TdF2015 Final Day

I can't believe that three weeks are almost over, and le Tour is on the final day - it's no more than a parade, as usual, and it's ending even earlier than normal today, as the race organisers have agreed that final times will be taken at the first crossing of the finish line - that's with 61k to go, before all the circuits on the Champs Elysees. This means that the GC contenders can trundle merrily up to that point then relax, leaving the sprinters to whizz off if they wish to risk life and limb in the wet, greasy, slippery cobbles of the final circuit.

Our Eurosport coverage starts well, Carlton Kirby is clearly desperate for things to talk about, so I tweeted him:

And yesss! He said it on Eurosport!!

I can't believe - *shakes head in despair* - that I have spent the last six years tweeting to all the various commentators about Andy, with practically no response: and now, suddenly, just as I am giving it all up, I become flavour of the month and this Tour is clearly the Cougar Girl Tour!

How ironic.

Getting back to the race, all went well, Froomey made it to the podium, Sulky Sagan got a jersey,  and the lovely Jakob "Bunny Ears" Fuglsang came in safely, 23rd in the GC, not bad, eh?!

TdF2015 Stage 15

Another transitional stage today - starting at altitude, a bit of a climb, a long descent, then a flat bit, one spiky hill, more flat stuff and a more-or-less straight run in to the finish.

Watching the Eurosport coverage to start with, firstly I should say that I am growing less displeased with Greg Lemond who, last year, was terrible, but who, this year, is getting a lot more lucid and is almost starting to sound interesting. I still think Andy would be worth a try-out as a commentator, though....

It's always nice to see Juan Antonio Fletcha doing the interviewing, it's so funny that most of the riders clearly know him and like him, so he can lean in very close without them flinching, and can ask quite penetrating questions without causing offence.

Big story of today is the attack on Chris Froome yesterday: some moron through a cup of urine over him, while shouting an allegation about doping. How very unpleasant. Mr Prudholme himself issued a statement today expressing the UCI's displeasure at such behaviour, and let's hope we don't see any more of that sort of thing.

Watching today's race, it's a lot of nothing much for  most of the day. 

We have a bit of bad behaviour from Sagan - he pulled over for a bike change, and someone from the team car threw a full bidon at the camera bike, causing him to flinch,

Screams of 200 euro fine! It seemed like inexplicably bad behaviour - then we see another replay, the camera bike in question was clearly very close behind Sagan just as he pulled over, as we see their footage of Sagan pulling over, unclipping, and swinging his foot back to kick out at the camera bike. Were they too close to him do we think?

Here's another question - LLB has been fascinated by the Data tracking that is being trialled: you can select a team, or a few individual riders, and the tracking programme shows you where they are on the road. I watched it for a while on the first few days of le Tour, but I found that I would rather concentrate on watching the race (said she, typing a blog and tweeting while also watching the race). Will the riders start to swap bikes more often, in order to throw off the tracking programme? It would be a way to deprive anyone watching of info about their speed and so on, and maybe stop them extrapolating from your data. Just a thought.

As predicted, it ended in a bunch sprint with Gummy Greipel grabbing the stage win very narrowly, and Sagan failing to come second, despite changing his bike, and despite a despicable shoulder-barge to a Europcar rider, Cocquard, who glumly put his hand up in protest.

Ah well, *sigh* just another few days to go, and it will all be over...

TdF 2015 - Pyrenees and transitions

The Pyrenees are behind them, nothing much happened apart from Froomey showing his class and taking a lead of nearly three minutes, and today (now, yesterday!) - Stage 4 -  is the second transitional day, by which they seem to mean that it's not a flat boring day, nor is it a hilly or mountainous day. So it's just "a day" of riding, but it has a nasty sting in the tail with a 3km climb to the finish line.

The scenery is very strange - massive dramatic limestone crags and valleys, with - as Carlton  Kirby said - a bit of a resemblance to the Grand Canyon. "But with better food" he said.

Unable to resist, I tweeted to him

..and two minutes later, he read out my tweet! Again! On Eurosport!!! I can't believe he's ignored all my Andy-related tweets for the past four years, yet I make a casual remark about Pierre Rolland, or about garlic, and there he is, happily giving me name checks! It's so maddening, and what must poor Andy think? Well, luckily he probably doesn't know, as he doesn't follow me or read this blog...which I had never thought of as a good thing, before, but now I'm slightly relieved.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Luxembourg:

Andy: (looks miserable)
TinkerJil: (arms round Andy's shoulders) Aw, come on, it's not that bad, she was only talking about garlic. At least she didn't mention Pierre Rolla... oops, sorry, pet!"
Andy: (sobs uncontrollably)

Meanwhile, back in France... we have grown so tired of the relentlessly dull P&P commentary, and LLB is really fed up with Carlton - although personally I am quite keen on the Eurosport commentary, as he's mentioned me three times in the last few days, ha! ha! ha! - that today we are watching the Eurosport footage, as the picture is rather better quality than the ITV4 broadcast, and listening to Radio Five Live, with Rob Hayles, whose commentary I always enjoy, and a chap I don't know called Simon Brotherton.

So far, it seems to be a good compromise! 

Talking of commentary, Jensie as a commentator is a bit of a let-down, I'm afraid to report. It appears that he is spreading himself a bit too thin - instead of being a guest commentator anywhere specific, he seemed to be having five minute slots with half a dozen different broadcasters. So he never seems to get a chance to settle down with anyone, but instead keeps giving short, unconnected statements.  Also, and I hate to say this, but his "talking" style is not as good without his happy smiling little face.

I'd still like to see Andy doing commentary - I have no idea if he would be any good at it, but I would love him to have the chance.  As we all know, he is now promoting a range of sunglasses for cyclists, and he must be progressing well with his plans to open the Bike shop, Schleck museum and cafe, and he has done a couple of those guest appearances on cycling tours.  But I think he would manage to find time to comment on the Tour, if he were invited, don't you?

Getting back to the race, there's always something interesting to see - we see Richie Porte go back to the team car for bidons, and I was just wondering if a hot day is the one time when all the riders are happy to go back for bottles: must be nice to have cold bidons all down the back of your jersey. He starts to work his way back towards the peloton, passing Cav who is trundling along quite happily at the back. Cav very kindly gives him a shove forward, and I am so impressed that he will use up some of his own energy to help a former team-mate.

Then, two seconds later, shock! horror! Porte is at the side of the road, tipping bidons out of his jersey pockets and trying to work his way across the road to the off-side. (Well, I suppose in France it's the near-side, but to us it's the off-side.) What happened? Did Cav shove so hard that Richie's front tyre was ripped asunder? Did Richie fall off? No, it was just a puncture, but not the best of times, with 6km to go, uphill all the way, and another stinking hot day. At least he'll be able to link up with SweetLittlePete, who was not having a good day and was right off the back of the peloton.

The end was a surprise to almost everyone, as Steve Cummings riding for MTN Chewbacca takes the stage win with a fantastic last-minute sprint up the last dregs of the hill, then sped round the final flat section with the two french riders in hot pursuit, but he  pulled out enough of a lead to sit up and celebrate winning on what is apparently Nelson Mandela day, Anusingly, he gave the MTN "hand" as his victory salute,

Meanwhile, everyone and his dog attacked Froome, and everyone and his dog except for Quintana was relentlessly pulled back, and dropped in a heap. Even Contador was going backwards, and was left for dust by Valverde, Bumfluff etc. At the end, though, Froomey steamed past Quintana, making a one-second gap to him, at the line, and a 4-second gap to Valverde. 19 seconds over Contador, mwah ha ha !

TdF2015: Stage 9 TTT

At last! Time for the Team Time Trial, always a fun event, but even more fun than usual this due to the delay in it appearing, and the number of people already out of the race due to crashes.

Usually the TTT is much earlier in the race, often it is the very first stage or even the prologue: but for some reason, this year the organisers decided to push it back to the very end of the first week of racing, just when everyone is really tired, and in the full and certain knowledge that the first week of the Tour is always filled with crashes, and therefore this is when we are likely to lose riders.

With 13 riders out already, there are only 12 teams with full rosters, out of 22 teams: most of those teams have only lost one rider, apart from O'rica who have lost three riders, and have one of their few remaining riders struggling with cracked ribs.

I don't know why ASO decided to put the TTT so far back in the schedule, apparently they had to get special permission from the UCI to do so.

We watched O'rica do a very "measured" TT, taking it very steady indeed: we've been trying to work out how slow they can afford to go, and it's not easy. LLB calculated that if 57kph was the fastest ever TTT, then O'rica need to do 43kph in order to come within the "30% of winning time" cut off time.  Meanwhile, P&P suggest that a gap of 6-7 minutes is probably going to be the safe zone.

Personally I'm just happy to see them all arriving safely at the finish line, nice and controlled, with all members intact. No falls, no mechanicals, all safe and sound.  I sent a tweet to Carlton Kirby asking if ASO would really, seriously, disqualify a whole team if they were to fail to meet the time cut, but my luck with getting mentions seems to have run out, and there is no direct answer. Shame.

Trek go off, with many discussions about the loss of Fabian:  then Ass-t'na with a full set of riders. I'm very pleased to see that Jakob was riding well, and wasn't one of the several riders who dropped off the back,

Movistar make a good early effort, 18 seconds up at the second time check, but then disaster! We see them tackling the main hill on the course, and several riders at the back were making frantic "slow down!" arm waving signals as half the team zoomed off up the hill, and the rest of them sweated and struggled. Apparently the routine is that the rear riders wave in distress, the car behind sees them, and radios to the leader to slacken off until they catch up. It would seem that either the guys in the car were asleep, or the leader had taken off his earpiece,  because the team were blown to pieces on the climb and ended up in tatters.  Luckily it didn't take them long to get themselves back together, but it looked really untidy and unprofessional. As they come up to the finish, we think they are doing badly as there are only five members left, but they beat Ass-t'na by 31seconds.

Meanwhile Stinkoff are on the road, and Sky leave the ramp: apparently they were forced to wear the nasty cheap baggy yellow skinsuit instead of their own high-tech fabric, so they compromised by bringing in a local seamstress to nip and tuck. Presumably they get it off with a can-opener after the end of the race.

Stinkoff are charging along, I'm intrigued to see that Ray Formica has what appears to be shin-pads made of kinesio tape. LLB and I discuss whether kinesio tape is more aerodynamic than skin, in which case you could get round the UCI rule about not having long socks by wrapping a lot of tape round your legs.

As it turns out, Sky come second by something ridiculous like 0.6 seconds to BMC, so BMC are happy, and Sky are also happy as they get to keep the yellow jersey - and have extended their lead over most of the other GC contenders. They also get G back into the top 10, which is always good.

One final note of amusement - Richie Porte, being interviewed immediately after warming down, interrupts his own interview to bark at Chris Froome "Froomey! Wipe your nose!"  as Chris passes him. Sweet.

And best of all, no-one crashed!

TdF Stage 8: Fame at last!

On Stage 8 of the Tour, at 69.3k to go, Carlton Kirby, commentating for Eurosport, said, and I quote:

"Cougar Girl has just told me to stop being mean about Pierre Rolland"

Yay! Fame at last!

It was obviously a slow day at the race, and a slow day on twitter, as at 60k to go, Carlton mentioned me again: he said that the front group contained Pierre Rolland, "who Cougar Girl is very fond of".

LLB thought this was hilarious, that I have spent four years tweeting in praise of Andy, and never had a mention, and I make a casual reference to Pierre, who is just one of many Schleckland pets, and blow me down, I get two name-checks, and am now associated with Pierre instead of Andy.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Luxembourg:

Andy: *sobs uncontrollably*
TinkerJil: "Oh, now now, come on Andy, it's not that Coug doesn't like you anymore, she just made a passing reference to Pierre Rolland, that's all."
Andy: *more sobs*
TinkerJil: "But she gave you several plugs for your glasses," (more  sobs)

At 57.5k to go, coming back from an advert break, the first three contain Lars Bak and Carlton said "someone said I have to say Bak is on the front," *he laughs* " and he isn't; well he is."

Guess who that was, then?

Clearly, today was the day that no-one else was tweeting to Carlton.

As for the race being not exactly scintillating, well, to be honest, it was pretty dull. Apart from getting a name check, that is.  Some lovely scenery, nice chateaux, but not really exciting.

The main point of discussion seemed to be whether Rodriguez would win the stage, in which case he would take the polka dot jersey from Tekko: if he doesn't win, then Tekko gets to ride the TTT wearing it, and would therefore carry it forward over the rest day and into Stage 10.

Call me biased (cries of "Coug! you are SOOOO biased" to which I would replay yes of course I'm biased, the whole point of this blog is to be in favour of Andy, regardless of his personal form!) but I don't like Rodriguez, he's an unrepentant doper: whereas Tekko is a Schleckland Pet, and therefore I would very much like him to be carrying the polka dots for as long as possible.

So, what actually happened? Lots of huffing and puffing on the last couple of km, with a somewhat surprise win for Villie-Mouse from AG2R, Dan Martin (and his teeth) came in second, and then a little bunch containing Froomey (cries of "good boy, Froomey!" from our sofa), Bumfluff, Rigoberto, Onion, and Sagan.

Great news all round - Froome maintains the yellow jersey,  Tekko maintains the polka dot jersey, and the top ten on GC is pretty much unchanged, apart from G dropping off the bottom and into 15th place, with Onion moving up into the leader group.

So, a very good day all round - Coug gets her name on Eurosport not once but twice, and Tekko gets to keep the polka dots. This very nearly makes up for the expulsion from Schleckland of Paolini.

Tomorrow is another day - it's the TTT, and between fatigue and loss of riders, it could be a very interesting day indeed...

TdF2015 Stage 7: Sacking of a Dark Lord

Huh! There's me, all proud of the Schleckland Pet reputation (ie I award someone status of Pet and they nearly immediately win something) and then that rotten little sneak Paolini lets me down.

Yes, Dark Lord Paolini has been "done" for drugs. His tests on Stage 4 revealed cocaine, of all things. What is he, a rock star? Although not a PED, cocaine is high on the banned list for the UCI and carries a 4-year ban. And it carries a lifelong ban from being a Schleckland Pet, as I have no tolerance for drugs: I don't "do" drugs, and I think people who do are stupid.

(Coug, with captain's hat, stands tall and proud with arm extended and face of thunder, pointing to the gate out of Schleckland. Dark Lord Paolini cringes at her feet.)

Coug: "Go, you miserable worm!" 

(Paoilini (no, I can't even be bothered to spell his besmirched name correctly) crawls away in the direction indicated)

Huh.

Meanwhile, back in the real world,  Stage 7 was - at last - as quiet and non-eventful as it was supposed to be, with nice well-behaved weather, nice wide open roads, and no major crashes. Apparently there was a bit of a prang in the neutral zone, where three of the Jumbo riders were chatting amongst themselves about the previous crashes, then one of them wobbled and down they all went, taking Contador with them. That will teach him not to lurk too closely behind. Anyway, no harm done, other than minor bruises to one of the Jumbo riders, so we can't really count that as an incident.

The ending was quite interesting - it was a bunch sprint, as it was supposed to be, but it was all a bit narrow and twisty, and apparently slightly uphill, which made it a bit tricky. Cav did a great job, he bumped shoulders with Sagan, swerved stylishly round a Dark Lord (being careful not to breathe in too deeply in case there was a haze of fine white powder round him) then zoomed past Gummy Gruipel and took the stage quite comfortably, with a great show of fabulous straight white teeth. It was worth all that surgery and angst, to get them straightened, wasn't it? I thought it was interesting that Sagan simply didn't have the speed of Cav.

And what of today? Stage 8 is long, a bit bumpy, and has a Murder at the end of it. It's not as steep as the Murder Hay, but it is longer, so it's going to be an endurance test. And then tomorrow, Sunday, we have the long-awaited TTT which should be a lot more nail-biting than usual, as several teams are going to be a bit short-handed.

Can't wait!

TdF Stage 6: Crash, bash, Froooome! again.

I can hardly bear to watch this year's Tour - it seems to be nothing but crashes.

To be fair, the Tour always has a crash-filled first week, and we are always told that the riders are always nervous in the first few days. This, however, is different. We don't normally have a broken back, a broken wrist, a broken arm, broken collarbones, cracked ribs, and, didn't we have a broken leg as well?

Today was no different - this time the crash happened right at the very end, quite literally half a km from the end, when Tony Martin just touched the wheel of the Europcar rider ahead of himself. He was thrown heavily over to his right, barging a poor Giant rider right over - then his wheel went from under him and whomp! skittles.  The Giant rider (Warren "Onion" Bargee) neatly knocked over an Ass-t'na rider (Nibali, I think), who bumped into Chris Froome (causing him to do an inelegant unclip with a side order of waving the foot in the air) and was then flattened by a BMC Ladybird landing right on top of him. Ouch!

Meanwhile, Tony Martin was in absolutely no hurry to get up, and he was holding his left arm in the traditional "I have busted my collarbone" invisible sling.  Quite some time later - this was well inside the last 3k so everyone knew they would get the same time as each other - he was carefully loaded onto his bike, and three team members gently pushed him up to and over the line, in a lovely display of team solidarity.

Just a few minutes later, it was confirmed on Twitter that he has broken his collarbone, so I don't imagine he will be starting the race tomorrow. This is obviously desperately sad for him, and very bad news for the Etixx team, what with the TTT coming up: but there is a silver lining, and that is that Chris Froome will, if Tony abandons, go back into yellow.

I doubt that Sky will say anything about it tonight, but let's be honest, there must be just a tiny burbling whisper of "we might be back in yellow tomorrow!" in the Deathstar, as they make their way hotelwards.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the peloton: Daniel Teklehaimanot won the KOM jersey!! He is the first ever African to win it, the first ever ever Eritrean (obviously) to win it, and I imagine his smile is just about the brightest thing on the podium this afternoon. Well done, Tekko! Sorry, I can't spell that surname yet, and it's too slow to cut and paste it every single time - so unless he tweets me otherwise, I shall abbreviate it to Tekko.

And I would just like to point out in that a blog from three days ago, I made Tekko the status of Schleckland Pet - the final one, as it turns out - and look! There he is on the podium! Spooky, or what??

TdF2015: the TTT looms...

I have a question: what happens if a team is unable to field a full TTT team?

O'Rica have now lost Albasini with a broken arm, having already lost Simon Gerrans with a broken wrist, and Daryl Impey with a broken stomach (my fault, I still have his musette, poor guy).

This leaves them with 6 guys, and you need 5 to finish at the TTT.

Presumably if you only have 5 guys left, you have to go at the speed of the slowest rider: but what happens if  you only have 4 guys left in the team?

Theoretically, if 5 don't finish, then no-one gets a time: they would all four be counted as DNF and be out of the race.

Clearly that is unacceptable, it's desperately unfair to penalise a team who are already suffering the loss of so many members: so what would they do? Has anyone read the UCI rules on the subject? I would, but my soul has only just regenerated after the last round of "giving wheels to other teams" rule checking, so I can't bring myself to read them again.

Logically they would just accept that all four riders get the time of the fourth man.  But I have no idea, and I would welcome your thoughts. (BikeGirl, this is not an excuse to talk about skinsuits, white shorts or dirty boys. You have been told.) *laughs*

TdF 2015 Day 4 - wha'happened?

So much for the over-hyped This Is The Day That Changes Things!

Possibly after yesterday's truly terrible crashes, the peloton didn't feel like taking any risks, necessary or otherwise, as they seem to have trundled along quite calmly.  Alas, I had to work this afternoon so I couldn't watch it live, but I've checked through the ticker and, apart from an unexplained FdJ tantrum, and a few "minor" crashes, all seems to have gone well.

Tony Martin did a "tony martin" and went for what Carlton Kirby delightfully calls "a squirt off the front" just over 3k from the line, and took the stage win, which also puts him into yellow. I do wonder if Team Sky were secretly happy for this - no more tiring press conferences for Froome, no more having to lead the peloton so early in the race. They certainly didn't make any effort at all to chase him down.

Now we have Tony Martin in yellow, Froome in second, just a few seconds back,  and Fabs retired from le Tour but saying that he is looking forward to the second part of the season,  which would seem to indicate that he's not about to retire just yet, although he has already said that this will be his last Tour.

So with Fabs injured again, and possibly retiring: Andy injured and retired: Jensie honourably retired, and Stuey dishonourably retired, that only leaves Jakob of my original Schleckland Crew, and he, poor boy, seems to be yoked to Nibali and not able to ride for himself ever again, let alone the horrors of being tarred with the Ass-t'na brush. I have a feeling that he might choose to slip down to pro-Conti level next season, just to get a chance to be team leader. *sigh*.

 But rather than dwelling on such sadness, I have a question which arose in my tiny cycling-addled brain the other day: if everyone standing at the roadside with those plastic flappy hand things were to wave them in the direction the race was going, just before the leader got to them, would it increase their speed at all?

This led to a question about whether all those lungs, screaming in their faces, were actually holding back the riders.

Think what you could do if your chosen rider was in a break - it would require a lot of discipline among fans, but I think it could be done:  instead of looking up the road, waiting for the first view of the riders, they would have to all turn their heads away, and shout and scream in the onward direction, as well as flapping their plastic hands, and any tea trays or pieces of hardboard they happen to have about their person. Then, as soon as your chosen rider has passed, you all have to turn back and face the chasers, shouting and screaming towards them, and flapping your flappers back in their direction.

Races could be influenced using this simple technique.

You read it here, first.

*laughs*

TdF 2015 - Crash, Bash, Froooooome!

Blimey, what a day.

I had some time at home this afternoon and I was supposed to be doing paperwork, but after the exciting second day yesterday, with wind, echelons, rain, and Cav losing Tony Martin the yellow jersey (which he denies) and Fabs winning it ("yay!"), I thought I'd just listen to it a bit while working.

Well, that didn't work.  I found a stream, got captivated in watching it "just for a while" before getting on with some work, and then there was the most almighty crash.  I was glued to the screen for the rest of the afternoon.

Crash? If it weren't for the riders sliding along the road, you would have thought a grenade had gone off. There were riders all over the verge, crashing into a lamppost, bikes and riders piling up against the lamppost, more riders crashing into them, and Fabs piling into the back of it and his glorious new yellow bike clearly to be seen cartwheeling over the pile of bodies.

Several riders were badly hurt - Simon Gerrans was out with a suspected broken wrist, Dumoulin dislocated a shoulder: they both withdrew from the race there and then, as did William Bonnet, the rider who first fell, and one of the Dark Lords whose name I can neither spell nor pronounce. Ten Dam was listed as Abandon, he dislocated a shoulder, but apparently "They popped it back in" so he carried on racing... god, these guys are so tough. And all while wearing basically a swimsuit...

Fabs, meanwhile, was grey-faced and wobbling, clutching his back (remember those broken vertebrae from earlier this year?) and indicating to the race doctor that he couldn't see properly - clearly somewhat concussed, but he got back on his bike and headed back for the race.

Now we get to the tricky bit: a lot of people on social media are saying, and indeed some of the journalists are reporting, that "the race was neutralised until Fabian caught up."

This is not true: ASO took the decision to neutralise, and then to actually stop the race, because every single medical person and vehicle was completely absorbed dealing with this horrendous crash, so if there had been an incident further on - well, there would have been no medical cover at all. Mr Prudhomme was in the unfortunate position of having to try to stop 150-odd riders, who had no idea what was going on, and who were determined to keep racing. At one point there were the two red cars across the road, with Mr P waving his arms like a demented seagull out of the sunroof, while riders sneaked past on all sides. It was like trying to keep 14 puppies in a basket, with only one hand.

Eventually it all got going again, but very tentatively.

 Michael "Bling" Matthews of O'rica looked as though he'd been shredded...

...and as for poor JVS, he looked as though he'd been through a combine harvester.

Apparently there were 40 riders involved in total, including poor Daniel Teklahaemot (well, that's what it sounds like) who had a crash all on his own on the other side of the road, and who was somewhat overlooked in the drama of the main crash. But it's a bit of a shame, I'd just decided to make him my last Schleckland Pet, on the basis that he has such a great name, and usually my pets go on to great glory (JVS), they don't usually end up all over the road!

As for the race itself, well, they finally got to the Murder Hay, as they kept calling it,  and after a closely-fought battle, one of the Dark Lords just beat Chris Froome to the line. But Froomey gained 6 seconds time bonus, putting him into the yellow jersey, which is great news for Sky, and great news for Fab, as now he can sort himself out without feeling an obligation to start tomorrow.

*hasty typing sounds as I check on twitter*

Oh.  Bad news, Fabs has broken two different vertebrae - not the same ones he did earlier this year, but two on the other side, apparently, so he has withdrawn from the Tour. Poor Fabs, what a way to end his career - he's already said that he won't do another Tour, and remembering how long it took him to recover from the first set of cracked vertebrae, well, I'm guessing that he won't be back racing this season. It's unbelievable that he finished the race, up the Murder Hay, with two broken vertebrae. What a guy.

So that could well be the last time we see Fabs as a pro rider. *sigh*