Pro-cycling thread

I quite enjoyed it, if only for the sight of wet cobbles. Especially enjoyed the cobble sector inbetween the police station and the slag heap

Surprised Van Keirsbulck isn't riding on a WT team this year. He's had some tasty results.

Really excited for Strade Bianche. Take your pick - any of about 30 names could win. Hoping to see Kwiatkowski back at the pointy end of these races this year.

Surprised Van Keirsbulck isn't riding on a WT team this year

I guess Lefevere can make or break chances of careers with talk of riders supposedly not living for racing. Nice to see him proven wrong

I tend to be doing other stuff while races are on and if racing is good, I tend to get distracted from the other stuff. In this case, I looked up about twice to see Terpo Derpo tapping it out somewhat uncomfortably.

StradE BianchE

That is all.

I met Dan Lloyd at the Gent 6 last year. In my very hammered state I confused him with Dan Craven of Namibia cycling fame and asked him if he was Namibias greatest cyclist. He wasn't very impressed

I have one of danfromnam's team underpants caps. He also delivered some bits to my house once. He didn't fall for my trick of 'staying for just one drink...'

.

'spoons? DTM.

I edited my post!

But in my defence, it was pre-Brexit, and me still a grad student, era 'spoons.

Wait, so Mrak is a frequent Wetherspoons customer? The shame. :)

Nothing gets past the all seeing, all knowing hippy.

hyphen hyphen etc

I lol'd.

To my eternal shame, I was so hammered (and in a rush to get to the bar) that I, along with several of my friends, walked straight past Eddy Merckx at the Gent 6 once.

At the Frankfurt Book Fair, I once walked along most of an aisle next to the German Federal President at the time (Richard von Weizsäcker). I did wonder a little why everybody was getting out of the way, but I didn't notice him until my mate caught up with me and told me after I'd turned a corner. My only defence is that he was quite short.

Apparently, I also stood next to Ray Davies in the bar at the Flask a few months ago. He was with a larger party and I didn't spot him among them. As idols go, that's probably a rough equivalent of Andy's Eddy Merckx moment for me. /csb

I've walked past Eddy Merckx a few times at a few venues.

I've stopped to talk to more famous riders though, like Winston and Caspar.

When Michael Mørkøv photographed me and put the pic on his Twitter.

When Michael Mørkøv photographed me and put the pic on his Grindr.

ftfy

When Michael Mørkøv phøtøgraphed me and put the pic on his Twitter.

Fixed.

I once stood three foot from our then reigning monarch, completely oblivious to her presence while I was helping a customer. To my defence she only had one lady in waiting with her and her security detail was a couple yards away so nothing looked out of the ordinary.

Look what you've started, Oliver.

At least @punkture, @hippy and my anecdotes were pro-cycling related.

I was in the car with my brother, sister-in-law and their two sons, who were about 10 and 12 at the time. We went for a day out to the Wirral and I'd told them that Chris Boardman was born, and still lived, there. On the way home, in the car, I saw a cyclist coming towards us. I looked again. And yelled "It's fucking Chris Boardman!". Profound silence. My sister-in-law is quite straight laced.
A few years later I nodded to him when he jogged past on the sea front at Hoylake.

Many years before that I stopped to say hello to Stephen Roche on Tottenham Court rd.

Then a couple of weeks ago I woke up next to both Phil and Paul in a small hotel in Knightsbridge. Still not sure what happened the night before or why Phil was dressed as a pirate.

Peter Kennaugh once touched my lycra clad arse, and I lent Cav a spanner!
Not on the same day.

This one time I photobombed Bradley Wiggins

Right, can we stop those pro cycling-related anecdotes right now, please. I can't say I like what Andy has started here. :)