Yay! See how happy Our Glorious Leader is? He's heard that I have another follower and I am therefore allowed another photo of him, so Hi! to Evaaaaa with lots of aaaas at the end, and thank you for becoming a Schlecklander.
Unndy has also heard that there was cycling on TV in the UK over the weekend, and of course he's very happy that we were able to watch Frankie boy winning the Crit, yay!
Talk about a nail-biting finish, last to go in the TT and not famed for his TT skills, but Frank did a terrific job, and we were thrilled to see him in yellow.
Not to forget Fabian winning E3, but as we didn't get any footage of that, we can't get quite as excited.... and even with the Crit, we didn't get to see any of the road stage. But we have learned to be grateful for whatever scraps Eurosport throw us....
Catalunya is proving to be a bit tricky to follow: I don't know if Eurosport were having problems or just making mistakes, but we got Stage 5 three times, and no Stage 6 at all. We're hoping that what they advertised as Stage 7 will indeed turn out to be that stage.
Moving aside from cycling just for a moment, there's been disturbing goings-on in Leelu's fridge again:
Right! Back to the cycling!
But wait!
There are more scufflings in Leelu's fridge!
Quick, get the baseball bat, there are some highly dangerous kanGERoos in there, and they are making a bid for the wine box as well!
Oh no, panic! There's going to be a fight!
Everyone remember this pic?
Barbara supplied it as Exhibit A in the "Andy Schleck has a heart-shaped scar on his right leg" episode, so let's pause while everyone focusses on his leg.
Mmmm.
OK, now we'll spare some attention for the oil can.
Why is he carrying an oil can?
Apparently, due to the cut-backs in the peloton - oh, if you missed this controversy, it started with the race radios business: you know, the UCI are phasing out the radios to make the cycling "more exciting", or so they think.
That's phase one.
After the radios have gone, riders will have to start carrying puncture repair outfits in order to fix any flat tyres that they might get while out racing.
Bearing in mind that the number of support members in the cars is also being drastically reduced, the cyclists will also have to act as back-up support for the cars, instead of it being the other way round:
Then, in phase three, the number of roadside helpers will also be reduced, so instead of feeding stations, riders will have the option of either knocking on doors as they pass through villages, or of using service stations en route:
As you can see, Astana are one of the first teams to really embrace these new rules and restrictions.
I've searched the Leopard Trek site quite thoroughly (as you can imagine) and I haven't found any mention of what their strategy is going to be, but no doubt they'll have a press conference to announce it shortly.
Finally, a truly ridiculous picture that was just too good to keep over until next winter...
Wonder what the policeman is thinking?
"He looks 'armless!"
" 'Sno way to be riding a bike!"
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