The Tour is nearly upon us, we are all waiting with bated breath for it to start, despite the loss of Our Andy, and what am I doing? Yes, I am checking my blog's viewing stats.
What can I say? It's fascinating! And everyone has to have a hobby...
Having just made a new blog entry, I was idly checking what people were looking at, and there was someone from Dentergem in Belgium who started by looking at "Andy Schleck Girlfriend" then went on to "The Sinister Case of the Steamed-up Car", these two entries being way back in February. I wonder if they enjoyed reading vintage Captain Coug stuff?
Then there was someone from Coimbra, in Portugal, who read all about the "Tufty Collection" which is from early in 2011 - phew, bit out of date by now, you'd think? Hilariously, their ISP (hello, by the way, to whoever you are!) is called "Instituto De Sistemas E Robotica" which just sounds plain funny. So much better than boring old "BT Internet".
Someone from the Netherlands wanted to read about Contador being booed, and then about Andy drooling - last year's Tour de Suisse, that was. Aha, there must be something about that clean, Swiss, air that gets people drooling, remembering - while trying not to picture it - Ten Damme drooling like a slug in this year's race.
Returning to Belgium again, someone from Retie wanted to read about me and Ken Sommer - ah, remember those happy days when we used to try to get him to tweet to us?
It's amazing what you can find on the internet. What can I say, except welcome one and all: and to any new readers, do please feel free to wander back amongst the past entries - all neatly indexed on the right, there - to see what sort of thing we talk about. And for the benefit of those readers, I even made a page labelled "In Jokes", which you can find up there *points to top of page* so that these newer entries would make more sense.
Going back to the stats, guess what the result was, when I checked the Keyword analysis? That is, the words typed into Google by people who don't have the blog bookmarked, or who don't come straight here: ie, non-regulars.
Yes, over 25% of "new" visitors get here by typing "Andy Schleck Girlfriend". Ho hum. And a further 12% or so get here from typing variations on Jil, or Jill, or her surname, along with Andy's name. I even have some who just type in her name, yet still get here. *pause while I rush off to Google to try it for myself: aww, how sad, she has an entry in a site called Sport 195, but beyond her birthday and a photo, there are no details, and one sad, lonely follower. And yes, of the "images" that Google spits up, three out of five are from here.*
Hmm, that's a thought, what do you get if you google Captain Coug?
*short pause*
Nice! There we are, at numbers 1, 6 and 7 on the first page. I am only slightly disturbed to find that there is a Captain Coug on FaceBleuk: I hardly need say, it's not me.
Friday 29 June 2012
Thursday 28 June 2012
Eins, zwei, drei: vier, fünf, Schlecks
There's a suggestion, somewhere in folklore, that if you hear a rumour three times, it must be true.
Or is that war-time saying: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.
Something like that.
Anyway, we are now hearing rumours that our favourite Schlecks will be going to a new Pro team for next year - with German backing. This is quite extraordinary, when you think that just last week I was discussing how many years it would be before we saw a new German team, after the Germans withdrew their support from cycling due to the doping scandals.
So is it true?
On the one hand, we have Andy saying "it is nonsense" when the Lux site Wort.lu reported that the Schlecks' lawyers were talking to other teams.
On the other hand, we are getting more stories and more details about possible moves, and it's pretty clear that they are not having a good time at the Shack.
We all got a bit excited about the prospect of the Leopards going back to Saxo-Tinker-Bank, but now we have this new idea of a German sponsor joining up with Trek to make a new team. This idea is quite an interesting one: Trek had stepped up as a major sponsor, but were disappointed in not being allowed to part of the official team name - you remember, RadioShack-Nissan-Trek was the name announced, but the UCI stood firm on only allowing two sponsor names in the team name. So if Trek want more publicity - which they do - then becoming co-sponsor in a new team is a good way to do it.
And what better way to get publicity for a new team, than to have the Schlecks involved in it?
Sadly, whatever happens, we are not likely to see Jakob as part of the party: he has angered Mr Bruyneel by loudly saying that he is not happy in a team with so many captains, and that he is likely to move next year. Sometimes, when a rider says things like this, it is a cunning move to get more money, or more attention: and in a sense it worked for Jakob, as he was given Captainship of the Giro. Not his fault he was injured and couldn't ride it: and, to be fair to Mr Bruyneel, it wasn't his fault either, but Jakob does seem to have aired his grievance rather loudly in public, and now we are seeing him being punished for it. No more UCI races for Jakob. No more UCI points. Without UCI points, no chance to increase his market value.
So Jakob will be on the move next year, he's already talking to Uncle Bjarne, but he says - interestingly - that it depends on what Bjarne is planning for the rest of his team, and he - Jakob - doesn't want to go to another team where there are four or more captains. That is, where he won't have a chance of being a captain himself: Jakob is talented, and ambitious, and realises that he needs a chance to step out of the shadow of the Schlecks.
So he's unlikely to stay with the other Leopards: shame, but there we go, there are times when you have to think of yourself. Mr Bruyneel seems to be doing his best to give the rest of the world the impression that Jakob is a trouble-making, mouthy, whiner who needs to be punished. Luckily I don't think the rest of the teams will see it that way.
As an aside, do we think that Jakob is kicking himself for leaving SaxoBank? If he hadn't gone with the Leopards, he would have been just about the best rider in the team, after the Conti business. Ah well, who knows, if he had stayed, and Conti had not been banned, then he might have found himself riding domestique for Conti for two years... who can tell.
Or is that war-time saying: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.
Something like that.
Anyway, we are now hearing rumours that our favourite Schlecks will be going to a new Pro team for next year - with German backing. This is quite extraordinary, when you think that just last week I was discussing how many years it would be before we saw a new German team, after the Germans withdrew their support from cycling due to the doping scandals.
So is it true?
On the one hand, we have Andy saying "it is nonsense" when the Lux site Wort.lu reported that the Schlecks' lawyers were talking to other teams.
On the other hand, we are getting more stories and more details about possible moves, and it's pretty clear that they are not having a good time at the Shack.
We all got a bit excited about the prospect of the Leopards going back to Saxo-Tinker-Bank, but now we have this new idea of a German sponsor joining up with Trek to make a new team. This idea is quite an interesting one: Trek had stepped up as a major sponsor, but were disappointed in not being allowed to part of the official team name - you remember, RadioShack-Nissan-Trek was the name announced, but the UCI stood firm on only allowing two sponsor names in the team name. So if Trek want more publicity - which they do - then becoming co-sponsor in a new team is a good way to do it.
And what better way to get publicity for a new team, than to have the Schlecks involved in it?
Sadly, whatever happens, we are not likely to see Jakob as part of the party: he has angered Mr Bruyneel by loudly saying that he is not happy in a team with so many captains, and that he is likely to move next year. Sometimes, when a rider says things like this, it is a cunning move to get more money, or more attention: and in a sense it worked for Jakob, as he was given Captainship of the Giro. Not his fault he was injured and couldn't ride it: and, to be fair to Mr Bruyneel, it wasn't his fault either, but Jakob does seem to have aired his grievance rather loudly in public, and now we are seeing him being punished for it. No more UCI races for Jakob. No more UCI points. Without UCI points, no chance to increase his market value.
So Jakob will be on the move next year, he's already talking to Uncle Bjarne, but he says - interestingly - that it depends on what Bjarne is planning for the rest of his team, and he - Jakob - doesn't want to go to another team where there are four or more captains. That is, where he won't have a chance of being a captain himself: Jakob is talented, and ambitious, and realises that he needs a chance to step out of the shadow of the Schlecks.
So he's unlikely to stay with the other Leopards: shame, but there we go, there are times when you have to think of yourself. Mr Bruyneel seems to be doing his best to give the rest of the world the impression that Jakob is a trouble-making, mouthy, whiner who needs to be punished. Luckily I don't think the rest of the teams will see it that way.
As an aside, do we think that Jakob is kicking himself for leaving SaxoBank? If he hadn't gone with the Leopards, he would have been just about the best rider in the team, after the Conti business. Ah well, who knows, if he had stayed, and Conti had not been banned, then he might have found himself riding domestique for Conti for two years... who can tell.
Saturday 23 June 2012
Bruyneel and the Tour
Hmm, let me see:
A few weeks ago, Andy and Frankie were going to the Tour, and Mr Bruyneel said "I will be there to boss you about, not Kim Andersen."
Andy and Frankie said "What!! But we have always had Kim!"
Mr B said "Not this time, chums. I'm in charge, he won't be there, deal with it."
Andy and Frankie said "But, but but:"
Mr B replied "No. That's it, my word is final, no Kim."
There was quite a lot of muttering, and Andy was reported to have said that Kim would be there. Oh yes he would.
So, Andy and Frankie, yes: Kim, no, Bruyneel, yes.
Then Frankie dropped out of the Giro after a shoulder injury, and Mr Bruyneel said quite openly that he thought Frankie was lying about the injury. Andy, meanwhile, had not had a stellar start to the season, having pretty well failed to finish a race: so Mr Bruyneel started saying hinting that neither Andy nor Frankie was guaranteed a place on the Tour squad.
So, Andy and Frankie possibly no: Kim, no, Bruyneel, yes
Then the Long List was announced.
Andy and Frankie, yes: Kim, no. Also, Chris Horner, no, Bruyneel, yes
Oops, big stink about Chris Horner, lots of "beep beep" sounds of Mr Bruyneel reversing, and suddenly Chris is in, Jakob is out. But Andy is now injured.
Andy, out. Frankie, in. Kim, out. Chris Horner, in. Jakob, no, Bruyneel, yes
But then Frankie starts saying that he won't be Team Captain, as he's still recovering from being shoved into the Giro unexpectedly.
Hmm: this could be Andy and Frankie out, Kim out, Chris Horner in, Bruyneel, yes.
And today, I can hardly say it for laughing, Mr Bruyneel announces that he won't be going to the Tour in view of the adverse publicity from him being involved with the Armstrong allegations.
Andy, Frankie, Jakob, no. Mr Bruyneel, no.
Will Kim Andersen be allowed to go now, do we think?
And in sort-of-related news, a Freudian slip from Bjarne Riis in his announcement of his Tour Squad: he announced the team, confirmed that the GC was not possible for them this year, and that they would be going for stage wins, and possibly the KoM jersey.
He ended by saying " I see this as an exciting challenge," etc.
Trouble is, it was printed wrongly:
"I see this as an EXITING challenge"? Oh dear, whoops, what a mistake!
A few weeks ago, Andy and Frankie were going to the Tour, and Mr Bruyneel said "I will be there to boss you about, not Kim Andersen."
Andy and Frankie said "What!! But we have always had Kim!"
Mr B said "Not this time, chums. I'm in charge, he won't be there, deal with it."
Andy and Frankie said "But, but but:"
Mr B replied "No. That's it, my word is final, no Kim."
There was quite a lot of muttering, and Andy was reported to have said that Kim would be there. Oh yes he would.
So, Andy and Frankie, yes: Kim, no, Bruyneel, yes.
Then Frankie dropped out of the Giro after a shoulder injury, and Mr Bruyneel said quite openly that he thought Frankie was lying about the injury. Andy, meanwhile, had not had a stellar start to the season, having pretty well failed to finish a race: so Mr Bruyneel started saying hinting that neither Andy nor Frankie was guaranteed a place on the Tour squad.
So, Andy and Frankie possibly no: Kim, no, Bruyneel, yes
Then the Long List was announced.
Andy and Frankie, yes: Kim, no. Also, Chris Horner, no, Bruyneel, yes
Oops, big stink about Chris Horner, lots of "beep beep" sounds of Mr Bruyneel reversing, and suddenly Chris is in, Jakob is out. But Andy is now injured.
Andy, out. Frankie, in. Kim, out. Chris Horner, in. Jakob, no, Bruyneel, yes
But then Frankie starts saying that he won't be Team Captain, as he's still recovering from being shoved into the Giro unexpectedly.
Hmm: this could be Andy and Frankie out, Kim out, Chris Horner in, Bruyneel, yes.
And today, I can hardly say it for laughing, Mr Bruyneel announces that he won't be going to the Tour in view of the adverse publicity from him being involved with the Armstrong allegations.
Andy, Frankie, Jakob, no. Mr Bruyneel, no.
Will Kim Andersen be allowed to go now, do we think?
And in sort-of-related news, a Freudian slip from Bjarne Riis in his announcement of his Tour Squad: he announced the team, confirmed that the GC was not possible for them this year, and that they would be going for stage wins, and possibly the KoM jersey.
He ended by saying " I see this as an exciting challenge," etc.
Trouble is, it was printed wrongly:
"I see this as an EXITING challenge"? Oh dear, whoops, what a mistake!
Thursday 21 June 2012
Tour de Suisse final days
With 60k to go, we join the coverage of the race to see a small break of 4 men up the road, one of which is a Saxobank rider. Well, we know what the conversation in his ear is going to be!
Then we see Fabian drafting outrageously behind - oh hang on, that's a BMC car. Why is he drafting behind a BMC car? "Asking about a contract." suggests LLB.
Clearly, the negotiations do not go well, as Fabian moves on from BMC to the Katusha car. Discussions seem to be going well, do we want to see Fabu becoming a Dark Lord? Presumably the light sabre on offer was not good enough, as he leaves them and moves up to the Euskaltel car.
Oh, well, they have nothing to offer, he stays there for barely a few seconds before overtaking and making his way up to the Shack car.
It's a waffle day, by the sound of it: our commentators have nothing to talk about concerning the race (they don't seem to be interested in Fabian and his contract negotiations) so they start discussing stories of "when I was a rider" from Brian Smith. Then they go on to start a lengthy discussion about Linus Gerdemann, who in their opinion has not fulfilled his potential. That must be nice for all the Linus fans to hear.
LLB and I discuss the situation with cycle sponsorship in Germany, ie none, due to the doping scandals, and we wonder how long it will be before we get a German team again. Unfortunately, it might be some time, now that the Armstrong/Bruyneel thing has blown up again. *sigh*
At 33k to go, the gap is three and a half minutes, which means that the break could do it: but by 19k it's dropping fast, as the peloton pick up speed and start chasing in earnest.
Bjarne: " Faster! Faster"
Vinther (panting): "Boss, I'm going as fast as I can.." (sweat drips off his nose)
Bjarne: " They are catching you - we need the points, go faster!"
Vinther: (panting hard) "Boss, I'm doing my best..." (more sweat flies off, flung backwards by the slipstream)
Bjarne: "There are only 4 of you: don't worry about winning, just come fourth."
Vinther: (rolls eyes): " ... " (too out of breath to speak)
Sky start grouping up: and where are the Shack riders? Scattered all through the bunch, as usual. Guys! Come on! Groupage! *waves hands in air in imitation of a DS* We haven't heard the name of RadioShack, or Frankie, so far at all, other than with the word "armstrong" attached to it.
But we have a comedy aside - LLB notices that the GreenEdge kit appears to have a happy smile across the backside. Go on, look for yourself! We decide to call it a "smilebot". There's not much happening in the race today, you can tell, can't you?
Aha! JVS! Yes, I had read in the start lists that honorary Schlecklander Johan van Summeren was in this race, but we've barely seen him, and suddenly there he is, doing what he does best, ie pulling the peloton along.
At 3k to go, the break are nearly caught, and we get a nice shot of Fabian dawdling along. "Saving himself for the TT" say our commentators, wisely.
(I have to say, Switzerland is a lovely place: so green and lush. All that lovely grass - no wonder the chocolate is so yummy.)
As the catch is made, Vinther and the AG2R rider shake hands - I always like to see that, it represents all that is good about cycling road races. It's just a pity that they can never do proper "right to right" handshakes, on account of having to maintain control of their bikes, so they end up doing these really awkward handshakes where one looks as though he's about to get a broken wrist.
Frankie is suddenly, astonishingly, second in line, with only 2k to go: don't say he's going for the sprint finish? Well, that would be a turn up for the books, as they say. Surely not. Sky take over, they storm for the line but at less than 1k to go it suddenly breaks up into a messy scramble, Sky's Ben Swift very nearly lives up to his lane, but Peter Sagan storms into the final section and takes the win.
Not much sign of Stuey through this race - I guess he was doing what he does best, working as a super domestique and using his Smilebot to help his race leader.
Once again we are treated to the strange, vaguely uncomfortable sight of a sweaty man pulling off his outer clothing and being wiped down with a wet flannel, before we thankfully go back to race footage to see Fabian leading in the bus, and getting lots of screen time.
Of course, tomorrow we have the TT, great things are expected of Fabian, and we all want to know if Frankie can hang on to second place in the GC, or even - sharp intake of breath -improve it?
So, the TT: we only get the highlights ("Boo!") and we get a little bit of footage of Fabian "giving it full beans" as they say, but he comes in second to Astana, which is a bit of a surprise for everyone.
Apparently Haussler (cries of "Barbie Barbie!") has given up and gone home, as there are no more sprints and he's not that good at TT: I have to say, bearing in mind that I'm not a pro-cyclist (as you all know) that it strikes me as odd that so many pro riders don't finish the races. Surely it looks better on your palmares to say that you have finished this number of races, rather than that you merely "started" this number of races? Yes, I know the argument that says that if a sprinter has no more chances of winning, then why should they wear themselves out in two mountain stages and risk injury or strain, not to mention the psychological damage of crawling in last. But it still seems odd to me.
Halfway through the race, Shack have three riders in the top 10, which is quite amazing! And as you all know, Frankie did a good race, he came in 1'37" down, over a 49 minute race, which is pretty good going, knowing that this is his worst discipline, and knowing that there are two mountain days to come. He ends up 5th in the GC.
For some reason I having nothing to say about Stage 8, probably because of the extended shot of Ten Damme struggling up one of the climbs, with about a gallon of thick, clingy saliva drooling out of his mouth: they showed it in slow motion, which was even worse, and which made him look like some sort of human-slug hybrid.
So we skip straight on to the final day, 53k to go, the breakaway are 10 minutes ahead, Shack are leading the peloton and finally, finally! we see all of the team together.
Oh dear, a crash at a roundabout and a Shack rider is down. I knew the groupage was too good to be true! Is it Frankie? Even the commentators are concerned. No, it's Didier. Sorry, Didier, but we have to say "Phew, it's not Frankie!" I'm sure he'll forgive us.
By 45k to go, it's not looking so good: after losing Didier, the rest of the team are fading away and Frankie is left with only Monfort and Jakob, and then Jakob is cooked, and drops off the back.
We get a nice shot of Frankie going over a cattle grid, positioning himself very nicely to stay on one of the flat struts. Ten Damme follows him a little later, going bump-bump-bump over the grid - oh dear, it will shake loose all that slug-juice again, yuk *shudders*.
Frankie attacks! Fantastic, that should shut the critics up. Costa is in trouble, Levi Leipheimer can't respond, "but has he gone too early?" ask our commentators, in worried voices. Fair point, he did go too early yesterday and got caught just before the top. But everyone and his dog is shouting for the Schlecks to attack, to show some aggression, etc etc etc, so there's no pleasing everyone. Frankie, I am pleased to see, appears to be on a Sunday training ride, looking very calm and unstressed while behind him, riders are weaving around across the road and struggling to stay upright.
Possibly, Frankie is thinking that as he has lost the rest of his team, it's a gamble worth trying: he may well get caught on the descent or on the long flat valley bottom, but at least he's made a good show, and has demonstrated that his legs are in good shape: at the very least, he's practising for the Tour, getting kudos for trying, and getting lots of TV time. In fact, we are getting lots of coverage of Frankie and the followers (another 50s doo-wop band: they had a couple of hits but never made it really big) and no coverage at all of the breakaway, which must be so maddening for their fans!
Over an advert break, our coverage jumps from 44k to 22k - what!? OK, 22k of watching one bloke out by himself being very, very slowly caught by the peloton is less than fascinating, but it's Frankie's day of glory! He not only did NOT get caught on the descent (so "yar boo sucks" to everyone who said he would) but he held them off all along the valley floor, for 22k! All by himself!
Oh well, that's how it goes: Frankie slips back into the bunch, and it's not a waste, he will have tired out a lot of other riders' legs. He goes back to the car, probably to have a chat with Kim Andersen, or possibly to receive his race reward treat. You know, when the trainer pops a small treat into the mouth of the performing animal after it has done a trick...
Chris "Face of Pain" Anker Sorensen leaps off the bunch and storms away, stealing all the tv coverage: between him and Frankie, the break must be gnashing their teeth and cursing! It takes the bunch 10k to catch him, and by now we all know that the break are going to win the stage, but no-one cares: we just want to know if Frankie can make up 14 seconds on Costa in order to win the race overall.
Oh my, 6k to go and finally we get coverage of the leaders. Oh dear, they are going very slowly. Ah, it's the final climb, that explains it. The gap is still three and a half minutes, though, so it's pretty clear that we are now watching two races at once: this front group are going to win the stage, so that is one race: and in the chasing group, there are 9 riders who are competing for the overall win. Exciting stuff!
In the run-up to the line, the three guys in the break take the stage places, leaving Chris Anker Sorensen, three minutes later, coming up to the line in a group of 4, struggling to the finish, head wagging from side to side, no doubt trying to shake loose his earpiece to escape Bjarne's voice shouting "Get 4th or 5th! Get 4th or 5th!" , but to no avail, he comes in fourth of the four, which means 7th overall, which means no UCI points. Shame.
Frankie does well, he maintains his gap to keep 2nd place, and best of all, he hugs Costa (who wins the overall) to congratulate him on the win, which is always nice to see.
Well, Frankie podiumed in the Tour de Suisse, Fabian is back in the Swiss National TT Champ colours, and Jakob has not been picked for the Tour, and is pretty cross about it.
We certainly are getting conflicting stories about what is going on in the Shack. Kloden (Shack) says reports of friction have been exaggerated, all is well, the team is working well together. Jakob (Leopard) says "it does not take a genius to see that the team is not running as it should" and he quite rightly makes the point that he is the only rider (other than Fab) to have won a race this year, which should put him in the running for a tour place.
It's hard not to assume that Mr Bruyneel/Becca's decision not to pick Jakob for the Tour was somewhat influenced by his earlier comments that he was thinking of leaving the team. Which is understandable, from their point of view: if Jakob wins stages/points at the Tour, those points and that glory go with him when he leaves the team.
Ah well, time will tell: meanwhile it's less than 10 days to the Tour! Yay!
Then we see Fabian drafting outrageously behind - oh hang on, that's a BMC car. Why is he drafting behind a BMC car? "Asking about a contract." suggests LLB.
Clearly, the negotiations do not go well, as Fabian moves on from BMC to the Katusha car. Discussions seem to be going well, do we want to see Fabu becoming a Dark Lord? Presumably the light sabre on offer was not good enough, as he leaves them and moves up to the Euskaltel car.
Oh, well, they have nothing to offer, he stays there for barely a few seconds before overtaking and making his way up to the Shack car.
It's a waffle day, by the sound of it: our commentators have nothing to talk about concerning the race (they don't seem to be interested in Fabian and his contract negotiations) so they start discussing stories of "when I was a rider" from Brian Smith. Then they go on to start a lengthy discussion about Linus Gerdemann, who in their opinion has not fulfilled his potential. That must be nice for all the Linus fans to hear.
LLB and I discuss the situation with cycle sponsorship in Germany, ie none, due to the doping scandals, and we wonder how long it will be before we get a German team again. Unfortunately, it might be some time, now that the Armstrong/Bruyneel thing has blown up again. *sigh*
At 33k to go, the gap is three and a half minutes, which means that the break could do it: but by 19k it's dropping fast, as the peloton pick up speed and start chasing in earnest.
Bjarne: " Faster! Faster"
Vinther (panting): "Boss, I'm going as fast as I can.." (sweat drips off his nose)
Bjarne: " They are catching you - we need the points, go faster!"
Vinther: (panting hard) "Boss, I'm doing my best..." (more sweat flies off, flung backwards by the slipstream)
Bjarne: "There are only 4 of you: don't worry about winning, just come fourth."
Vinther: (rolls eyes): " ... " (too out of breath to speak)
Sky start grouping up: and where are the Shack riders? Scattered all through the bunch, as usual. Guys! Come on! Groupage! *waves hands in air in imitation of a DS* We haven't heard the name of RadioShack, or Frankie, so far at all, other than with the word "armstrong" attached to it.
But we have a comedy aside - LLB notices that the GreenEdge kit appears to have a happy smile across the backside. Go on, look for yourself! We decide to call it a "smilebot". There's not much happening in the race today, you can tell, can't you?
Aha! JVS! Yes, I had read in the start lists that honorary Schlecklander Johan van Summeren was in this race, but we've barely seen him, and suddenly there he is, doing what he does best, ie pulling the peloton along.
At 3k to go, the break are nearly caught, and we get a nice shot of Fabian dawdling along. "Saving himself for the TT" say our commentators, wisely.
(I have to say, Switzerland is a lovely place: so green and lush. All that lovely grass - no wonder the chocolate is so yummy.)
As the catch is made, Vinther and the AG2R rider shake hands - I always like to see that, it represents all that is good about cycling road races. It's just a pity that they can never do proper "right to right" handshakes, on account of having to maintain control of their bikes, so they end up doing these really awkward handshakes where one looks as though he's about to get a broken wrist.
Frankie is suddenly, astonishingly, second in line, with only 2k to go: don't say he's going for the sprint finish? Well, that would be a turn up for the books, as they say. Surely not. Sky take over, they storm for the line but at less than 1k to go it suddenly breaks up into a messy scramble, Sky's Ben Swift very nearly lives up to his lane, but Peter Sagan storms into the final section and takes the win.
Not much sign of Stuey through this race - I guess he was doing what he does best, working as a super domestique and using his Smilebot to help his race leader.
Once again we are treated to the strange, vaguely uncomfortable sight of a sweaty man pulling off his outer clothing and being wiped down with a wet flannel, before we thankfully go back to race footage to see Fabian leading in the bus, and getting lots of screen time.
Of course, tomorrow we have the TT, great things are expected of Fabian, and we all want to know if Frankie can hang on to second place in the GC, or even - sharp intake of breath -improve it?
So, the TT: we only get the highlights ("Boo!") and we get a little bit of footage of Fabian "giving it full beans" as they say, but he comes in second to Astana, which is a bit of a surprise for everyone.
Apparently Haussler (cries of "Barbie Barbie!") has given up and gone home, as there are no more sprints and he's not that good at TT: I have to say, bearing in mind that I'm not a pro-cyclist (as you all know) that it strikes me as odd that so many pro riders don't finish the races. Surely it looks better on your palmares to say that you have finished this number of races, rather than that you merely "started" this number of races? Yes, I know the argument that says that if a sprinter has no more chances of winning, then why should they wear themselves out in two mountain stages and risk injury or strain, not to mention the psychological damage of crawling in last. But it still seems odd to me.
Halfway through the race, Shack have three riders in the top 10, which is quite amazing! And as you all know, Frankie did a good race, he came in 1'37" down, over a 49 minute race, which is pretty good going, knowing that this is his worst discipline, and knowing that there are two mountain days to come. He ends up 5th in the GC.
For some reason I having nothing to say about Stage 8, probably because of the extended shot of Ten Damme struggling up one of the climbs, with about a gallon of thick, clingy saliva drooling out of his mouth: they showed it in slow motion, which was even worse, and which made him look like some sort of human-slug hybrid.
So we skip straight on to the final day, 53k to go, the breakaway are 10 minutes ahead, Shack are leading the peloton and finally, finally! we see all of the team together.
Oh dear, a crash at a roundabout and a Shack rider is down. I knew the groupage was too good to be true! Is it Frankie? Even the commentators are concerned. No, it's Didier. Sorry, Didier, but we have to say "Phew, it's not Frankie!" I'm sure he'll forgive us.
By 45k to go, it's not looking so good: after losing Didier, the rest of the team are fading away and Frankie is left with only Monfort and Jakob, and then Jakob is cooked, and drops off the back.
We get a nice shot of Frankie going over a cattle grid, positioning himself very nicely to stay on one of the flat struts. Ten Damme follows him a little later, going bump-bump-bump over the grid - oh dear, it will shake loose all that slug-juice again, yuk *shudders*.
Frankie attacks! Fantastic, that should shut the critics up. Costa is in trouble, Levi Leipheimer can't respond, "but has he gone too early?" ask our commentators, in worried voices. Fair point, he did go too early yesterday and got caught just before the top. But everyone and his dog is shouting for the Schlecks to attack, to show some aggression, etc etc etc, so there's no pleasing everyone. Frankie, I am pleased to see, appears to be on a Sunday training ride, looking very calm and unstressed while behind him, riders are weaving around across the road and struggling to stay upright.
Possibly, Frankie is thinking that as he has lost the rest of his team, it's a gamble worth trying: he may well get caught on the descent or on the long flat valley bottom, but at least he's made a good show, and has demonstrated that his legs are in good shape: at the very least, he's practising for the Tour, getting kudos for trying, and getting lots of TV time. In fact, we are getting lots of coverage of Frankie and the followers (another 50s doo-wop band: they had a couple of hits but never made it really big) and no coverage at all of the breakaway, which must be so maddening for their fans!
Over an advert break, our coverage jumps from 44k to 22k - what!? OK, 22k of watching one bloke out by himself being very, very slowly caught by the peloton is less than fascinating, but it's Frankie's day of glory! He not only did NOT get caught on the descent (so "yar boo sucks" to everyone who said he would) but he held them off all along the valley floor, for 22k! All by himself!
Oh well, that's how it goes: Frankie slips back into the bunch, and it's not a waste, he will have tired out a lot of other riders' legs. He goes back to the car, probably to have a chat with Kim Andersen, or possibly to receive his race reward treat. You know, when the trainer pops a small treat into the mouth of the performing animal after it has done a trick...
Chris "Face of Pain" Anker Sorensen leaps off the bunch and storms away, stealing all the tv coverage: between him and Frankie, the break must be gnashing their teeth and cursing! It takes the bunch 10k to catch him, and by now we all know that the break are going to win the stage, but no-one cares: we just want to know if Frankie can make up 14 seconds on Costa in order to win the race overall.
Oh my, 6k to go and finally we get coverage of the leaders. Oh dear, they are going very slowly. Ah, it's the final climb, that explains it. The gap is still three and a half minutes, though, so it's pretty clear that we are now watching two races at once: this front group are going to win the stage, so that is one race: and in the chasing group, there are 9 riders who are competing for the overall win. Exciting stuff!
In the run-up to the line, the three guys in the break take the stage places, leaving Chris Anker Sorensen, three minutes later, coming up to the line in a group of 4, struggling to the finish, head wagging from side to side, no doubt trying to shake loose his earpiece to escape Bjarne's voice shouting "Get 4th or 5th! Get 4th or 5th!" , but to no avail, he comes in fourth of the four, which means 7th overall, which means no UCI points. Shame.
Frankie does well, he maintains his gap to keep 2nd place, and best of all, he hugs Costa (who wins the overall) to congratulate him on the win, which is always nice to see.
Well, Frankie podiumed in the Tour de Suisse, Fabian is back in the Swiss National TT Champ colours, and Jakob has not been picked for the Tour, and is pretty cross about it.
We certainly are getting conflicting stories about what is going on in the Shack. Kloden (Shack) says reports of friction have been exaggerated, all is well, the team is working well together. Jakob (Leopard) says "it does not take a genius to see that the team is not running as it should" and he quite rightly makes the point that he is the only rider (other than Fab) to have won a race this year, which should put him in the running for a tour place.
It's hard not to assume that Mr Bruyneel/Becca's decision not to pick Jakob for the Tour was somewhat influenced by his earlier comments that he was thinking of leaving the team. Which is understandable, from their point of view: if Jakob wins stages/points at the Tour, those points and that glory go with him when he leaves the team.
Ah well, time will tell: meanwhile it's less than 10 days to the Tour! Yay!
Friday 15 June 2012
Tour de Suisse
Oh, aren't we enjoying this! Frankie is doing well, no-one has crashed and hurt themselves, despite the awful weather, and the final two days are over the weekend, so I will be able to watch them as they happen, yay!
Wednesday - stage 5 - began with us being shown pictures of Tour de Suisse, but all the talk was about the Tour and la Vuelta: yes, this was the day the news broke that Andy had cracked his pelvis ("Poor boy!" ) and was not going to be fit enough to ride the Tour. Clearly, bad news for all us AndyFans, but then on reflection, it wasn't truthfully likely to be a winning year for him, and how much better will it be for him to come back next year and win it against Conti, Evans, Bradley and everyone, and all the news reports will start "Despite having missed much of last season due to a fractured pelvis,....."
Eventually our commentators - that would be David Harmon and Brian Smith (Elle, are you listening? Not Sean Kelly. Mind you, you can be forgiven for that mistake, David calls Brian "Sean" half the time anyway, so I think he was a bit hard on you!) - settled down, stopped talking about Andy, and started talking about the race we were actually watching.
The break of 7 riders were way, way off the front, with the peloton not inclined to chase them: one of the breakaway was a SaxoBlank rider, Karsten Kroon, who we all remember with fondness from one of the Mondorf videos: he phoned Andy while filming was underway, and was invited for lunch, so Andy had to double the amount of pasta he was cooking. Remember? He lives in Belgium, so I never was quite clear if he was visiting Lux at the time, or whether he lives close enough to the border to routinely do a circuit of training that includes Lux. (and yes, I had to find a map to check how close one was to the other. *grins*)
Bjarne: " Karsten!"
KK: " Yes, Boss?"(panting slightly)
Bjarne: "Good work! Good break! How are you feeling?"
KK: "Not too bad, Boss. What's our gap?" (still panting)
Bjarne: "It's good. You have 10 minutes."
KK: "Are they chasing? Who's on the front?"
Bjarne: " Movistar."
KK: " Are they catching us? "
Bjarne: "No. I told you, Movistar on the front."
KK: (sniggers, while panting) "Heh, good point."
Bjarne: " Try to drop two of the break if you can."
KK: (rolls eyes) "OK Boss, if I get the chance, I will."
The camera bike following the break was doing strange up-butt shots - I can only assume the cameraman was holding the camera right down at wheel level, and I'm really not sure why. Perhaps he thought we were bored of seeing faces in profile, and backsides (the usual shots) so he thought we might like to see armpits instead:
Very odd.
As you an see, another horrible day in England - err, Switzerland, sorry. Rain on the road, rain on the cameras, dirty faces in the peloton.
Being presented with a lycra-clad bottom reminds me of a Twitter conversation with Anne, who described Frankie's backside as being like two volleyballs wrapped in Spandex (which I think is the same as Lycra), I try to explain to LLB why I am laughing and he gives me a very odd look.
Luckily I'm used to that.
The race is turning into a Sunday training ride for the peloton - no-one in the break is at all a threat to the GC, I think the nearest contender is about 13 minutes down, so they can afford to give them 9 minutes and not worry about it.
Bjarne: " Karsten!"
KK: "Yes, Boss?" (panting slightly)
Bjarne: "Good break! Good work! How are you feeling? "
KK: "Feeling good, Boss. " (still panting slightly)
Bjarne: "They're still not chasing. Movistar still on the front. "
KK: "Heh, ok, Boss. "
Bjarne: "Try to drop at least two of the break."
KK: (rolls eyes again) "Yes, Boss. If I get a chance, will do."
This continues pretty much all through the race, until with 9k to go we are down to just 6 in the break, still with a 10-minute lead.
Bjarne: "Karsten!"
KK: "Yes, Boss?" (panting heavily)
Bjarne: "Good break! Good work! How are you feeling?"
KK: (panting heavily) "OK, Boss."
Bjarne: "Down to 6 now."
KK: (panting heavily) "Yes, Boss."
Bjarne: "Lose one more if you can."
KK: (barely has energy to roll eyes) "Yes, Boss."
Bjarne: "Good boy. Bonus for you tonight."
KK: (pants) "Thanks, Boss"
Bjarne: "One more thing:"
KK: "Yes, Boss?"
Bjarne: "Don't come 6th."
KK: "Points?"
Bjarne: "Only to 5th place. Come 5th or higher."
KK: (pants heavily) "I'll do my best, Boss."
Bjarne: (approval in voice) "Good boy."
The breakaway play games with each other right up until the end - it's rather nice that they have enough time to do so. Brian Smith, our commentator, gets quite excited to see them "looking at each other" in the way that that track cyclists do. Until he mentioned it, I hadn't noticed the similarity, but now I can see it very clearly. You might remember that over the winter, LLB and I actually started watching some track events, as we so desperate for cycling, and although I don't think I'll ever be "into" track cycling, it does have some points of interest. To us, the sprint races seem weird - they come out of the starting frames so slowly that they are wobbling, and they play cat-and-mouse games to get a tactical advantage. Suddenly we see all those same moves on the road, which was quite strange.
After a remarkably interesting five minutes of mucking about in this manner, they settle down to the finish, and it's won by the previously unheard-of Dark Lord of Katusha, Vladimir Isaychev. Euskaltel take second - well done, little carrot! - Sky just nip into third, leaving KK to come in 4th - yay! UCI points! Well, one point, at any rate. That takes them from 43 points to, ooh, let me see: 44 points! Oh dear, still last, though. (In case you are interested, RaNT are 10th with 333, Sky are top with 803 - excuse me while I wave my Union Jack flag, patriotically.) Bjarne will be pleased with Karsten.
There's an interview with Isaychev: "Is this the biggest win of your career?" asks the interviewer. The Dark Lord looks confused for a moment. Then he grins widely: "This is the ONLY win of my career!" he says.
What do Dark Lords get as a bonus, I wonder out loud. "A new light-sabre." comments LLB.
We've pretty much done the podium stuff before the peloton finally dawdles in, 10 minutes later, making a pathetic pretence of sprinting at the very end: "look, look, we tried really hard, honest!". Yeah, yeah. *rolls eyes*.
As the white jersey is awarded, there is a slight feeling that the podium girls are not quite up to standard: we assume that they are provided by the sponsor, Gruyere cheese in this case, and wonder if they have won an internal office competition, perhaps?
The green jersey has been stolen from Frankie by the Dark Lord! By one point! But at least we are back to proper podium girls, in the fetching green-and-white skinsuit-and-sash combination. Actually, this is not a bad thing, for Frankie to be out of the jersey - in just two days there is a time trial, and if Frankie were still in a jersey, he'd have to wear the horrible cheap skinsuit provided by the sponsor, instead of his own super deluxe performance skinsuit.
Did you know that? We had a bit of scandal in the Dauphine, when Bradley Wiggins won the yellow jersey on a stage, and thoughtlessly said in an interview that he was quite cross at winning it, and would hope to lose it the following day, before the TT. Shock! Horror! from journalists. Is he insulting the yellow jersey? How dare he! Is he insulting the race? The organisers? Mr Wiggins had to issue a hasty apology, assuring everyone that he respected the jersey very thoroughly.
It turns out that he didn't want to wear the inferior ASO-supplied yellow skinsuit: apparently he was contacted before the TT and asked "Small or medium?" He asked if he could try them on, to determine which was the best fit. "Non." said ASO, "Small, or medium?". He offered to pay for both of them, if money was the problem. "Non." said the ASO. "Small, or medium?" He chose medium.
This all came the day after we heard from our commentators all about the recent advances in skin-suit design, with reference not just to the fabric, but even to the placing of the seams: apparently these tiny changes can make a difference. So you can imagine how a race leader would feel, going into a TT, desperate to hold on to every second, but deprived of his super-slick super-fitted skinsuit, and shoved into any old thing, not even allowed to try it on beforehand, creases everywhere, and a number flapping about loose on the back. (Garmin's new skinsuits have a small flap across the back, under which they tuck the top of the number. Every little helps.)
At least Frankie won't have that to worry about. He's sitting 2nd, Jakob is 12th, Linus 31st, the others are all there or thereabouts (as they say) so we'll have an interesting couple of days to watch. There is a TT on Friday, only 34km and "quite lumpy" so that should be in Frankie's favour, and should offset some of the gains of those riders who are "good" at TT: then two mountain stages over the weekend.
Fingers crossed for Frankie!
Wednesday - stage 5 - began with us being shown pictures of Tour de Suisse, but all the talk was about the Tour and la Vuelta: yes, this was the day the news broke that Andy had cracked his pelvis ("Poor boy!" ) and was not going to be fit enough to ride the Tour. Clearly, bad news for all us AndyFans, but then on reflection, it wasn't truthfully likely to be a winning year for him, and how much better will it be for him to come back next year and win it against Conti, Evans, Bradley and everyone, and all the news reports will start "Despite having missed much of last season due to a fractured pelvis,....."
Eventually our commentators - that would be David Harmon and Brian Smith (Elle, are you listening? Not Sean Kelly. Mind you, you can be forgiven for that mistake, David calls Brian "Sean" half the time anyway, so I think he was a bit hard on you!) - settled down, stopped talking about Andy, and started talking about the race we were actually watching.
The break of 7 riders were way, way off the front, with the peloton not inclined to chase them: one of the breakaway was a SaxoBlank rider, Karsten Kroon, who we all remember with fondness from one of the Mondorf videos: he phoned Andy while filming was underway, and was invited for lunch, so Andy had to double the amount of pasta he was cooking. Remember? He lives in Belgium, so I never was quite clear if he was visiting Lux at the time, or whether he lives close enough to the border to routinely do a circuit of training that includes Lux. (and yes, I had to find a map to check how close one was to the other. *grins*)
Bjarne: " Karsten!"
KK: " Yes, Boss?"(panting slightly)
Bjarne: "Good work! Good break! How are you feeling?"
KK: "Not too bad, Boss. What's our gap?" (still panting)
Bjarne: "It's good. You have 10 minutes."
KK: "Are they chasing? Who's on the front?"
Bjarne: " Movistar."
KK: " Are they catching us? "
Bjarne: "No. I told you, Movistar on the front."
KK: (sniggers, while panting) "Heh, good point."
Bjarne: " Try to drop two of the break if you can."
KK: (rolls eyes) "OK Boss, if I get the chance, I will."
The camera bike following the break was doing strange up-butt shots - I can only assume the cameraman was holding the camera right down at wheel level, and I'm really not sure why. Perhaps he thought we were bored of seeing faces in profile, and backsides (the usual shots) so he thought we might like to see armpits instead:
Very odd.
As you an see, another horrible day in England - err, Switzerland, sorry. Rain on the road, rain on the cameras, dirty faces in the peloton.
Being presented with a lycra-clad bottom reminds me of a Twitter conversation with Anne, who described Frankie's backside as being like two volleyballs wrapped in Spandex (which I think is the same as Lycra), I try to explain to LLB why I am laughing and he gives me a very odd look.
Luckily I'm used to that.
The race is turning into a Sunday training ride for the peloton - no-one in the break is at all a threat to the GC, I think the nearest contender is about 13 minutes down, so they can afford to give them 9 minutes and not worry about it.
Bjarne: " Karsten!"
KK: "Yes, Boss?" (panting slightly)
Bjarne: "Good break! Good work! How are you feeling? "
KK: "Feeling good, Boss. " (still panting slightly)
Bjarne: "They're still not chasing. Movistar still on the front. "
KK: "Heh, ok, Boss. "
Bjarne: "Try to drop at least two of the break."
KK: (rolls eyes again) "Yes, Boss. If I get a chance, will do."
This continues pretty much all through the race, until with 9k to go we are down to just 6 in the break, still with a 10-minute lead.
Bjarne: "Karsten!"
KK: "Yes, Boss?" (panting heavily)
Bjarne: "Good break! Good work! How are you feeling?"
KK: (panting heavily) "OK, Boss."
Bjarne: "Down to 6 now."
KK: (panting heavily) "Yes, Boss."
Bjarne: "Lose one more if you can."
KK: (barely has energy to roll eyes) "Yes, Boss."
Bjarne: "Good boy. Bonus for you tonight."
KK: (pants) "Thanks, Boss"
Bjarne: "One more thing:"
KK: "Yes, Boss?"
Bjarne: "Don't come 6th."
KK: "Points?"
Bjarne: "Only to 5th place. Come 5th or higher."
KK: (pants heavily) "I'll do my best, Boss."
Bjarne: (approval in voice) "Good boy."
The breakaway play games with each other right up until the end - it's rather nice that they have enough time to do so. Brian Smith, our commentator, gets quite excited to see them "looking at each other" in the way that that track cyclists do. Until he mentioned it, I hadn't noticed the similarity, but now I can see it very clearly. You might remember that over the winter, LLB and I actually started watching some track events, as we so desperate for cycling, and although I don't think I'll ever be "into" track cycling, it does have some points of interest. To us, the sprint races seem weird - they come out of the starting frames so slowly that they are wobbling, and they play cat-and-mouse games to get a tactical advantage. Suddenly we see all those same moves on the road, which was quite strange.
After a remarkably interesting five minutes of mucking about in this manner, they settle down to the finish, and it's won by the previously unheard-of Dark Lord of Katusha, Vladimir Isaychev. Euskaltel take second - well done, little carrot! - Sky just nip into third, leaving KK to come in 4th - yay! UCI points! Well, one point, at any rate. That takes them from 43 points to, ooh, let me see: 44 points! Oh dear, still last, though. (In case you are interested, RaNT are 10th with 333, Sky are top with 803 - excuse me while I wave my Union Jack flag, patriotically.) Bjarne will be pleased with Karsten.
There's an interview with Isaychev: "Is this the biggest win of your career?" asks the interviewer. The Dark Lord looks confused for a moment. Then he grins widely: "This is the ONLY win of my career!" he says.
What do Dark Lords get as a bonus, I wonder out loud. "A new light-sabre." comments LLB.
We've pretty much done the podium stuff before the peloton finally dawdles in, 10 minutes later, making a pathetic pretence of sprinting at the very end: "look, look, we tried really hard, honest!". Yeah, yeah. *rolls eyes*.
As the white jersey is awarded, there is a slight feeling that the podium girls are not quite up to standard: we assume that they are provided by the sponsor, Gruyere cheese in this case, and wonder if they have won an internal office competition, perhaps?
The green jersey has been stolen from Frankie by the Dark Lord! By one point! But at least we are back to proper podium girls, in the fetching green-and-white skinsuit-and-sash combination. Actually, this is not a bad thing, for Frankie to be out of the jersey - in just two days there is a time trial, and if Frankie were still in a jersey, he'd have to wear the horrible cheap skinsuit provided by the sponsor, instead of his own super deluxe performance skinsuit.
Did you know that? We had a bit of scandal in the Dauphine, when Bradley Wiggins won the yellow jersey on a stage, and thoughtlessly said in an interview that he was quite cross at winning it, and would hope to lose it the following day, before the TT. Shock! Horror! from journalists. Is he insulting the yellow jersey? How dare he! Is he insulting the race? The organisers? Mr Wiggins had to issue a hasty apology, assuring everyone that he respected the jersey very thoroughly.
It turns out that he didn't want to wear the inferior ASO-supplied yellow skinsuit: apparently he was contacted before the TT and asked "Small or medium?" He asked if he could try them on, to determine which was the best fit. "Non." said ASO, "Small, or medium?". He offered to pay for both of them, if money was the problem. "Non." said the ASO. "Small, or medium?" He chose medium.
This all came the day after we heard from our commentators all about the recent advances in skin-suit design, with reference not just to the fabric, but even to the placing of the seams: apparently these tiny changes can make a difference. So you can imagine how a race leader would feel, going into a TT, desperate to hold on to every second, but deprived of his super-slick super-fitted skinsuit, and shoved into any old thing, not even allowed to try it on beforehand, creases everywhere, and a number flapping about loose on the back. (Garmin's new skinsuits have a small flap across the back, under which they tuck the top of the number. Every little helps.)
At least Frankie won't have that to worry about. He's sitting 2nd, Jakob is 12th, Linus 31st, the others are all there or thereabouts (as they say) so we'll have an interesting couple of days to watch. There is a TT on Friday, only 34km and "quite lumpy" so that should be in Frankie's favour, and should offset some of the gains of those riders who are "good" at TT: then two mountain stages over the weekend.
Fingers crossed for Frankie!
Wednesday 13 June 2012
Andy's out of the Tour: hooray!
Before you all throw things at me for being hard-hearted, hear me out.
Today the news broke that Andy won't be riding the Tour as he has "fractured the sacral bone of his pelvis" and won't be riding a bike at all for 4-6 weeks.
It happened when he fell during the Dauphine TT, of course: we all saw those photos of the heavy fall, and the external damage that it did: well, two days later he retired, in pain, and went home for the usual x-rays and so on.
It appears that the x-rays didn't show anything, but he had an MRI which revealed the fracture, which shows that it's worth having private medical care.
As an aside, do we think that pro cyclists have season tickets to their local hospitals? Or should I say, their nearest private hospital? I know that they have team doctors, but do we think that they have a "pet" hospital, wherever they are based?
(note for non-UK residents: over here we have a two-tier system: free medical care -allegedly - if you have lots of time to wait and don't mind catching a new infection while you are there: or "private" medical care which costs a bomb but you get superb care and the hospitals are clean.)
Personally, I would assume that any professional sportsman would want private medical care: certainly it's staggering to me to hear of all these collarbones which get plates in them, and the guys are back riding within just a few weeks. Every broken collarbone I've known of in the UK means weeks in a sling, and months of pain and stiffness afterwards. I can't imagine that they heal any faster than I do, so I can only assume that they get rather better medical care.
Anyway, to end this digression: poor old Andy was still in pain, so he had the scans, and now we know he has a fractured bone, and won't be cycling for a while.
Am I downhearted by this news? No! Of course, I don't want any cyclist to be hurt or in pain, and of course I hope that he gets better as quickly as possible, but come on guys, there is a massive silver lining here:
Andy now won't have to compete in a race that doesn't suit him, during a period when his form is not quite where it should be, and where he and his confidence have been subjected to a quite extraordinary amount of stress, what with firstly the responsibility of the Leopard team, and then the horror of the takeover, not to mention the recent media, er, issues that he has been having.
No, instead of quite possibly struggling in the Tour, he can target la Vuelta - hey Andy, watch out for the zombies - as well as Lombardy, the Worlds, and - apparently - the Olympics! Whoo hoo! Andy is coming to London!
Today the news broke that Andy won't be riding the Tour as he has "fractured the sacral bone of his pelvis" and won't be riding a bike at all for 4-6 weeks.
It happened when he fell during the Dauphine TT, of course: we all saw those photos of the heavy fall, and the external damage that it did: well, two days later he retired, in pain, and went home for the usual x-rays and so on.
It appears that the x-rays didn't show anything, but he had an MRI which revealed the fracture, which shows that it's worth having private medical care.
As an aside, do we think that pro cyclists have season tickets to their local hospitals? Or should I say, their nearest private hospital? I know that they have team doctors, but do we think that they have a "pet" hospital, wherever they are based?
(note for non-UK residents: over here we have a two-tier system: free medical care -allegedly - if you have lots of time to wait and don't mind catching a new infection while you are there: or "private" medical care which costs a bomb but you get superb care and the hospitals are clean.)
Personally, I would assume that any professional sportsman would want private medical care: certainly it's staggering to me to hear of all these collarbones which get plates in them, and the guys are back riding within just a few weeks. Every broken collarbone I've known of in the UK means weeks in a sling, and months of pain and stiffness afterwards. I can't imagine that they heal any faster than I do, so I can only assume that they get rather better medical care.
Anyway, to end this digression: poor old Andy was still in pain, so he had the scans, and now we know he has a fractured bone, and won't be cycling for a while.
Am I downhearted by this news? No! Of course, I don't want any cyclist to be hurt or in pain, and of course I hope that he gets better as quickly as possible, but come on guys, there is a massive silver lining here:
Andy now won't have to compete in a race that doesn't suit him, during a period when his form is not quite where it should be, and where he and his confidence have been subjected to a quite extraordinary amount of stress, what with firstly the responsibility of the Leopard team, and then the horror of the takeover, not to mention the recent media, er, issues that he has been having.
No, instead of quite possibly struggling in the Tour, he can target la Vuelta - hey Andy, watch out for the zombies - as well as Lombardy, the Worlds, and - apparently - the Olympics! Whoo hoo! Andy is coming to London!
Tuesday 12 June 2012
Tour Team Announced!
Well, don't get too carried away with relief, it's only what they are calling the "long list", of those from whom the actual team will be selected.
The names on this Long List are:
That's 14, and of course just 9 will be sent, which gives them a bit of flexibility to check on form, injury, behaviour etc.in the next few weeks.
I am sure that we are all really, really relieved to see that Mr Bruyneel has included both Andy and Frankie in the pre-selection: can you imagine the uproar if he didn't? He's already being criticised (*sniggers quietly in the background*) (oh, I'm so childish at times) for not including Chris Horner, a stalwart Shack rider, on the grounds that he's been suffering from a back injury, so I can imagine how much he would be criticised for leaving out the Schlecks.
So far, Fabian is the only one with a guaranteed place, so that leaves 8 places for 13 of them.
It will be interesting to see, over the next few weeks, who is dropped and who is confirmed: and clearly all Schlecklanders are expected to cross their fingers for the Leopards in the selection - not that we are biased oh no! (chorus of "Oh, Yes, We, Are!" from the crew of the SS Schleckland.)
Meanwhile the Tour de Suisse continues: I missed the beginning of it, as I was away on a course this weekend, and only had a short time on Sunday night to see LLB and catch up with some of the footage. I'm looking forward to eventually seeing yesterday's footage - Monday - as the peloton was apparently caught by a level crossing, when the barriers came down after the breakaway, but before the main peloton arrived. I am sooo looking forward to seeing that: do they line up neatly? Do they sneak up the sides to try to get at the front ready for when the barriers rise? Do any of them try sneaking around the barriers? And, for that matter, when the barriers came down, how far away were they? Did anyone try a dangerous weave around the barriers, or did the commissaire's car block them from doing so?
The news report said that Orica GreenEdge and Movistar "managed to get most of their riders through before the barriers came down"- which gives me a mental picture of the DS standing at the side of the crossing frantically waving them on like a school crossing patrol - but the commissaire's car made them stop and wait for the rest of the peloton. Can't wait to see that! And of course Frankie is still sitting in second place by 8 seconds, so Yay! Frankie!
Steephill TV say that the stage today has one big climb, a final circuit with some hills in it, and the finish is flat, but quite technical, and as there's a 90% chance of rain, it could be an interesting finish.
The names on this Long List are:
That's 14, and of course just 9 will be sent, which gives them a bit of flexibility to check on form, injury, behaviour etc.in the next few weeks.
I am sure that we are all really, really relieved to see that Mr Bruyneel has included both Andy and Frankie in the pre-selection: can you imagine the uproar if he didn't? He's already being criticised (*sniggers quietly in the background*) (oh, I'm so childish at times) for not including Chris Horner, a stalwart Shack rider, on the grounds that he's been suffering from a back injury, so I can imagine how much he would be criticised for leaving out the Schlecks.
So far, Fabian is the only one with a guaranteed place, so that leaves 8 places for 13 of them.
It will be interesting to see, over the next few weeks, who is dropped and who is confirmed: and clearly all Schlecklanders are expected to cross their fingers for the Leopards in the selection - not that we are biased oh no! (chorus of "Oh, Yes, We, Are!" from the crew of the SS Schleckland.)
Meanwhile the Tour de Suisse continues: I missed the beginning of it, as I was away on a course this weekend, and only had a short time on Sunday night to see LLB and catch up with some of the footage. I'm looking forward to eventually seeing yesterday's footage - Monday - as the peloton was apparently caught by a level crossing, when the barriers came down after the breakaway, but before the main peloton arrived. I am sooo looking forward to seeing that: do they line up neatly? Do they sneak up the sides to try to get at the front ready for when the barriers rise? Do any of them try sneaking around the barriers? And, for that matter, when the barriers came down, how far away were they? Did anyone try a dangerous weave around the barriers, or did the commissaire's car block them from doing so?
The news report said that Orica GreenEdge and Movistar "managed to get most of their riders through before the barriers came down"- which gives me a mental picture of the DS standing at the side of the crossing frantically waving them on like a school crossing patrol - but the commissaire's car made them stop and wait for the rest of the peloton. Can't wait to see that! And of course Frankie is still sitting in second place by 8 seconds, so Yay! Frankie!
Steephill TV say that the stage today has one big climb, a final circuit with some hills in it, and the finish is flat, but quite technical, and as there's a 90% chance of rain, it could be an interesting finish.
Saturday 9 June 2012
Why are forum posters so mean to Andy?
I hardly dare read any of the cycling forums: the mere mention of "Andy Schleck" seems to invite a torrent of abuse.
"Cry-Baby Schleck" they call him. For standing up for himself? For making his opinion known? Even back at Chaingate, he wasn't crying about it - he stated clearly that he "would not have ridden like that".
"Can't even change gears without slipping a chain" they say. Not true: Andy has always said that he wasn't changing gears, the chain just dropped. I'm not a good enough cycling observer to see it for myself, although even I can see that he clearly goes over a bump/hole in the road just before it happens. I can't see if he is changing gear or not, but if he says he wasn't: well, that's good enough for me.
"Can't descend a flight of stairs without Kim holding his hand." Patently untrue - is he still stuck up the top of a mountain anywhere? No, I think not. Of course he's not as good a descender as Nibali, or Sammy "Scary Forehead" Sanchez: who is? Descending is not his speciality: that would be Climbing, and Being Able To Ride For Three Weeks Non-stop.
"Rubbish at TT" they say. Excuse me, if you accept that the Tour contains the best riders in the world, both he and Frankie were in the top 20 at last year's TT. That's hardly "rubbish". Again, not his best discipline, but there are some riders who specialise in TT, and all the rest of them are not as good.
"Always whining" they say. Not entirely fair, we read the interviews in English, which is not his first, or even his second language: furthermore, they may even have been re-translated into English from German, French, Italian or even from Luxembourgish. It's easy to lose the nuance and flavour of a quote when it's been through translation a couple of times. He was asked for his opinion of a parcours, and he replied that he didn't think a Tour should be decided by descending: that's an opinion, not a whine. Now he is standing up for himself against Mr Bruyneel, and they still say he's whining?
"Anorexic - too skinny" they say. Oh, well, hardly: have you seen the amount he eats? And have you seen his identically-slender brother? It's genetics, people, the pair of them are built that way, as are the majority of serious climbers in the peloton. I doubt they will ever be fat!
"I've lost my love for Andy Schleck a long time ago" Well, that wasn't "love" then, was it? As they say, "A true fan is not one who has been there since the beginning, a true fan is one who is there until the end." People go through phases of support for individuals, then move on: that's fine, and perfectly understandable, but no reason to be mean about your former favourite. Just move on! Leave him alone!
And now we turn to Basic Psychology: the reasons behind all this venom.
1) over-identification of self-esteem.
Here's the picture: A Person picks their favourite - possibly based more on their looks, or their personal charm, than their cycling ability. They declaim loudly on the internet "My boy is going to win: he's the greatest, he's fantastic, any of you who don't support him are stupid, no-one else comes near him, he's gonna WIN he's gonna WIN" and the subtext includes "and I am so clever, gifted, perceptive and knowledgeable about cycling".
Then their favourite (it's not just Andy I'm talking about, btw) fails to perform one day, and suddenly the Person is saying that the rider is rubbish, they are useless, etc etc.
Why? Simple reason: the Person concerned has linked themselves with the rider, has staked their reputation, if you like, on that rider winning, and when they don't, well, it reflects badly on the Person. They feel that they have chosen badly, shown bad judgement, failed to spot the real winner, and now everyone is laughing at them because it has been shown that they don't, actually, know that much about cycling after all, otherwise they would have chosen the right winner.
So the rider has let them down - made them look stupid and foolish, and they lash out spitefully.
Is any of this sounding familiar?
Even those who should know better are doing it:
Is there really any excuse for this? Who, exactly, does a tweet like this one help?
It certainly doesn't help Andy - don't you think he's already aware of his performance so far?
It doesn't help all of us who read it and who still support Andy - it's as though the writers of tweets like this are now trying to make "us" feel as stupid and foolish as "they" feel.
I can't imagine it makes the writers feel any better either, other than momentarily - they are bound to get a backlash from other tweeters or forum contributors, and how will they feel when they look back, in a few weeks' time, when Andy is performing better and they deign to support him again: when they read what they wrote in anger and humiliation, what will they feel?
2) Jealousy.
This one's really easy: the Person concerned supports a different cyclist, and simply envies Andy (or Bradley, or whoever) for having an enthusiastic fan base.
If your own pet rider is not doing particularly well at any given moment, it's easier to put down someone else in order to make "your" guy look better.
Also, there is an element of 1) in it: as it stands, on paper, Andy is not doing particularly well - he hasn't won anything this year, he hasn't made any spectacular attacks - and yet he still has his huge and enthusiastic fan base (that's us!), supporting him all the way. The Jealous Guy thinks "why are they making such a fuss of that Andy, who's done nothing? They aren't as clever as me, they can't see that they are wasting their time on him. I must tell them so, because I am so clever, and important, and knowledgeable and CORRECT in my views, they must listen to what I say. In fact, it's my duty to tell them how stupid they are being, to support the wrong person."
And let's face it, it's easy to be jealous of Frandy - who in the peloton has a tee-shirt? Let's see... hmmmm... well, Andy of course has Stomach of Anger: Jensi has "shut up legs", Johnny Hoogerland had a well-deserved barbed-wire teeshirt for a while. Who else? Not many, is the answer. Who else other than Frandy have flags with their faces on (Figgy, stop snorting about car flags, I can hear you)? When you see a block of Lux ensign blue-and-white stripey flags along the route, you know (begging your pardon, Laurent Didier) who they are for. I am clearly somewhat biased on this, but I do think that the Schlecks, and Andy in particular, are possibly the most popular/well known cyclists out there at this time. Even people who know nothing about cycling have heard of them, whereas I say "Contador" and I get blank looks.
So, we have 1) over-identification, 2) jealousy, and we had better not forget 3) bloody-mindedness.
Or "Trolling" as it's known. Yes, there are some sad people out there who don't care what they say, they just want to stir people up and get some responses. Why do they do it? Just to be annoying? Just to get someone to tweet them, or tweet about them, or to respond to them in a forum? Do they feel this gives them credibility? Or power, in some sick, twisted way? In my opinion, it's the second worst thing about the internet. (Third worst, if you include porn.) The only way to deal with them is to ignore them: by responding, it just fans the flames and they get even more rude and insulting.
So, there are many reasons why people on the internet are mean to Andy. But it's a bit much when we, his own supporters, start doing it as well.
Here are the facts as I see them: Andy is a Tour guy. We know this to be true. He loves the Tour, it's his main goal of the year, and he will happily sacrifice all earlier chances to win, in order to use the races as specific "training" aids.
Read any book about cycling or cyclists (I've read quite a few now) and they all comment that the Tour is the biggest race in the cycling calender, and there are some riders who are only interested in winning the Tour. Andy is one of those. Deal with it.
Yes, it's annoying for fans, who would like to see him win earlier, would like to see him win lots of races - but ask yourself, for whose benefit is that? So that YOU look better? So that YOU can jump up and down on the sofa yelling his name? Because YOU are embarrassed to be supporting a guy who doesn't seem to be winning anything yet? Are other people taunting you about your favourite's lack of performance? Please see Basic Psychology 1), above. Don't take it personally.
Of course, all this might well have to change now that the UCI rules about points are in place: all riders are going to have to learn this lesson, that they have to get as many UCI points as they can, in order to ensure continued Pro-team status for their team, and to maintain their personal transfer value. But for now, if a rider wants to concentrate on the Tour to the exclusion of all else, we have to accept their decision, and we have to trust that they know what they are doing.
Also, just occurred to me, another point that we have covered here in Schleckland many, many times: it's very easy for us armchair cyclists to say "pedal faster" or "get your back flatter" or "attack!" but we are not there, we don't know how Andy's body feels (stoppit, I can hear you, and you know perfectly well what I mean) (*stern look*) that is, we don't know if he's in pain from an old injury, a new injury, stomach upset, or whatever: plus we are not privy to what his coaches have planned, we are not an experienced DS, (or at least, I'm not, I don't know about you guys) so it really isn't any of our business to shout at him that he "should" be doing this, or that, at any given time.
I have also spent an interesting hour or so going back through some old posts on here, from last spring: guys, we were saying all the same things - "he's not on form yet" "he hasn't won anything yet" "ah but he's just changed teams" "lots of pressure to perform" "injuries" "knee not well" - and as we know, it worked out fine.
And this morning, there is a nice piece in the cycling news from Shack man Haydn Roulston, who says that the internal friction is not as bad as it sounds in the press: Andy is improving daily: the team are getting on well together: and he cunningly points out that there is still a month to go until the Tour, and those who are flying now might well have lost their peak by then.
So please, everyone out there, let's have a bit less drama, a bit more faith, and let's just enjoy the racing that we see, without wishing for a win every time.
Now for something to lighten the spirits, to end this rather dispiriting post: if you are feeling a bit "down" over this year so far, I can highly recommend going back to April or so of last year and reading some of the Schleckland news - some of it is quite funny! Waaay back then, (Canadian Schlecklanders take note) I was the one drawing attention to Ryder Hedjerdal by taking the mickey out of his name. And Russian cycling! Anyone remember that? *screams with laughter* "blushes guiltily at being caught laughing at her own stuff, but actually, it's quite funny!*
Enjoy the rest of the Dauphine, and the start of the Tour de Suisse, and I'll be back next week to discuss them in detail.
"Cry-Baby Schleck" they call him. For standing up for himself? For making his opinion known? Even back at Chaingate, he wasn't crying about it - he stated clearly that he "would not have ridden like that".
"Can't even change gears without slipping a chain" they say. Not true: Andy has always said that he wasn't changing gears, the chain just dropped. I'm not a good enough cycling observer to see it for myself, although even I can see that he clearly goes over a bump/hole in the road just before it happens. I can't see if he is changing gear or not, but if he says he wasn't: well, that's good enough for me.
"Can't descend a flight of stairs without Kim holding his hand." Patently untrue - is he still stuck up the top of a mountain anywhere? No, I think not. Of course he's not as good a descender as Nibali, or Sammy "Scary Forehead" Sanchez: who is? Descending is not his speciality: that would be Climbing, and Being Able To Ride For Three Weeks Non-stop.
"Rubbish at TT" they say. Excuse me, if you accept that the Tour contains the best riders in the world, both he and Frankie were in the top 20 at last year's TT. That's hardly "rubbish". Again, not his best discipline, but there are some riders who specialise in TT, and all the rest of them are not as good.
"Always whining" they say. Not entirely fair, we read the interviews in English, which is not his first, or even his second language: furthermore, they may even have been re-translated into English from German, French, Italian or even from Luxembourgish. It's easy to lose the nuance and flavour of a quote when it's been through translation a couple of times. He was asked for his opinion of a parcours, and he replied that he didn't think a Tour should be decided by descending: that's an opinion, not a whine. Now he is standing up for himself against Mr Bruyneel, and they still say he's whining?
"Anorexic - too skinny" they say. Oh, well, hardly: have you seen the amount he eats? And have you seen his identically-slender brother? It's genetics, people, the pair of them are built that way, as are the majority of serious climbers in the peloton. I doubt they will ever be fat!
"I've lost my love for Andy Schleck a long time ago" Well, that wasn't "love" then, was it? As they say, "A true fan is not one who has been there since the beginning, a true fan is one who is there until the end." People go through phases of support for individuals, then move on: that's fine, and perfectly understandable, but no reason to be mean about your former favourite. Just move on! Leave him alone!
And now we turn to Basic Psychology: the reasons behind all this venom.
1) over-identification of self-esteem.
Here's the picture: A Person picks their favourite - possibly based more on their looks, or their personal charm, than their cycling ability. They declaim loudly on the internet "My boy is going to win: he's the greatest, he's fantastic, any of you who don't support him are stupid, no-one else comes near him, he's gonna WIN he's gonna WIN" and the subtext includes "and I am so clever, gifted, perceptive and knowledgeable about cycling".
Then their favourite (it's not just Andy I'm talking about, btw) fails to perform one day, and suddenly the Person is saying that the rider is rubbish, they are useless, etc etc.
Why? Simple reason: the Person concerned has linked themselves with the rider, has staked their reputation, if you like, on that rider winning, and when they don't, well, it reflects badly on the Person. They feel that they have chosen badly, shown bad judgement, failed to spot the real winner, and now everyone is laughing at them because it has been shown that they don't, actually, know that much about cycling after all, otherwise they would have chosen the right winner.
So the rider has let them down - made them look stupid and foolish, and they lash out spitefully.
Is any of this sounding familiar?
Even those who should know better are doing it:
Is there really any excuse for this? Who, exactly, does a tweet like this one help?
It certainly doesn't help Andy - don't you think he's already aware of his performance so far?
It doesn't help all of us who read it and who still support Andy - it's as though the writers of tweets like this are now trying to make "us" feel as stupid and foolish as "they" feel.
I can't imagine it makes the writers feel any better either, other than momentarily - they are bound to get a backlash from other tweeters or forum contributors, and how will they feel when they look back, in a few weeks' time, when Andy is performing better and they deign to support him again: when they read what they wrote in anger and humiliation, what will they feel?
2) Jealousy.
This one's really easy: the Person concerned supports a different cyclist, and simply envies Andy (or Bradley, or whoever) for having an enthusiastic fan base.
If your own pet rider is not doing particularly well at any given moment, it's easier to put down someone else in order to make "your" guy look better.
Also, there is an element of 1) in it: as it stands, on paper, Andy is not doing particularly well - he hasn't won anything this year, he hasn't made any spectacular attacks - and yet he still has his huge and enthusiastic fan base (that's us!), supporting him all the way. The Jealous Guy thinks "why are they making such a fuss of that Andy, who's done nothing? They aren't as clever as me, they can't see that they are wasting their time on him. I must tell them so, because I am so clever, and important, and knowledgeable and CORRECT in my views, they must listen to what I say. In fact, it's my duty to tell them how stupid they are being, to support the wrong person."
And let's face it, it's easy to be jealous of Frandy - who in the peloton has a tee-shirt? Let's see... hmmmm... well, Andy of course has Stomach of Anger: Jensi has "shut up legs", Johnny Hoogerland had a well-deserved barbed-wire teeshirt for a while. Who else? Not many, is the answer. Who else other than Frandy have flags with their faces on (Figgy, stop snorting about car flags, I can hear you)? When you see a block of Lux ensign blue-and-white stripey flags along the route, you know (begging your pardon, Laurent Didier) who they are for. I am clearly somewhat biased on this, but I do think that the Schlecks, and Andy in particular, are possibly the most popular/well known cyclists out there at this time. Even people who know nothing about cycling have heard of them, whereas I say "Contador" and I get blank looks.
So, we have 1) over-identification, 2) jealousy, and we had better not forget 3) bloody-mindedness.
Or "Trolling" as it's known. Yes, there are some sad people out there who don't care what they say, they just want to stir people up and get some responses. Why do they do it? Just to be annoying? Just to get someone to tweet them, or tweet about them, or to respond to them in a forum? Do they feel this gives them credibility? Or power, in some sick, twisted way? In my opinion, it's the second worst thing about the internet. (Third worst, if you include porn.) The only way to deal with them is to ignore them: by responding, it just fans the flames and they get even more rude and insulting.
So, there are many reasons why people on the internet are mean to Andy. But it's a bit much when we, his own supporters, start doing it as well.
Here are the facts as I see them: Andy is a Tour guy. We know this to be true. He loves the Tour, it's his main goal of the year, and he will happily sacrifice all earlier chances to win, in order to use the races as specific "training" aids.
Read any book about cycling or cyclists (I've read quite a few now) and they all comment that the Tour is the biggest race in the cycling calender, and there are some riders who are only interested in winning the Tour. Andy is one of those. Deal with it.
Yes, it's annoying for fans, who would like to see him win earlier, would like to see him win lots of races - but ask yourself, for whose benefit is that? So that YOU look better? So that YOU can jump up and down on the sofa yelling his name? Because YOU are embarrassed to be supporting a guy who doesn't seem to be winning anything yet? Are other people taunting you about your favourite's lack of performance? Please see Basic Psychology 1), above. Don't take it personally.
Of course, all this might well have to change now that the UCI rules about points are in place: all riders are going to have to learn this lesson, that they have to get as many UCI points as they can, in order to ensure continued Pro-team status for their team, and to maintain their personal transfer value. But for now, if a rider wants to concentrate on the Tour to the exclusion of all else, we have to accept their decision, and we have to trust that they know what they are doing.
Also, just occurred to me, another point that we have covered here in Schleckland many, many times: it's very easy for us armchair cyclists to say "pedal faster" or "get your back flatter" or "attack!" but we are not there, we don't know how Andy's body feels (stoppit, I can hear you, and you know perfectly well what I mean) (*stern look*) that is, we don't know if he's in pain from an old injury, a new injury, stomach upset, or whatever: plus we are not privy to what his coaches have planned, we are not an experienced DS, (or at least, I'm not, I don't know about you guys) so it really isn't any of our business to shout at him that he "should" be doing this, or that, at any given time.
I have also spent an interesting hour or so going back through some old posts on here, from last spring: guys, we were saying all the same things - "he's not on form yet" "he hasn't won anything yet" "ah but he's just changed teams" "lots of pressure to perform" "injuries" "knee not well" - and as we know, it worked out fine.
And this morning, there is a nice piece in the cycling news from Shack man Haydn Roulston, who says that the internal friction is not as bad as it sounds in the press: Andy is improving daily: the team are getting on well together: and he cunningly points out that there is still a month to go until the Tour, and those who are flying now might well have lost their peak by then.
So please, everyone out there, let's have a bit less drama, a bit more faith, and let's just enjoy the racing that we see, without wishing for a win every time.
Now for something to lighten the spirits, to end this rather dispiriting post: if you are feeling a bit "down" over this year so far, I can highly recommend going back to April or so of last year and reading some of the Schleckland news - some of it is quite funny! Waaay back then, (Canadian Schlecklanders take note) I was the one drawing attention to Ryder Hedjerdal by taking the mickey out of his name. And Russian cycling! Anyone remember that? *screams with laughter* "blushes guiltily at being caught laughing at her own stuff, but actually, it's quite funny!*
Enjoy the rest of the Dauphine, and the start of the Tour de Suisse, and I'll be back next week to discuss them in detail.
Friday 8 June 2012
Dauphine TT Tumble
Ouch!
For anyone who missed it, here's why Andy lost 9 minutes in the TT yesterday: oh, ok, to be strictly accurate, this is why Andy lost maybe 6 minutes extra in the TT yesterday:
Points of note:
Pic 1 - top l left - is that Kinesio tape on the back of his neck? Is that an old injury, do we think, or a clever way to counterbalance the strain of maintaining the broken-neck aero position?
And you will note not only the lack of a large amount of skinsuit (and skin) on the hip, but the outside of his shoe has been scraped away as well. Ouch.
Picture 2 - top right - also shows that his skinsuit is ripped under the arm, so that must have been a heavy fall, poor boy.
Yet he bounces back on the bike, and off he goes, and "only" loses 9 minutes overall. I reckon a fall like that would lose you at least 2 minutes just to get back up and on the bike, and possibly another minute to get back up to speed: but it must be a mighty shock to the system, and would probably slow any rider down quite a bit: in a TT lasting around the hour mark, probably by several minutes.
So on balance I think Andy did remarkably well to only lose, what was it, 9 minutes? He said himself that after the crash, his ribs hurt and his hand hurt, he couldn't concentrate properly, he couldn't get into the aero position, and he just wanted to get to the end and stop.
Luckily Mr Bruyneel seems to have taken note of the response to his rather "in yer face" public name-and-shame management style, and has toned it all down a bit: he was quite positive about Andy's performance, and had the grace not to blame him for falling off.
And as an aside, where is Andy's radio? Usually you can clearly see the rectangular box through the skinsuit, generally on the back of the waist. I have often wondered at the wisdom of doing that, bearing in mind that if they fall and land on their backs (not that common, I know) then surely having a solid hard box against the spine would be a bad thing.
To see the better quality pictures, and to see what Andy and Mr Bruyneel said, they are on the Shack website.
For anyone who missed it, here's why Andy lost 9 minutes in the TT yesterday: oh, ok, to be strictly accurate, this is why Andy lost maybe 6 minutes extra in the TT yesterday:
Points of note:
Pic 1 - top l left - is that Kinesio tape on the back of his neck? Is that an old injury, do we think, or a clever way to counterbalance the strain of maintaining the broken-neck aero position?
And you will note not only the lack of a large amount of skinsuit (and skin) on the hip, but the outside of his shoe has been scraped away as well. Ouch.
Picture 2 - top right - also shows that his skinsuit is ripped under the arm, so that must have been a heavy fall, poor boy.
Yet he bounces back on the bike, and off he goes, and "only" loses 9 minutes overall. I reckon a fall like that would lose you at least 2 minutes just to get back up and on the bike, and possibly another minute to get back up to speed: but it must be a mighty shock to the system, and would probably slow any rider down quite a bit: in a TT lasting around the hour mark, probably by several minutes.
So on balance I think Andy did remarkably well to only lose, what was it, 9 minutes? He said himself that after the crash, his ribs hurt and his hand hurt, he couldn't concentrate properly, he couldn't get into the aero position, and he just wanted to get to the end and stop.
Luckily Mr Bruyneel seems to have taken note of the response to his rather "in yer face" public name-and-shame management style, and has toned it all down a bit: he was quite positive about Andy's performance, and had the grace not to blame him for falling off.
And as an aside, where is Andy's radio? Usually you can clearly see the rectangular box through the skinsuit, generally on the back of the waist. I have often wondered at the wisdom of doing that, bearing in mind that if they fall and land on their backs (not that common, I know) then surely having a solid hard box against the spine would be a bad thing.
To see the better quality pictures, and to see what Andy and Mr Bruyneel said, they are on the Shack website.
Monday 4 June 2012
Yet more managment friction at the Shack
OOh, handbags at dawn!
Another rash of news reports concerning the friction between Frandy and the Bruyneel bloke: plus a video of Andy being interviewed, in which he criticises Mr Bruyneel for making his comments via the media, and says "A team director should always defend the rider." Quite right, Andy, well said. Sorry that I don't have a link to the video: LLB found it yesterday while we were watching streams of Lux last day and Dauphine prologue at exactly the same time - talking of which, boy, that was bad programming! Very annoying, to have both cycle races on at exactly the same time! We were being very modern and trendy, and were sitting side by side on the sofa, each with a laptop, each watching a different race. Right up until the moment LLB said "oh, Andy is off the ramp next" and I suddenly realised that I was watching the wrong one... anyone who was following me on Twitter yesterday will remember the mad panic to get rid of the Lux stream and get the Dauphine stream up and running... and no, I didn't quite manage it. Grrr!
Anyway, back to the point:
Then there's a report in Velonation (amusingly titled "Andy Schleck has a Dig at Bruyneel") in which Andy is quoted as saying "Personally, if I was a manager I wouldn't try to solve problems with my riders through the press," and "I would discuss them internally. Maybe Bruyneel was being rushed by the team sponsors, who might be getting impatient."
How's that for honesty, tact and diplomacy all in one neat tidy little package? Once again, instead of reacting angrily, effing and blinding, and making things worse, Andy manages to stay polite, get his point across, yet still give a graceful option for the other person. Nice one, Andy. *pats on shoulder*
Mr Bryneel, on the other hand, spouts off at great length about, well, about himself mostly, and manages to insult the riders in various ways. love his barbed little sub-text messages (when I say that, I mean that I hate, loathe and despise them, but at the same time I have to admire the craftsmanship) such as in this report, he says:
“Sometimes hard words are needed. I've never refrained myself towards anybody and I think that everybody who's mentally strong draws positive lessons from that.”
Subtext: anyone who complains about me speaking hard words to them is NOT MENTALLY STRONG! Anyone who fails to draw a positive lesson from me is NOT MENTALLY STRONG! He seems to live in a wonderfully self-centred world, doesn't he? He may well have been one of the strongest team managers for many years, but frankly, what did he do in 2010? In 2011? And, you have to say, despite getting the best of the Leopards to prop up his ageing team, what has he done in 2012? As Emjay said in the last post, usually when a team fails to perform, it's the manager who gets the shove!
Ah well, perhaps things will sort themselves out: perhaps now that Jakob has won the Tour of Lux for the Shack, Mr Bruyneel might feel a bit happier. Perhaps if they do well in the Dauphine, he might change his tune.
Talking of which, hopefully there will be some more stream-watching of the Dauphine later this afternoon, so I hope to bump into some of you on Twitter later!
Another rash of news reports concerning the friction between Frandy and the Bruyneel bloke: plus a video of Andy being interviewed, in which he criticises Mr Bruyneel for making his comments via the media, and says "A team director should always defend the rider." Quite right, Andy, well said. Sorry that I don't have a link to the video: LLB found it yesterday while we were watching streams of Lux last day and Dauphine prologue at exactly the same time - talking of which, boy, that was bad programming! Very annoying, to have both cycle races on at exactly the same time! We were being very modern and trendy, and were sitting side by side on the sofa, each with a laptop, each watching a different race. Right up until the moment LLB said "oh, Andy is off the ramp next" and I suddenly realised that I was watching the wrong one... anyone who was following me on Twitter yesterday will remember the mad panic to get rid of the Lux stream and get the Dauphine stream up and running... and no, I didn't quite manage it. Grrr!
Anyway, back to the point:
Then there's a report in Velonation (amusingly titled "Andy Schleck has a Dig at Bruyneel") in which Andy is quoted as saying "Personally, if I was a manager I wouldn't try to solve problems with my riders through the press," and "I would discuss them internally. Maybe Bruyneel was being rushed by the team sponsors, who might be getting impatient."
How's that for honesty, tact and diplomacy all in one neat tidy little package? Once again, instead of reacting angrily, effing and blinding, and making things worse, Andy manages to stay polite, get his point across, yet still give a graceful option for the other person. Nice one, Andy. *pats on shoulder*
Mr Bryneel, on the other hand, spouts off at great length about, well, about himself mostly, and manages to insult the riders in various ways. love his barbed little sub-text messages (when I say that, I mean that I hate, loathe and despise them, but at the same time I have to admire the craftsmanship) such as in this report, he says:
“Sometimes hard words are needed. I've never refrained myself towards anybody and I think that everybody who's mentally strong draws positive lessons from that.”
Subtext: anyone who complains about me speaking hard words to them is NOT MENTALLY STRONG! Anyone who fails to draw a positive lesson from me is NOT MENTALLY STRONG! He seems to live in a wonderfully self-centred world, doesn't he? He may well have been one of the strongest team managers for many years, but frankly, what did he do in 2010? In 2011? And, you have to say, despite getting the best of the Leopards to prop up his ageing team, what has he done in 2012? As Emjay said in the last post, usually when a team fails to perform, it's the manager who gets the shove!
Ah well, perhaps things will sort themselves out: perhaps now that Jakob has won the Tour of Lux for the Shack, Mr Bruyneel might feel a bit happier. Perhaps if they do well in the Dauphine, he might change his tune.
Talking of which, hopefully there will be some more stream-watching of the Dauphine later this afternoon, so I hope to bump into some of you on Twitter later!
Sunday 3 June 2012
Is it me, or is cycling getting nasty?
Over the past few weeks, we have all raised our eyebrows at the appalling lack of management skills of Mr Bruyneel, who has been criticising his riders - in particular Andy and Frankie - for their lack of performance.
I don't need to run through the details again, but he made himself very plain, *bites tongue to resist obvious joke* not privately, but in the media. He even defended his decision to make these comments public. We all had our own views on How To Manage A Cycling Team, but we all agreed that telling riders off in public, threatening them with loss of trainers, loss of Tour places etc was not the way to motivate them.
He even suggested that Frankie was lying about his shoulder injury, the one that forced him to withdraw from the Giro, the race he'd be thrown into at five days' notice, with no proper preparation. And yet Frankie was perceptibly improving: he had done everything right - taking it easy for the first week, staying safely in the peloton out of trouble, not losing any time, getting his race legs on: he was finishing in the top 12 or 10, was it, which shows that he was indeed coming back into form, so why on earth would he want to throw all that "just because" or "just to show Mr Bruyneel that he couldn't be bossed about." I just don't believe that a professional athlete would do that.
I strongly believe that a top athlete could easily suffer from lack of confidence and therefore poor performance if he is demotivated, depressed and generally unhappy, as I have said before. But not that the athlete would deliberately drop out of a race for no good reason.
But Mr Bruyneel saw fit to criticise the whole team (except Fabu) and to tell the media that none of them had a place at the Tour guaranteed. Not even the bloke who is a consistent Top Two finisher.
Then, a couple of days ago, we get this charming little piece of criticism from the boss of Androni, talking about Rujano (who I think is a Ferengi in his spare time) who also dropped out of the Giro: "It's a good thing his contract ends this season", he told reporters at the Giro, "there are no second chances". Well, yar boo sucks to you, matey, it turns out that Rujano has mononucleosis, or Glandular Fever as it used to be known.
Now we get this news article about Stijn Devolder, in which his manager says "Based on the results we cannot possibly be satisfied" and goes on to say "And for that reason he might not qualify for the Tour.."
What is going one?
Why are team managers suddenly of the opinion that telling the press how unhappy they are with the performance of riders is acceptable?
What happened to "not washing your dirty linen in public"? (Old English expression, meaning that one should not air one's differences in front of other people, one should sort them out in private then tell the world once an agreement has been reached.)
How can it possibly help, in any given situation, to tell the press about it before discussing it with your rider?
How can any team manager come out of this well Do they seriously think that they will get sympathy from us, the fans? Do they fondly imagine that we are reading what they say and thinking "ah, poor man, those beastly riders are just not trying hard enough" and that we will then stand by the route shouting "Frankie? Put your back into it, you lazy lump, and do what that nice Mr Bruyneel tells you to."
If they do, then News Flash: you are presenting yourselves as bullies, trying to use the power (?) of the press to oppress your riders, trying to get public opinion on your side, as you have clearly failed to influence these riders using your own personality and management skills.
Please stop: let's go back to proper management, kept within the team.
Thank you.
I don't need to run through the details again, but he made himself very plain, *bites tongue to resist obvious joke* not privately, but in the media. He even defended his decision to make these comments public. We all had our own views on How To Manage A Cycling Team, but we all agreed that telling riders off in public, threatening them with loss of trainers, loss of Tour places etc was not the way to motivate them.
He even suggested that Frankie was lying about his shoulder injury, the one that forced him to withdraw from the Giro, the race he'd be thrown into at five days' notice, with no proper preparation. And yet Frankie was perceptibly improving: he had done everything right - taking it easy for the first week, staying safely in the peloton out of trouble, not losing any time, getting his race legs on: he was finishing in the top 12 or 10, was it, which shows that he was indeed coming back into form, so why on earth would he want to throw all that "just because" or "just to show Mr Bruyneel that he couldn't be bossed about." I just don't believe that a professional athlete would do that.
I strongly believe that a top athlete could easily suffer from lack of confidence and therefore poor performance if he is demotivated, depressed and generally unhappy, as I have said before. But not that the athlete would deliberately drop out of a race for no good reason.
But Mr Bruyneel saw fit to criticise the whole team (except Fabu) and to tell the media that none of them had a place at the Tour guaranteed. Not even the bloke who is a consistent Top Two finisher.
Then, a couple of days ago, we get this charming little piece of criticism from the boss of Androni, talking about Rujano (who I think is a Ferengi in his spare time) who also dropped out of the Giro: "It's a good thing his contract ends this season", he told reporters at the Giro, "there are no second chances". Well, yar boo sucks to you, matey, it turns out that Rujano has mononucleosis, or Glandular Fever as it used to be known.
Now we get this news article about Stijn Devolder, in which his manager says "Based on the results we cannot possibly be satisfied" and goes on to say "And for that reason he might not qualify for the Tour.."
What is going one?
Why are team managers suddenly of the opinion that telling the press how unhappy they are with the performance of riders is acceptable?
What happened to "not washing your dirty linen in public"? (Old English expression, meaning that one should not air one's differences in front of other people, one should sort them out in private then tell the world once an agreement has been reached.)
How can it possibly help, in any given situation, to tell the press about it before discussing it with your rider?
How can any team manager come out of this well Do they seriously think that they will get sympathy from us, the fans? Do they fondly imagine that we are reading what they say and thinking "ah, poor man, those beastly riders are just not trying hard enough" and that we will then stand by the route shouting "Frankie? Put your back into it, you lazy lump, and do what that nice Mr Bruyneel tells you to."
If they do, then News Flash: you are presenting yourselves as bullies, trying to use the power (?) of the press to oppress your riders, trying to get public opinion on your side, as you have clearly failed to influence these riders using your own personality and management skills.
Please stop: let's go back to proper management, kept within the team.
Thank you.
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