new favorite blog
Crazy Jane, who I mentioned yesterday when I was talking about Daily Peloton, HAS A BLOG!
(This will not become the all Le Tour all the time blog, I promise, but this is very exciting!)
A taste:
My friends, I love the Tour de France. It may be that this will be received with eyerolling by some of my more usual readers who don't really give a rat's ass whether or not Lance Armstrong wins an unprecedented 6 consecutive Tours de France, and stands in front of the Arc de Triomphe looking like a lycra clad astronaught as the greatest Tour rider of all time, or if he is beaten by another worthy contender; but here at Crazy Jane's International Project Headquarters, there will likely be long-winded and rhapsodic obeisances made as I follow the events that will soon unfold in France with what I can only admit will be rabid enthusiasm. Brace yourselves, my dear readers.
My predictions: Lance Armstrong will win by minutes. His usual and most dangerous rival, German diesel Jan Ullrich, will ride like a stud and a sportsman, and will have long, bronzed legs; but I fear he will be outgunned by Tyler Hamilton, provided New England's king of pain management avoids breaking any bones. My podium picks: Lance, Tyler, Jan. Alessandro Petacchi will punk that little Napoleonic brat Robbie McEwen on the line every single day in the sprints, but the big Italian will likely be broken by the mountains in the last week, leaving us in danger of having to see Mr. Tiny take the green jersey in Paris (Message to Alessandro: PLEASE SAVE US FROM THAT FATE!). Reeechard Virenque will mostly likely ride even deeper into the hearts of French housewives everywhere while scoring the King of the Mountains jersey yet again, while I sigh with resignation and pray for even just the smallest glimpse of Laurent Jalabert doing his new TV gig. Ah, the panda... I miss him! His charms were magnificent.
I'm not sure what it is, exactly, about Le Tour de France that gets me, but it really, really does. It's a beautiful event, and I never fail to be astounded by the way it generates epic moments of transcendence and impossible to predict examples of all the poetry of human endeavor in all it's useless beauty (thanks, Elvis C.). I, along with my esteemed colleague, will be writing a daily column for the Daily Peloton; my contribution serves an egregiously under-served segment of cycling's fans - girls who can see a church by daylight - and tips the old chapeau to all the style, panache and beauty of the tour, appreciating our boys' heroic efforts on the bike, along with their mad skillz when it comes to hair-styling and accessorization. It may occasionally be stupid, but what it won't be is ironic, because it will be chock-loaded with my genuine, and in some ways, rather embarrassing enthusiasm for this fantastic sport and the brilliant creatures who make it so delicieux. Oh yes.
Yay! All sports writing should be like this! Read her.
UPDATED: Crazy Jane also has a quite fun regular blog (the other being Tour stuff), which is here.
worm "Folsom Prison Blues," Johnny Cash (not Firewater)
namecheck Tugboat "We Hope You're Okay" Hamilton
(This will not become the all Le Tour all the time blog, I promise, but this is very exciting!)
A taste:
My friends, I love the Tour de France. It may be that this will be received with eyerolling by some of my more usual readers who don't really give a rat's ass whether or not Lance Armstrong wins an unprecedented 6 consecutive Tours de France, and stands in front of the Arc de Triomphe looking like a lycra clad astronaught as the greatest Tour rider of all time, or if he is beaten by another worthy contender; but here at Crazy Jane's International Project Headquarters, there will likely be long-winded and rhapsodic obeisances made as I follow the events that will soon unfold in France with what I can only admit will be rabid enthusiasm. Brace yourselves, my dear readers.
My predictions: Lance Armstrong will win by minutes. His usual and most dangerous rival, German diesel Jan Ullrich, will ride like a stud and a sportsman, and will have long, bronzed legs; but I fear he will be outgunned by Tyler Hamilton, provided New England's king of pain management avoids breaking any bones. My podium picks: Lance, Tyler, Jan. Alessandro Petacchi will punk that little Napoleonic brat Robbie McEwen on the line every single day in the sprints, but the big Italian will likely be broken by the mountains in the last week, leaving us in danger of having to see Mr. Tiny take the green jersey in Paris (Message to Alessandro: PLEASE SAVE US FROM THAT FATE!). Reeechard Virenque will mostly likely ride even deeper into the hearts of French housewives everywhere while scoring the King of the Mountains jersey yet again, while I sigh with resignation and pray for even just the smallest glimpse of Laurent Jalabert doing his new TV gig. Ah, the panda... I miss him! His charms were magnificent.
I'm not sure what it is, exactly, about Le Tour de France that gets me, but it really, really does. It's a beautiful event, and I never fail to be astounded by the way it generates epic moments of transcendence and impossible to predict examples of all the poetry of human endeavor in all it's useless beauty (thanks, Elvis C.). I, along with my esteemed colleague, will be writing a daily column for the Daily Peloton; my contribution serves an egregiously under-served segment of cycling's fans - girls who can see a church by daylight - and tips the old chapeau to all the style, panache and beauty of the tour, appreciating our boys' heroic efforts on the bike, along with their mad skillz when it comes to hair-styling and accessorization. It may occasionally be stupid, but what it won't be is ironic, because it will be chock-loaded with my genuine, and in some ways, rather embarrassing enthusiasm for this fantastic sport and the brilliant creatures who make it so delicieux. Oh yes.
Yay! All sports writing should be like this! Read her.
UPDATED: Crazy Jane also has a quite fun regular blog (the other being Tour stuff), which is here.
worm "Folsom Prison Blues," Johnny Cash (not Firewater)
namecheck Tugboat "We Hope You're Okay" Hamilton
posted by Gwenda @ 6/30/2004 04:23:00 PM
8 Comments:
At 1:19 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Hey! What's with Crazy Jane's Aussie bashing? What's wrong with Robbie McEwen? He's a damn fine cyclist. Is she just anti-short ugly people or something? Hmmph. And I predict (hope) that Armstrong won't win. So there.
Justine
At 1:33 PM ,
Christopher said...
While it's true that Crazy Jane has been known to concentrate on, um, non-cycling attributes, I think she probably has the same problem with Mac that most everybody else that follows the sport does--he's the biggest cry baby in the peloton. This Spring one of the Italian sprinters said something very like this: "Unlike McEwen, it has sometimes happened in my life that I could be fairly blamed for my own mistakes."
At 1:56 PM ,
Christopher said...
Oh and something else.
As for Armstrong and whether he wins or not, I actually hope he does. Leaving aside the extraordinary nature of the accomplishment, I think a 6th win this year would be very good for the sport, everywhere, not just in the States.
That said, or course I have my personal favorites like Hamilton and Zubeldia (and poor Santiago Botero). But one of the great things about learning more about this extraordinary race and following all the different threads is it leaves you capable of cheering for any given rider on any day for any number of different things--not just jerseys and stage wins but "personal bests" and long breakaways that _almost_ succeed and even just carrying on, "just" finishing.
Vive le Tour!
At 3:35 PM ,
Anonymous said...
I'm not Anonymous, I'm Crazy Jane! Thank you so much for the props and the links! As for the Aussie-bashing, I plead innocent! I love the Aussies - I just think Robbie McEwen is an ill-tempered little monster, and some of my special favorites have told me that he doesn't fight fair, and that's just dangerous and foolhardy. Baden Cooke? Oh yes! Bradley McGee? Hells yes! Stuey O'Grady? A big giant yes! (I could go on) But, Robbie McEwen? No so much.
Regarding my predictions: Armstrong will very likely vanquish... but I'm cheering for Hamilton.
Love and Many Thanks,
~Jane
At 10:53 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Okay, I'm not saying McEwen's my fave Australian cyclist, he ain't, but if we're getting into personalities I've heard many not very nice things about Mr. Amstrong. All of that aside as a pusher of pedals--Armstrong's [expletive deleted even though this is Gwenda's blog] amazing. I will give you no arguments. But, yeah I'd much rather see Mr. Hamiltion win (even though he fails the Australianess test), and hopefully win while nursing twenty broken ribs, a smashed pelvis and crushed toes. Cause that stuff is so cool. (Just kidding.)
On the other hand, I can see what Mr. Rowe was saying about the six consecutive wins helping the sport. It surely would, but from this long time Tour fan--it would also be damned boring. We need new blood!
And how fab of Crazy Jane to weigh in. Aussie bashing charge completely withdrawn. (Though you guys have to remember whingeing is a national passtime back home . . .)
Can you not talk about boring stuff like books, Gwenda, til after the Tour? Oh dear, I'm not going to get any work done once it starts, am I?
Justine
At 6:48 AM ,
Gwenda said...
I feel your pain, Justine. I've blocked out this weekend before it _really_ starts to try and finish everything I have to get done. More or less.
Australians whining? That's hard for me to believe.
Tyler = yes. We all really want Tyler to win. I just want to know if Tugboat's okay (the last time Tyler updated his journal he revealed that their golden is sick and that they'd know within a day or so what was wrong).
But it's almost like Armstrong has become an underdog again this year, and so I'd be perfectly happy if he wins again. And I doubt it will be boring -- last year's win sure wasn't.
And yay! Thanks for stopping by Crazy Jane. I will definitely be in line to make suggestions for Golden Hams.
This is the level of discourse I'm capable of before caffeine. Sad, isn't it?
At 10:03 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Not whining, Gwenda, whingeing. The two are completely different.
Justine
At 10:06 AM ,
Anonymous said...
I would have no complaints if this year's tour was even half exciting as last year's . . .
Must work now.
Justine
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