The day started with scandal - at the sign-in board, the Giant number 1 rider, Warren "Onion" Barguil signed his name as normal, then instead of handing the pen to the next person, he drew a little heart over the box for his number 2, Johannes Frohlinger. (Sorry, can't do umlauts.)
Is there something going on here?
Then Movistar come up to the board and once again, there they are, mucking about on the podium, pushing each other and generally having a good time. Then I realise that their number 1, Benat Exhausted (Intxausti, really, but I can neither spell nor pronounce it) is trying to sign on in the number 2 box, and number 2, Capecchi, is pushing his arm away to prevent it.
Just as an aside, I wonder what they do with the sign-on board after the race? Anyone know? Do tell...
Our coverage starts at 64k to go, Graeme Browne (always pronounced in an Australian accent with rising inflection, in the style of Leelu - gone, but not forgotten) is in the break, and we are told that once again we have missed seeing the Great Wall. This time, there was a sprint there, but the organisers decided to put it in early, before TV coverage began.
I really don't understand the Chinese: they have this massive (literally) tourist attraction, something that virtually everyone in the world has heard of, they route the race past it, but in such as way that we can't actually see it.
We would have loved to have seen it! Instead we get worrying shots of armed military-uniformed types, standing with their backs to the race: what message are we supposed to take from that? The riders need an armed guard? The people of China so hate the rest of the world that they will attack them? For this, and many other reasons, I am very pleased indeed that this is the last time we will be racing in Beijing.
At least today we have trees: in earlier stages, the trees were planted suspiciously consistently alongside the road, leading me to speculate that they were actually the same thousand or so trees, in tubs, that were being loaded up each night and set out each morning on the next stretch of road.
And at least today, we don't have what look like concentration camps along the route: lines of identical huts, crammed together, in the middle of nowhere, for no apparent reason. LLB wondered if they were holiday villages, or something left over from the Olympics, but I thought they looked more sinister - and derelict - than that.
Oh, I spoke too soon, there we have another one: and this one really is derelict, some of the buildings have no roofs on them. Very strange. And rather uncomfortable to watch.
Luckily, we get to the end, and Dan Martin and his teeth win the stage. Once again, not exactly heaving with spectators, but at least the sun was shining, and the trees were quite attractive, with what the yanks call "fall colour". Ah well, just one more day and it will all be over.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Luxembourg:
Teo: "Mummy..."
TinkerJil: "Yes, darling?"
Teo: "Ooo know Auntie Coug... "
TinkerJil: "Yes, darling. "
Teo: "Well, oo know her bog... "
TinkerJil: "Blog, darling. "
Teo: "Bog. "
TinkerJil: "Blog. "
Teo: "Bog. "
TinkerJil: "Alright, I know what you mean: yes, I know about her blog. "
Teo: "Well, umm, it dussint say IzzenUnndy no more, duz Auntie Coug not like Daddy no more? "
TinkerJil: "Any more darling, not no more. Say it nicely. "
Teo: "Any more. "
TinkerJil: "Well done. No, it's not that Auntie Coug doesn't like Daddy any more, it's just that Daddy isn't riding in quite the same way - he's retired now. Remember, we talked about it? "
Teo: "Wetied. Wetied. No more sy-kling. "
TinkerJil: "That's right, no more cycling. Well, not as much, anyway. "
Teo: "Did Auntie Coug only like Daddy coz he sy-kulled, den? "
TinkerJil: "Well, not exactly, she admired his sportsmanship and his incredibly good temper as well, but mainly she used to write about him cycling, so she can't do that any more. "
Teo: "Oh. No more bog? "
TinkerJil: "Different bog. Blog. More about cycling in general, less about Daddy. "
Teo: "Oh. Boring bog, then. " TinkerJil: (laughs) "Yes, a little boring, now."
*barely suppressed snicker* Well I know the latter part is fiction because, well, "sweet loveeeee" reasons. *goes to hell*
ReplyDeleteToronto lost an Olympic bid to Beijing as our committee apparently didn't sell the idea of a "legacy effect" or "touching future generations of children" the way the Chinese organizers did. Yet, for all its splendid exoticism, you don't see very much in the way of Ming Dynasty pagodas, the Great Wall, or the magnificent Forbidden City when sporting events are held in China, and I do wonder if part of the reason is that all of it is blanketed in smog? Such a pity, as I think there could such wondrous panoramas of the country, unlike anything you could film in Europe or North America. One of my teachers worked in Shanghai a few years ago, and he did mention that there were days when you couldn't see more than a metre ahead of you.
I didn't mention the smog today, but you know I was thinking about it... it's odd think that China and Spain have something in common - newly built abandoned cities!
ReplyDeleteThe ones to which I am referring are not cities, though, just sad little groups of huts in the middle of nowhere. There was one that had fields nearby, partly cropped, so someone must live there... but they all look so derelict, even the ones with roofs.
No wonder Ass'tna took the fine and avoided the whole shebang, eh?
Coug