Le Tour - Stage 4 - ***SPOILER***

[Crackle]

Did anyone hear Mr Leggitt saying "he must get all his prawns to the front"

Yus

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Did anyone hear Mr Leggitt saying "he must get all his prawns to the front"

+1

 

[scook94]

Really? I heard pawns...

 

[Chuffy]

Of course, I wasn't going to bother watching the Tour this year. It's only thanks to Team LA turning up to make me aware of cancer that I'm tuning in at all.

Did the Tour happen in the last three years? LA wasn't riding so I assume not. Could anyone fill me in?

 

[johnnyh]

gosh you're a cynical lot

 

[Will1985]

Did the Tour happen in the last three years? LA wasn't riding so I assume not. Could anyone fill me in?

Sure! The first year in 2006, to try and wean the fans off Lance a bit slower an American who used to ride for Lance finished in yellow. The heroic element of the story was that Mr Landis had a wrecked hip and was riding the Tour in pain. Celebrations were a little premature when his incredible solo escape turned out to be fuelled by drugs, so the organisers gave yellow to a Spaniard instead.

Next in 2007 taking advantage of a new loophole, a chicken entered the race and was winning until stage 16 when somebody claimed they had spotted the chicken in the wrong coop. His team withdrew him from the Tour, leaving a Spanish lad to wear the maillot jaune. To continue with the heroic comeback theme of the past decade, this chap once had brain surgery to correct a genetic complaint and still bears visible scars.

In 2008 the Spanish brain boy wasn't allowed to come back because his new team had been employing some drugged up Soviets, so he had to make do with just winning the Giro. This left the race wide open and the maillot jaune changed hands many times - first between two suspected/implicated dopers, then an Australian with a high voice and a poodle before ending up as CSC-SaxoBank property. At the end a quiet Spanish climber finished in yellow after riding the TT of his life to finish only 30 seconds slower than Aussie poodle lover.

Sadly the winner had no heroic story to tell and was brushed aside when he came to Monaco because the celebrities were back in town.

 

[Chuffy]

Sure! The first year in 2006, to try and wean the fans off Lance a bit slower an American who used to ride for Lance finished in yellow. The heroic element of the story was that Mr Landis had a wrecked hip and was riding the Tour in pain. Celebrations were a little premature when his incredible solo escape turned out to be fuelled by drugs, so the organisers gave yellow to a Spaniard instead.

Next in 2007 taking advantage of a new loophole, a chicken entered the race and was winning until stage 16 when somebody claimed they had spotted the chicken in the wrong coop. His team withdrew him from the Tour, leaving a Spanish lad to wear the maillot jaune. To continue with the heroic comeback theme of the past decade, this chap once had brain surgery to correct a genetic complaint and still bears visible scars.

In 2008 the Spanish brain boy wasn't allowed to come back because his new team had been employing some drugged up Soviets, so he had to make do with just winning the Giro. This left the race wide open and the maillot jaune changed hands many times - first between two suspected/implicated dopers, then an Australian with a high voice and a poodle before ending up as CSC-SaxoBank property. At the end a quiet Spanish climber finished in yellow after riding the TT of his life to finish only 30 seconds slower than Aussie poodle lover.

Sadly the winner had no heroic story to tell and was brushed aside when he came to Monaco because the celebrities were back in town.

Thanks for the explanation Will. I guess that the Tour didn't really happen in the last three years then. Phew, not only have I been made aware of cancer, I've also been spared a fourth year without a Tour! Yay Lance!

 

[Chuffy]

I think if the Lance-meister had come back without a "cause" - the response would have been quite a bit worse.

(vain, selfish "money" rider yada yada)

Yes, because without him there doing his best to screw Bertie over the whole of Europe would be oblivious to cancer. HEY EUROPE! CANCER EXISTS!

Or was the whole cancer awareness thing a teensy bit of a smokescreen to deflect the inevitable criticism surrounding his return? Hmmmmm....

 

[Chuffy]

I try to watch the tour uncynical.

That give me the joy of that punch in the guts "you f*****g mug" feeling once the retrospective test results are released...

Heh, that 20% comment was purely gratuitous btw.

 

[Chuffy]

If the man hadnt suffered himself and started the whole yellow wrist band thing years ago, then I might agree with you re. his return.

I think it's possible to believe two things simultaneously:
1) He's very serious about campaigning/fund-raising etc. I don't doubt his commitment to that, for obvious reasons.
2) He's capable of using the whole cancer thing as a shield. Slag him and you're slagging cancer survivors, what kind of b*stard are you? That kind of angle. When The Great Comeback was announced it was all hung on a peg of raising cancer awareness. As time has gone on (and you can see it in progressive post-stage interviews) it's pretty damn clear that his only motive was to win. Those of us who have a slightly, less than favourable view of him said that this would always be the case, but there were many more who said 'no, he's doing this to raise awareness of cancer, the man is a god, how dare you criticise him'. For some reason this evokes a slightly less than respectful response...

 

[rich p]

Did the $2m dollar appearance fee , sorry donation, he got for entering the Giro go to the profit or not-for-profit side of Livestrong?

BTW, what is this new disease that no-one has been researching called?
It's not the one that that this charity is involved in, is it?

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutus/whoweare/factsaboutus/

We are the world's leading independent organisation dedicated to cancer research

In the financial year 2007/08 our total scientific spend was £333 million


The charity supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of more than 4,500 scientists, doctors and nurses



Where would they be without LA?

 

[John the Monkey]

.... hate the whole big bold brash win-at-all-costs yank mentallity. Thats why hes not liked.

Hmm.

I'm not a fan of the attitude, but for me, it's the way he's come back to the sport and p*ssed on the promises he made about transparency and the anti-doping programme more than anything.

I don't want it to be 2005 again, personally.

 

[kennykool]

Did anyone hear Mr Leggitt saying "he must get all his prawns to the front"

ha ha - I thought thats what I said cos I repeated it out loud - my wife asked what the hell I was on about....are they really called Prawns??? she asked

 

[Chuffy]

ha ha - I thought thats what I said cos I repeated it out loud - my wife asked what the hell I was on about....are they really called Prawns??? she asked

With a team that smells as fishy as Astana it seem strangely appropriate...

 

[John the Monkey]

Forget who said it, but there was speculation on Twitter yesterday as to whether Kloden could turn up in an "I went to Freiburg, And All I got was this lousy blood transfusion" t-shirt and still have that unfortunate business generally ignored...