farmdoc's blog post number 640

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France a record seven times, in consecutive years from 1999 to 2005. Someone – I can’t recall who, or what their evidence was – once said that even if Armstrong had ridden a $200 clunker bike from Target, he’d still have come 8th or 9th in the Tour. Which made me wonder if he’d have still won seven consecutive Tours had all the riders ridden identical bikes. I’ll never know – because mega commercial deals will always prevent it happening. But identical equipment for all competitors is a feature of other ‘sports’. One is A1 Grand Prix car racing. And another is texting. Yes, that’s right. There’s a contest to find the fastest text messagers in the world. It’s called the LG Mobile World Cup. And not only do all the contestants use LG brand phones, but the same model, i.e. the ‘LG enV’ (pictured). It has a QWERTY keyboard – which I think’s a copout, but at least it’s the same keyboard for everyone. However each contestant texted in their native language – which re-tilted the playing that the ‘LG enV’ levelled. Me? I’m a 1-finger texter. And I text even slower than I drive. So I’ll never win the LG Mobile World Cup. Or an A1 GP race. Or, for that matter, the Tour de France. Ho hum.

P.S. For the record, two teenaged South Koreans (pictured) won the 2009 LG World Cup.

farmdoc's blog post number 528

Fairytales. When I was a nipper I loved the ones with sweet and cheerful characters and happy endings; but those with frightening characters scared me. Nevertheless I believed all the tales. I knew the characters were out there somewhere, which was why people wrote books about them. As the years passed, I no longer believed in fairytales. And I was so smug and self-righteous in my non-belief. Enter, Cadel Evans. He’s a champion Australian professional cyclist. Born in Geelong in 1977, he won loads of mountain bike races until 2001 when he turned to road cycling. In the Tour de France, he came fourth in 2006, then second in 2007 and 2008 making him the highest placed Aussie in the Tour’s history. In 2009 he was tipped as a likely winner, but he came 30th. It was mainly due to a lack of team support, but the critics blasted him. They said he’d never win a major race. That he’d be a perennial bridesmaid. Then last Sunday, Cadel’s story became a fairytale when he won the 262 km road race at the World Cycling Championships. Never one to hide his emotions, he sobbed as he donned the coveted rainbow jersey (picture). As fate would have it, Cadel’s victory was the day after Geelong won the AFL Premiership. And next year’s World Cycling Championships are being held in – yes, you’ve guessed it – Geelong. Cadel, you’re a real champ. You showed ’em! Now for the 2010 Tour de France.