Velogal's Blog

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Our DC team has the greatest guys: they’re just plain nice people, hard workers and have determination and guts. But they are also human... Just like us, sometimes they really get pissed off about happenings in the race. I see where Leif got DQ’d at the Tour de Suisse after Stage 7 - they said he spit on a commissaire’s moto, but he denies spitting. Evidently the moto bumped into him while he was riding the stage, and he got mad. Maybe Leif was so mad that he was foaming at the mouth...

Now, in races, the job of motos is also to stay out of the way of the guys who are racing. Whether a moto official or a moto photographer, it is their responsibility to be aware of where the riders are, and to stay the hell away - front, back or beside. If they cause a pile-up, there could be riders who break collarbones or worse, which could be the end of the race, or even a career, for some racer.

I guess there was also another incident a bit earlier in that same stage, where a moto official had actually crashed right in the middle of the peloton. It sounds like there were some unqualified moto folks out there. But, I hear that Leif went up to the moto guy after the race and gave him the what-for, and ended up being disqualified.

In Philly (maybe you’ve already heard), some beer-guzzler grabbed onto Mike Creed’s jersey as he was slowly climbing the Manayunk Wall at the rear of the peloton. The idiot nearly pulled Mike over, and then the guy was high-fiving his buddies about what he’d done. Well, MC is a dude who doesn’t take crap from anyone, so he stopped his bike right on the hill and gave the guy a choice word or two...

At one location where I was shooting on the Wall, I was jammed next to a guy, his girlfriend, and a bunch of boozing buddies. They looked like they’d had beer for breakfast, and were still having breakfast. This one drunken guy was leaning out over the barricade, giving the one-finger salute and shouting “F... You” at the top of his lungs to every racer. His girlfriend kept trying to make him stop, but he thought it was really funny... I wonder if it was that same guy who grabbed Creed...

2 Comments:

  • Press Release Friday 6/17/2005 for immediate release
    Austin's TourWatch 2005, the USA's largest Tour de France viewing party,
    provides daily podcasts and video feeds at http://touroftexas.com

    TourWatch 2005, a television viewing party for the Tour de France, will be held in Austin, Texas at Central Market from July 2 though July 24. Central Market is at 4001 N Lamar in Austin, Texas. The event website is http://touroftexas.com

    The TourWatch 2005 will be showing the Tour de France on two 61" large screen, high definition televisions compliments of Circuit City. The TourWatch 2005 crew of podcasters, radio announcers and telecasters will bring your their own commentary and spin on the Tour which will be broadcast at the event and podcast over the Internet.

    The Discovery Channel is sending a 3 person crew to produce a documentary on the TourWatch 2005 Event and on Austin's support of Lance in the Tour. Austin's KEYE TV 42 will be doing a special newscast to be called "Austin Prepares for the Tour" on June 23. Newsweek will be featuring a piece on Austin's TourWatch 2005 in it's June 24 issue.

    Central Market, The Austin Podcasting Network, AustinCast, the Spring, 24 Hour Lance Armstrong Fitness, the Tour of Texas, Trek Sports Drink and Circuit City are the prime sponsors of the event. The Event is being produced by Spring Beverage Company.

    TourWatch 2005 will feature a daily podcast and radio and tv show spots with many local celebrities from the sports, fitness, radio, tv, blogging, podcasting and entertainment communities.

    Representatives of the local bicycling, swimming, running, triathlon and fitness communities are going to have tables at the event where they will give out information on upcoming events (eg. marathons, bike races, etc).

    The podcasters will be interviewing local Austinites who are following the race and will be doing interviews with Tour enthusiasts around the world via phone and skype. The interviews will be carried over the PA System at the event and syndicated over the Internet in the form of podcasts which Tour followers will be able to subscribe to.

    If you want to be a podcast star, come by our podcast table at the event, and we'll set you up behind a microphone and help you create your own podcast. Or we'll interview you if you are a Lance fan or Tour de France enthusiast. We'll be doing video interviews for television and video podcasts in high definition tv. So if you want to be a tv star, come by our booth and record an interview or do your own little show.Sponsorships are available for this event, call 512-699-4000 for details.

    Contact: Paul Terry Walhus 512.699.4000 or Stephen Dulaney 512.785.4701
    email: touroftexas@touroftexas.com website http://touroftexas.com

    By Blogger Paul, At 4:14 PM  

  • Hi Velogal,
    Thought you'd like to know ... poor Leif Hoste is not the only Belgian who got sent home by the Tour de Suisse organization (what happened to asking the cyclist what went on, by the way?). Yesterday one of our well-known photographers, Tim De Waele, got sent away too. No spitting allegations there. What happened? He was wearing shorts. And shorts are bad for the TdSuisse image, no matter what the weather. As Mr De Waele said : maybe they should ask the riders to cover their legs and not wear shorts either.
    What idiots!

    Ann

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At 12:53 AM  

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