sympathy for the devil

The most easily recognizable of the fans lining the roads of the Tour de France is the Devil, who I wrote about the other day. Procycling reports this sad, sad news:

One of the most famous cycling fans, the devil, who’s often seen running next to the riders ferociously swinging his trident, was robbed of TV equipment worth 15,000 euros after the finish of stage two, writes Susanne Horsdal. The devil, who is German and goes by the civilian name Didi Senft, was supposed to send home TV reports from the Tour for the German ‘MDR un zwolf’ programme. But in Liège thieves broke into the devil’s car and stole a camera, microphone and laptop, so for the rest of the week and until new equipment has reached the “spare time reporter,” the viewers will miss out on the devil’s view on the Tour de France. One can only wonder if the thieves knew who they were dealing with!

Someone's going to hell, do not pass go, someone's going to hell.

The great showman of the Tour, Mario Cippolini, has abandoned due to an infected reopened wound. If your local news was all in a tizzy about Lance having a "bad day" yesterday: do not sweat it, for that is the plan. It's early. In fact, riders keep pointing out that the race hasn't even really started yet (which isn't quite true, but still). The Tour de France Blog is doing an excellent job of pointing to the best news stories and generally covering the action on and off the road, so if you're at all interested, add it to your daily list of sites.

Now I must bathe.

worm "Spitting Games," Snow Patrol

namecheck Justine "Wow, There's a Lot of Australian Sprinters Left to Fight It Out" Larbalestier