going back to the Saxo kit, yes, it seems to be perfect for heli-shots, can't wait to see it in a race! Can't wait to see a race, any race, for that matter! Current bad news is that we won't be getting any coverage of the TdU at all *sobs theatrically, arm over face* and we don't yet know about the Qatar races either.
Come on Eurosport! Cycling coverage for the UK!
Other than that gripe, it's lovely to be back and to hear from you all again.
Auntie Coug
In case I take too long to post anything on the blog, here is the link to the article (with better photos than mine and video). I'm the old lady with the light blue scarf ;-)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lessentiel.lu/fr/sports/story/Frank-et-Andy-Schleck-en-toute-intimitee-30822391
Of course, in the article, they misquoted me. I had asked about they nutty fans who run alongside the riders--not the media cars (especially since the newspaper was our host--but in light of the awful Hoogerland crash, it would have been a good question). The actual conversations were greatly shortened for publication.
Shot of new RaNT kit
ReplyDeletehttp://tourdejose.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/20120106-152913.jpg
BE
On Spartacus, no less.
ReplyDelete[sigh]
Squee!! "then I realised that now I can stalk them properly" she said, with a straight face! Oh Amanda! You bad girl! AND you are wearing your scarf incorrectly, you are supposed to wear it Fugl-scarf style!!
ReplyDeleteThanks you so much for the link, lovely article, it must have been very hard to follow the conversations in a non-native language. So well done, you! Top Schlecklander of the Year!
Hmm, so that's the new kit? *pulls serious face*
Can I follow a team in that kit?
Possibly.... will wait to see the back before deciding.
Coug
Darn, the old Leopard site is showing the presentation later on this evening, and I'm just about to leave for the weekend!
ReplyDeleteIt's at http://www.leopardtrek.lu/ and starts at 19.45 CET.
Let's hope that they leave it on a loop so I can check it out next week...
Have a good weekend one and all,
Coug
Yes - we still haven't determined if the O is on the back (and my computer won't let me do the -
ReplyDeleteunder the O) but you get my drift.
Proposal.....getting engaged during THE year that is being proposed (pun intended) as OGL's biggest chance to win the TdF....seems nuts to me. I wish people would wait before making that decision until they are a bit older. I just think it's too soon to shift the priorities in his life. UNLESS this wedding needs to happen within 9 months or so...ahem. I hope it was an erroneous article and that's why it's gone now. Jil has mentioned nothing on twitter, nor Andy.
Then again - it is 2012 - maybe they want that committment before we all go up in smoke eh?
BE