Wednesday 22 June 2011

Whoops, I forgot about the Drooling

...that belongs under the heading of Tour de Suisse.

Tour de Suisse Day 3: Andy, looking "Fresh as a daisy" as the commentator said, rode with ease and style today, but kept looking back over his shoulder. What is all that about?  Nim says that he's looking for her... I'm not convinced, but now every time I see him do it, I shout at the TV "She's not there! She's in Oz!"

And now for the drooling: LLB insisted that I take this photo:

He says that I should show unflattering pictures of OGL as well as nice ones, in the interest of fairness etc.

As it's  his television that I'm watching,  I don't have a lot of choice!

So here is Andy, drooling a bit.

All together now:  "Eeeeoooow!"

Sadly, this now means that anyone typing "Andy Schleck drooling" into google will probably come straight here... and there was me trying to get my search terms to be a little less, er, risque.

So, back to the race:  there was a bizarre moment when Laurens ten Dam of Rabobank received a push from a spectator: yes, ok, so far so hoopy, what a kind thing to do, but the spectator was wearing full Leopard Trek kit!! What!! Is that allowed?

No sooner had we recovered from that, than the final descent began, and good grief it was fast! What a fantastic descent, one of those that you think might crop up in a DVD at some point. The amazing thing is that the camera bike was following - barely - Cunego, and yet Sagan caught him up, so he must have been going even faster!

Day 4 and we came into the race quite close to the end: it was a great final, with Jensi (or, in French accent, Jean Vois as we now call him) making a superb break, then Stuey making another superb break: if only they'd sent Fabian out as well!

Day 5, well, I watched it, but I didn't make a single note, and therefore have nothing to say about the day.

Day 6 was the day that Soler crashed so badly, and we were very glad that we didn't have to see it, as his accident happened early on - about 14kms? - and our coverage started about 60kms or so from the end of the race. Andy was having a day off, he just tootled along, and Jensi gave him a pat on the back at one point. Frankie did well to come 6th, yay Frankie! and Jakob came in 9th, so that was a good day for the team.

Day 7 was terrible coverage, we came in just as OGL crested the hill, to hear the commentators raving about how he'd made this terrific break, and he'd lead all the way up the hill, and we didn't get to see any of it, boo! But at least he won King of the Mountains, and got a jersey, yay Andy! But then we didn't get to see any of the podium stuff, our coverage stopped about a minute after the race leader came home.

But I can't say "boo to Eurosport" because I am grateful for whatever coverage they can give us...

And that's all for now, as I haven't watched the final day yet!!!

4 comments:

  1. Drooling. I didn't see him drooling live. But last year I went to see the start of TdF in (as-an-Ajax-fan-frightsome) Rotterdam.
    To make a very long story very short, the first thing, after fainting because of seeing OGL for real, was a big drop of sweat hanging at his nose. I got completely obsessed by this because I couldn't figure out if it was sweat or rain. After a lot of studying I concluded it was sweat.
    So maybe it was not drooling in TdS but just rain or some water leftover?

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  2. EEEOOOOOOWWWW! I missed the drooling until my husband made a point of stopping the recording and replaying that part just so I could see it. What a dove. ;p

    Maybe for the next stage, you'll have coverage of OGL flirting with podium girls. ;) One of them was especially excited about it all. Who could blame her!! :) :)

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  3. Sorry Barbara, as Gnasher has confirmed, it was real drool. It was stringy and sticky. Uck. But it happens to them all, I understand that it's when you are working that hard that you are producing lots of saliva, you are a bit dehydrated so it is thick saliva, and you can't swallow it because you are working so hard. You have to just let it go! That's why we see sportsmen spitting so much - they are getting rid of the unwanted thick saliva.

    (You'd think that, logically, they would need to hold on to each drop of liquid, but apparently that is not the case.)

    It's always of interest - mild/moderate interest - to try to determine if they are sweating, or if it is rain running off their noses. These guys are so fit that, just now and again, it's reassuring to see them sweat. I cannot imagine how sweaty I would be after cycling for 6 hours!

    It always amazes me that they can take off their helmets to reveal, most of the time, fluffy hair. Mine would be plastered to my head!

    Hey Gnasher, now you've got me wanting to see the flirting with the podium girls! Thinks: was that girl in last week's video, the one that got the rather enthusiastic triple kiss by the bus - was she a podium girl, do you think? She was very tall and willowy (Barbara: "slender, graceful") and could well be a podium girl. We know that our cyclists do go out with podium girls, maybe this could be the start of a lovely relationship for OGL? Or maybe he's been seeing her for the last 2 years and didn't dare tell everyone? (*laughs*) Come on Andy, get a girlfriend, we don't mind!

    Coug

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  4. You can't imagine how I got obsessed with that drop hanging on his nose. It was just hanging there for 15 minutes and I had to watch it, I mean I couldn't get my eyes of it. Some kind of alien thing.

    (Me, Barbara, is tall and blond)

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