After three weeks of late night trips to the fridge and copious cups of coffee, Western Australians can finally go to bed before 1am. Oh and I guess Cadel Evans can relax too.
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| thanks to kdt |
Many of us have watched Cadel come agonizingly close to the Tour de France title in previous years, and so it was a truly beautiful sight to see him humbly accepting the accolades this year.
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| second last stage |
The Australian flag flying superman-like behind him was very appropriate given how he’d ridden.
No, he didn’t ride the entire race like that, but it certainly was a super human effort.
Actually that would be fun though wouldn’t it? Someone riding the Tour with their country’s flag flying behind them, racing up the side of the pack, perhaps with their older brother standing up on the back of the bike, wielding a sword and yelling ‘charge’, but I digress…again.
Cadel’s determination to keep going this year, especially during the periods of no support, was edge of your seat viewing. All the officials were saying he’d arrived with a different mental attitude this year, and so it seemed.
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| thanks to Petit Brun |
To see him jumping over speed humps during the second last stage of the race, it looked like he was just out having fun on his mountain bike on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Reminiscent of his world championship mountain biking days perhaps. Meanwhile we were watching with fingers crossed yelling ‘what are you thinking Cadel, calm down?’
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| thanks to siobh.ie |
Every time I see the pack racing to the finish, bodies jarring over the cobbled streets of Paris I ponder about the sadistic nature of the race directors. How the skinny bike tyres manage to slide over those stones is beyond me. This year Cadel’s herculean effort also left me pondering….
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You’ve got to love a sport that demands its competitors travel at 40+km/hour, down hill, then asks them to twist their arm around their back, take out some food and consume it, all the while amongst a pack of 100 other riders going the same speed. Madness!
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Having listened to Cadel’s humble and moving speech about the recent loss of his long term coach, Aldo Sassi, it had me pondering once again about whether great loss puts life and hardship into perspective. Does it compel people to push beyond their boundaries, ignore the fear, and go for their dreams regardless of the consequences? Perhaps Aldo was the silent tenth member of the team that made the difference this year.
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The performance also reminded me that achievers seem to know when to be part of a team and work together, but also when they need to break away and go it alone.
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Can any man, ever, carry off the lycra look? No seriously, what do you reckon, would the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Callan Mulvey or any of the Twilight boys be able to carry it off?
2 Comments
Haha, loved that last one. I’d have to say the answer in all cases is no.
Thought you might like point 4 – really in ALL cases hey. Well actually I’ll admit I have to agree with you 🙂