and the cycling

and then the tour finished. i was happy for froome but a shame that some of the shine of his victory must've been taken off his victory because of the media obsession with le dopage. ironically it seems the media are starting to up sticks and move onto athletics now. you'd hope the the lessons learned in cycling might have been enacted but it would seem not.

not even in cycling. routes for next year's giro have been discussed including, tho hopefully not realised, a sort of copycat of the double d'huez in the form of a double zoncolan. not only do i not think the alps double was that effective overall, the crowd being particularly iniquitous, but the zoncolan is a different kettle of fish entirely and bad enough for one ascent. given the epo era emerged as tours became harder it's difficult to fathom what the giro organisers are thinking about - beyond 'spectacle' and money.

talking of spectacle while i was watching this year's event i was drawn back to barthes' tour de france as epic. well worth the read.

but, back to the giro, it's also been suggested that one of the stages might be finishing in trieste. i'd thoroughly recommend john foot's pedalare, pedalare for a more in depth analysis of the ins and outs of the last time it finished there but, historically, it promises to be full of resonance and one wonders quite how that will manifest itself in today's italy.

other than that, sylvain chavanel, what a guy, great attacking, great form. i loved what, at the time, appeared to be jens voigt's last attack on the tour. now he says he'll be back next year and, doubtless, he'll be attacking again but, as a swan song, i don't think he'll be doing better than this year. and what more can you say about peter sagan?

in the interim i watched thor hushovd win the arctic tour of norway the other day. i don't think old thor has so many wins left in him now so that was great to see, not least because the weather looked great and the countryside is just so spectacular. they wouldn't be liking it some much in the rain and gales tho! me and t have fond memories of watching hushovd in his glory days with a bunch of norwegians in a bar in latvia.  hushovd won - much drinking ensued!

as for me, i'm nearly three thousand miles into some proper fitness despite breakages, sickness and weddings. the great weather we've been having recently has contributed in no small part to blog absence and has also result in a proper bike comedy tan - i really should have given up on the gloves but didn't, resulting in jazz hands and peculiarly brown thumbs. best make the most of it while i can tho as the sun induced tan gives way to its belgian equivalent and normal service is resumed!