You’d think that with such an historical event taking place in France overnight that the Australian newspapers would be a sea of yellow and ‘we are the champions’ headlines this morning. Yet what I saw staring back at me when I visited one of the most respected newspaper websites (ie not a Murdoch tome) was a dead, tattooed junkie. Now that’s news!
Australians are known for our love of the ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’, where we like to take a famous public figure, be it a politician, entertainer or sportsperson, and build them up to a level of adulation sometimes deserved, oftentimes not, and when that figure reaches the pinnacle of their field we criticise or ridicule them to bring them back down to ‘our’ level. We don’t want to be seen as lesser than them, or more likely want our heroes to be just ‘ordinary blokes’ like us. Aussies love to be the common man, but also want to be better than all those high-and-mighty Poms, Yanks, or in this case, ‘Frogs’.
Now that ‘we’ have won the world’s biggest bike race, we will embrace the victory and milk it for all it’s worth. Even if the majority or the Holden-drivin’, VB-drinkin’, steak-eatin’, footy-watchin’ public thinks that cyclists are lycra-wearin’ fags, and would gladly swerve their ute to run us into the gutter for a bit of a laugh.
So enjoy your time in the sun Cadel, make the most of the plaudits from the press, the politicians and the cycling fans, because cycling will still be seen as not a real man’s sport by most. Kind of like yachting, but hey, we loved it for a brief moment when we won the Americas Cup.
You little bloody ripper!
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Wow, aside from the obvious awesomeness of Cadel winning, if he causes a change in cycling & culture in Australia, that is even cooler.
Maybe some more cyclists out there, maybe a wee bit more room from drivers.
A local pub had four Tour viewing parties, with a former racer and a cycling journalist announcing and explaining. It was awesome. Free beer and a lot of people who knew nothing about cycling watching, learning, asking questions, and enjoy bike racing. Just getting a glimpse into what is going on can give an outsider an appreciation for what is going on in a bike race and what cyclists go through. Once you get this peek, I think it would be much, much harder for some to honk, yell at, or throw something at a cyclist.
Good on ya, Cadel!!
Ron, your pub sounds awesome! Cycling on the tv AND free beer. Yes please!
Why do I like Cadel and am totally stoked that he's won the Tour? Haven't got a clue. He's been known to be a whiner, he acts like a douche sometimes, and has a scary painting of himself over his fireplace. But there has just been something about him that has always had me pulling for him. I guess since I'm such a wretched a-hole sometimes too I've started to look past all the douchenozzlery of people in the limelight. It's funny how all this stuff ties in - Frank has bagged on Rush (yet he listens to Amy Winehouse) in the past and then we had the COTHO/Rush jersey discussion but Neil Peart hits the nail on the head in the song Limelight - we get thrust into situations that we are ill equipped to handle and we sometime act brashly i.e. Mark Cavendish. But in the long run most of us are just trying to "break on through to the other side" with all our limbs and sanity intact. Some of us are just fortunate enough to be able to do it plying our trades at something that we love like cycling. Good on Cadel.
As a sidenote - I understand that Cadel's wife Chiara is not really into cycling (and cyclists) all that much. She just loves her husband and endures all the triumphs and travails that come with being married to a world class cyclist. I wonder what must be going through her mind right now after supporting her husband through the years of singular focus and determination and the heartache that it brings and then to finally reach the pinnacle of cycling success. I know my wife could care less about cycling but she rejoices with me, supports me, calls me onto the carpet when I start halfstepping, and has turned into an awesome soignoir so here's to awesome wives.
@Cyclops
One of the many tv bits on Cadel today showed footage of Mrs Cuddles out on the road motorpacing him. Cool.
A little shout out to George Hincapie for being on the winning Tour team for the 8th time. Quite a resumé.
@harminator
HEY!
@mouse
Fixed your post, you left off a sentence.
@frank
This is Hincapie's 9th win, no?
@frank
@harminator has a small point. Big George has been on the winning team 9 times
Faboo was in there for the sprint finish. Looks like he was 5th or 6th. I wish he'd taken a flyer off the front though.
@Collin, @benjamin
Right you are. Forgot about COTHOdor's first win against *ahem* Evans after Rasjuicin' was ejected.