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It's official - Our Andy has finally admitted that he's been a sicky boy, and there is no point rushing back into races when you are not properly prepared.

We all know that he had a major injury last year with the fractured sacrum/pelvis which, in retrospect, must have been all the more annoying as there were no outward, visible signs of damage. It must have been a bit hard to have to say "it hurts, it hurts" without there being any blood or bandages to show for it.

Then he came back in the Tour Down Under, not really prepared: I think Jensie's comment made it plain that Andy had not been training hard enough to be in good condition for a race. Whether we think Andy didn't train because he was worried about not being fully recovered (as indicated in his interview early in the Tour Down Under), or whether he didn't train enough because he was lazy and un-motivated (Sporza et al) is a matter of opinion.

In my opinion, obviously, I tend to believe what he has said in person, to a camera, rather than what some magazine somewhere has said, particularly when they are repeating what someone else has said.

Then there was the Tour of the Med, where he had to drop out on the first day with a respiratory infection, which was yet another blow for him, and yet more ammunition for the Schleck-knockers.

But, today, better news: Radioshack have apparently announced that he's not racing again before the end of the month. This makes a lot of sense - having been ill, he certainly won't be in race-fit condition, and he wasn't quite race-fit before the illness. 

It therefore seems sensible to take a fortnight off, and get back in training.

There's nothing about this on the Radioshack site, btw - they don't seem to talk about him very much - so we have to assume that the quote came via the press office.


“We were happy to see Andy doing well in training the last few days,” explained RadioShack Leopard manager Luca Guercilena. “There is however a big difference between training and race situations." 

“We want to prevent a relapse because of the race. Andy’s main goals are situated later in the season. It’s better that we are cautious now instead of taking steps backward.” 

So, fingers crossed everyone that he doesn't get knocked off his bike in training!

Oops, bit of a disaster on the final day - it's been a bit tricky to piece together what actually happened, but it does appear that Andy had a mechanical quite early in the race, a chain problem - and we all know  how he feels about chain problems - and abandoned the race.

Personally, I would have thought more of him if he had taken a new bike and pedalled on to the end: it would have been proof that he was not in pain, and that he had finished with the whole "Andy Schleck Abandons Race Again" theme from last year.

OK he would have come in last in the GC, and possibly last on the day.  And yes, I can see that would have been a little embarrassing for a top rider such as Our Andy. And yes, I wasn't there on the day, and don't know all the ins and outs.

But several of the Australian papers were saying that at the end, when RadioLeopard had won the team classification and were called up on stage for the presentation, "no-one knew where Schleck was" and they implied that there was a bit of a panic, with team-mates calling Andy on his mobile, and no-one knowing what was going on, until the RadioLeopard press officer confirmed that he had returned to the hotel.

Andy,  mate, what were you doing? You could at least have hung around at the finish to cheer on the others, sign a few autographs, do a few interviews, that sort of stuff.  Disappearing back to the hotel makes him look as though he was grumpy, or injured, or upset: that sort of thing.

And at this time, with last season being what it was, I think that the Schlecks need all the friends they can get.

Earlier in the week, Andy gave a very nice interview in English (Yay! Pets Andy) in which he says how hard it has been to come back from last season, in particular from the injury, but also from the problems with Mr Bruyneel, and with Frankie's test result.  

Snippets of gossip from the interview include the fact that he didn't watch much of last year's Tour - he said that once it was clear that he would not be on the team, he took his girlfriend off to Majorca to get away from it all.

He also said that having support from his family was very, very important, and said that he had a very good girlfriend that supported him, no matter what he did.

So, still seeing TinkerJill, then!

(And a good thing too!)

There was one audio interview with Jensie, but I couldn't get it to work properly - quotes in various reports seem to indicate that Jensie has Had A Word with Andy, and has told him to pull his socks up and get on with training and racing. I'll be interested to hear that interview, I'm hoping that once I'm back home on my own PC I'll be able to get it to work.

*little laptop puffs and wheezes with the effort of having to do all this work*

And it does indeed appear that the RadioLeopard kit has gone from red - Shack colours - to orange. Anyone out there know of a likely sponsor whose house colours are black, white and orange???

...and one day to go.

Go, Andy!  Stick with it!

Yes, with just one more day of racing in the Tour Down Under, RadioLeopard are leading the Team classification, Jensie is getting more publicity every day - and quite right too, go Jensie! - and Andy is still going, Yay,!

Keep those pedals turning, Andy my pet, keep them turning - I don't care if you come in last, but I will be very happy indeed if you finish the race, in one piece, and hopefully without pain in the pelvis area.

I am sure that there are going to be people criticising him for not "having a go" at winning, but I for one will be more than happy just to hear that Andy finished the race safely.

*sings Eisen Andy song*

Not a brilliant day for Andy, but at least RadioLeopard had three guys in the final sprint.

Andy came in with the 6'19" group, along with Stuey - probably having a chat on the way, do we think?  Annoyingly, we have no TV coverage, and no video coverage either. Sigh. Never mind, we can see enough from the photos to think that the RadioLeopard kit is not much changed from last year, but it does look a bit too "orange" as opposed to "red". But this could just be the light - sometimes our coverage of Quatar has strange washed-out colours due to the bright light.


There was one clip on good old Steephill TV, showing Andy holding a kangaroo, apparently it's called "Schlecky". Chorus of "Aaaaw!" from the Schlecklanders.  We have to assume that this is a tribute, not some obscure insult...

...meanwhile here in sunny England, yesterday we nearly saw the sun:

Yes, that strange orange thing is the sun, attempting to rise and burn off the fog.

By lunchtime it was glorious:


Today, not so nice: grey cloud, fog, more snow, and LLB and I decided to be adventurous and go for a walk up to Monsal Head, but it took us so long to get through Deep Dale- here is the entrance and, as you can seen, not much of a path to follow -


... that we had to abandon that plan, change direction, and head for Sheldon for lunch.  To get there we had to go for a scramble up an incredibly steep slope: clearly marked as Public Footpath but no-one else had been up it, and the undisturbed snow gave us no clue as to where the actual path was.

This photo doesn't really show quite how steep it was, but it's pretty enough to be worth including:


So that was our exciting day in the snow for today.

It's been snowing lightly all day, and the forecast for tomorrow is more snow for us, and "lumpy" for them.

Yay, Tour Down Under has started today - so far in the UK we have no coverage of it (mind you, LLB and I are away  on holiday, so our viewing options are a bit restricted)  but I can tell from good old Steephill TV that Andy came in 105th today.

Now that sounds quite bad, but he is only a minute and a half down, and looking at the time gaps, he came in the fourth or fifth group home? Something like that, anyway. He was the last of the RadioLeopards to come home, oops, but he said "Today was not an easy day."

He also said "It’s early in the season so I’m still finding my way in the peloton, but perhaps I will find that I have the legs on tomorrow’s climb.”

Fingers crossed for tomorrow, then!

Meanwhile, in Sunny England:

This is what we encountered on Sunday, at a place called Lathkill Dale: the sign on the way in says "Beware, Mines".

Not the sort that go "Boom!" when you tread on them, but very old lead mines, also known as "holes in the ground".

When walking in this area in the summer, people are advised to keep an eye open for disused mines, ie holes in the ground.

Bit difficult to see them under all this snow!

Yesterday, we bravely ventured up the fields behind the holiday cottage, where no-one had been before, being very careful at the top, where we remembered that there were mines (we've been to this same area several times, so we know it quite well) and using walking poles as useful hole-in-the-ground detectors.

The stile (arrangement for getting over dry stone walls) was completely invisible, but we knew where it ought to be, so we scrambled over the wall in the right place, dropping down the other side into thigh-deep snow drifts.

 Here is the view looking back - you see those two wooden posts? They are five feet tall, and the wall between is just over four feet tall. Those huge holes in the snow are from our legs.

The snow has drifted up to the top of the wall!

But never mind, we said to each other, we are safe now, we are in the lane, which has walls on each side, and there are bound to have been lots of people walking along it, not like the fields that we have just waded up.

Ah.

Our mistake.

This is the lane, four feet deep in snow, you can see on the left that the snow has actually drifted up to and over the wall.... and no-one has been along here today.

Did we turn tail and flee?

Did we rush back to our nice warm holiday cottage?

No, we did not, for we are brave Schlecklanders - well, I am a brave Schlecklander, and LLB is always game for a laugh -  so we started along the lane.

In some places it was only a foot or more deep, but some of the drifts were well over thigh-height for me, so it was quite an adventure! And then we came across these strange beasts:

.
Yes, they are reindeer. In England.

Presumably the farmer keeps them for some special reason - I have no idea.

I share this with you so that you know why I don't have much info on what Andy's up to  - although I would say, if you have missed it, it's worth checking the newly-renamed RadioLeopard site,  they have galleries of photos from the training/team building sessions, and some of those are quite nice.  As I only have my little laptop up here, I can't cut-and-paste photos in quite the normal way, so you will have to go and look at them for yourselves.

So, fingers crossed for a good day for Andy tomorrow, in the Tour Down Under, and no more snow for us!









Today, we woke up to find that the snow had stopped, and the sun was trying to shine.

...so Armstrong has confessed.

He doped.

He lied.

He cheated.

He bullied people.

And I was wrong when I said that his Oprah appearance was just going to be a "fluff" programme where he turned on the charisma and made it sound as though he was not such a bad guy after all.

Right, moving on:

Hello, Schlecklanders! Greeting from England: see that white blob just beyond the low wall? That's my car.

It's been snowing for a couple of hours, and it's forecast to go on for two days solid, stop for a day, then another several days of it.  We're not set up for it, you know! We don't have a chance to get used to it, we're not like those tough folk in Canada or Sweden (for example) - most years, we barely see any snow at all. And tomorrow LLB and I have a 175 mile journey right up the middle of the country. Lovely!

Meanwhile, what of Schleckland?

Well, it hasn't felt right, to be writing about Our Andy while Frankie is still waiting with the Doom of Damocles hanging over his head. It felt particularly wrong to be thinking of writing any humorous at this time. And of course we haven't had much input, as there's not much going on - apart from team-jumping, sponsor-abandonment, and prep for the Tour Down Under.

Ahh, the Tour Down Under.  On the BBC news today, squeezed right down the bottom under screaming headlines of "Snow paralyses UK!"  "schools close due to snow!" (most school children in the UK can WALK to their schools, huh, when I was at school we didn't get a day off just because of snow, we were expected to get there and get on with it, grumble grumble) "Someone Killed Due To Snow" etc etc, there was a tiny mention that Sydney is having the scorchingest day ever.

Wonder how early Andy and the others are going to go out there to acclimatise? Mondorf - pause while I check the traffic cameras - looks pretty much like England at the moment, so let's hope they've already gone out there.

I thought I remembered a mention that Andy was planning to go to Australia a couple of weeks early, anyone know if he did?

At least, we hope that today will be the day... the day that Frankie gets a decision, one way or the other, on his "adverse finding" for a non-banned substance at the Tour.

And we all hope that the decision will be for either no ban, or for a short ban that will allow him to race again as soon as the season starts.

Fingers crossed for you, Frankie!

Andy has already announced that he'll be going over to Australia early, in order to get used to the weather and the time difference, ahead of the Tour Down Under.  I expect all Schlecklanders in the area to get out their cameras and try to spot him out training...

Meanwhile, the Dark Lords of Katusha are spitting mad to be denied a Pro Team licence, despite - they say - filling all the UCI criteria.  They are not happy.

I still think that there has been an admin cock-up on the part of the UCI - well, it wouldn't be the first, would it? - and that they have made a mistake.  This could mean that one of the lowest teams gets a massive disappointment, if the UCI have to put Katusha back in, as they will presumably have to push out one of the other teams to make room for them. Argos and - sharp intake of breath - Stinkoff are the most likely to get the shove, I would have thought.

Or, of course, the UCI could just change their own rules, and have 19 teams this year, instead of 18?

Oh, naughty me, I just can't resist boosting my search figures by giving this post a provocative title!

There is no real news to report or comment on today: but I am feeling happy, happy, happy, as I have finally taken my exam.  Yes, folks, the stressful bit is over.  The studying part was great, I really enjoyed that, but I have hated doing the revision, and preparing for the exam. However, it's all behind me now, and I can relax.

This means that I can now blog without guilt!!

In celebration, I spent some time going through the photos that Barbara kindly pointed out to us: in case you didn't see the link in her comment (*pats Barbara on the back*) it's here: Julien Garroy photographer. Get a cup of tea before you start, as there are hundreds of them! (cries of "Lovely!" from the fangirls.)

As always, some of them caught my eye, so I repeat a few of them below, in no particular order, just for the fun of it.

"We Are 'Bourg"

Ah, the famous double-act. Nothing will part these two!

Not even Mr Bruyneel (allegedly) poisoning one of them.

But the question remains, who is Two of Two? Or are they actually One and Two of Three? Do we count Steve in this?

(Note, for non-Star-Trek fans, this is a reference to the Borg, an alien race consisting of.. oh, look it up for yourself!)


 Ah, now this one made me laugh for several reasons.

Not least because TinkerJil appears to be wearing a Luxembourg garter.

Well, look, she does!

I am guessing that this is an early photo of her with the family, as she is unceremoniously shoved on the outside of the row.  Not between Andy and Mamma Schleck, as you would expect her to be, and as Martine is invariably shown.

I wonder who contrived the seating arrangement? Mamma Schleck? Maybe it's those shoes? Not the style, very nice, but the colour... my dear, turquoise, with a white dress? It would possibly work if she were wearing a red hat (Lux colours, you know) but that does not appear to be the case.

To be fair, I have to say that I am not at all sure what colour shoes I would wear with a white frock, having never had such a thing: I mean, white stilettos - no. Far too "Essex Girl". Black shoes? Hmm, that's probably what I would go for: that, or tan/beige.  Anything but turquoise. If  I wore a bright colour in the shoes, it would have to match an accessory - handbag, belt, scarf, or something. Red would work, apart from looking a little trampy... it's not an easy question, is it? Poor TinkerJil, did the best she could, and here we are, criticising her from three hundred and eighty miles away.

("Fringe! Fringe!")

Right, moving on, here's a classic "OMG, what were you thinking?" moment. What was she thinking? (Not Gabi, the woman with the large frontage next to her) "Here are my breasts" would appear to be the theme of the day.

But as we know, it didn't work, Andy doesn't go for much, much older women ("Drat!") even if they do have massive racks. Although, actually, we know that he and Jakob do sometimes get distracted...


 So, what message is Andy receiving? "Excuse me, Mr Schleck, sir, there's a bunch of young women outside who say that Auntie Coug said it was all right for them to grab you after the presentation..."


 This next one pleases me immensely, as I have often asked the question - has Andy ever ridden on the track? I had assumed not, in fact I rather thought they didn't even have a velodrome in Luxembourg, since the last one fell apart from disuse in 1952.

A little research indicates that there have been plans for the last 10 years to build a new velodrome, but they haven't come to anything yet. Earlier this year, January in fact, there were plans drawn up to build one actually in Mondorf, which makes a lot of sense - but the plans seem to have stalled, and I guess the problems that Andy and Frankie are having are not helping.

So here is Andy following the Derney bike, and I am manfully going to resist commenting on his position. All I will say is that Team Sky have a really solid track background... and it shows.


Ah, but this one is nice, isn't it?  Ah, happy days.



 Well, that's all for now, I leave you with the thought of all the Leopard riders getting out the scissors and chopping off the yellow Livestrong band from their jersey's left sleeve.....
.

No, don't panic everyone, it's another one of those misleading  "Wedding Fever grips Luxembourg" titles.

As you will know, I am often fascinated by the search terms used by non-regular viewers to get here: that's people who don't normally come here, but who have typed something into Google which lead them here.

I was just checking who was reading the blog at this very moment, and these are the search terms:

OK, predictably, "Andy Schleck girlfriend" is still up there in the top 10, although we are now getting "Andy Schleck engaged" and "Andy Schleck fiancee" as well,  which shows how people are thinking.

Then we have Christian Knees bike, errrr, I am not quite sure how that search string would get you here.

Then two actually using Eisen Andy, which is odd: I mean, if you know the name of the blog, you know where it is, I would have thought? Oh well, I don't mind.

But "nasty cucumber"?? Have I ever written anything about a nasty cucumber? There was that Schpleculation about Andy watching the Lux children's TV show with the presenters dressed up as, er, what were they again? Blackberries? But I am certain I have never written about cucumbers, nasty or otherwise.

*pause while I just quickly type it into google for myself*

Woooooooah.... *round eyes*  well, that's a search term I would strongly not recommend. Three straight pages of what are clearly links to obscene stuff, a couple of references to videos of making your little brother eat cucumbers covered in things like melted cheese and ketchup, yuk: one chirpy little gardening link to "How to protect your cucumbers from beetles",  then another eleven pages of sites you really would not want to visit. So much for AVG's "safe search" mode!

I gave up after 14 pages, so I have no idea how someone came here from using that search term. Whatever you were looking for, matey, this is not it!!

I write to you on behalf of your employee, Brisbane Gal, to notify you that she will be unavailable for work for the period of January 22nd to about, ooh, let's say the 30th, allowing for a couple of extra days to recover afterwards.

As I am sure your Human Resources manager will have told you, Brisbane Girl is a hard-working and valued employee, with an exemplary attendance record, and she has taken all necessary steps to cover her work in her planned absence.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Bris Gal's Auntie Coug.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There, that should do it?

Yay, share the joy, Andy's going Down Under! (no silly jokes, please.)  Yes, it's true, he will be starting his season rather earlier than usual, so we won't have to wait until the middle of March to see him in action again.

I wonder if he'll be going over there a week or more early, to acclimatise: and in which case, do you think he'll be staying with Stuey? And hey, wouldn't it be fun if Jakob could take his new Astana kit for an outing as well?

Fingers crossed......

Good boy! *pets Andy*

Why this sudden demonstration of affection for Our Andy? It's due to the report out today with his response to the Tour 2013 parcours announcement, and the current doping scandal.

And they gave us a nice picture, he's actually smiling!

So, next year's Tour route has been announced: it's a lot lighter on the TTs, and has four good mountain top finishes, and generally speaking it suits Our Andy a great deal more than last year's one.

He's already in training, he says he still has pain from that broken pelvis, but says "I can ride my bike relatively well." Phew, I think if I had a cracked pelvis I would be taking it very, very gently for months and months.

You have to admire the dedication of these athletes, getting out there and getting on with it, don't you?

Andy has, as we know, already said that he's not giving up cycling, even though Papa Schleck has recommended it, and we are all glad to hear that - although not wishing any disrespect to his father, this is one time when I am glad Andy is making up his own mind.  I don't think it would be much fun writing a blog about a traffic cop in Luxembourg....

And when faced with the "inevitable" questioning about doping in cycling, he says:

“What has happened in the past has been really bad. We cannot just put it aside. But on the other hand: most of these things are from the past and we need to draw a line,” he said. “The young generation, and I count myself in that, has nothing to do with this past and we are the victims of it, in a way.

“So I'm saying: let's not forget about what has happened, but let's take lessons from it and move on."

What's all that about?
Apparently Johny Schleck has been talking to a French publication about the state of cycling these days.
As an aside, am I the only one who thinks of Johny Schleck as Joe-nee? Here in the UK, the name is John with one "n", and the casual version is Johnny with two "n"s. Pronounced Jonn-ee. But with only one "n" it just doesn't look right, and I think of him as Joe-nee, as in Joni Mitchell. ("Big yellow taxi")Is that just me?

Anyway, leaving aside the pronunciation of his name, he has suddenly told the press that he thinks Andy and Frankie should give up cycling.

This seems a bit of an odd thing to say, just at this time: clearly he is bothered by the doping scandal, well, aren't we all, and clearly he is concerned about Frankie and his personal doping scandal. He tells the paper that Frankie is "depressed", and has spent a lot of money on fighting the accusations.

But he was a pro cyclist at a time when doping was accepted. I seem to remember, when I first started following Andy Schleck, reading interviews where he said that he was determined from the beginning that his boys would be "clean" riders, and I have often read references to them being part of the "new generation" of clean riders. It was one of the things that made me want to follow the Schlecks: the idea that their parents were also from the sporting world, as they were both professional athletes - they would know all about the pressures, and would ensure that Andy and Frankie were aware of the pitfalls of doping,and were never pressured to become part of it.

So why would he decide that they should throw away everything they have worked for, all their lives, just now?

It seems a bit odd.

OK, Frankie is going through a terrible experience right now, and Andy has certainly had a horrible, horrible year, but that is only one year: they will get through it, things will get better.  Frankie is probably approaching his peak cycling years now, and Andy is just getting better every year (said she, loyally, ignoring the total lack of results from 2012).

Elle made a good point in the comments on the last post, in that our boys have indeed pissed off some big names in cycling, not least being Mr Bruyneel and his entourage. "The Schlecks are not easy to work with" he said earlier this year, ha! ha! "Not easy to bully", perhaps?

But this is not a reason for giving up - not now, not when it is all at the tipping point (I think) and is going to get better. No, stop laughing, or making cynical noises, I really feel that this scandal is going to be the one that fixes cycling: sometimes you have to shake something to its core in order to shake some sense into it.

The next couple of years are going to be a bit lean on the sponsor side, I suspect, and it is entirely possible that the ProTeam league might go down to maybe 10-15 teams for a while, but I don't think this signals the end of cycling, do you?

Especially as Mr Bruyneel is going to be, er, very busy for the forthcoming months: hopefully far too busy to be interfering with Andy and Frankie. I know it's rude of me, bearing in mind that I've never met the guy, but I have formed an opinion about him, and I would be very happy to see him thrown out of cycling: or at the very least, sidelined for the duration of a long-drawn-out investigation ("Ha! See how you like it, matey!) that keeps him away until certain contracts expire, and certain riders are free once more.

So come on Andy, just this once, don't listen to your Papa.

Besides, what would they do?

If he doesn't want to ride, then presumably he wouldn't want them to be any part of it: so would we end up with Frankie working in the casino in Mondorf? Andy commuting to an office job in Lux city? What a terrible thought!

*raised eyebrows* Surely not?

Found this on the BBC news website this morning:

Phew, it's ok, it's not Our Andy and TinkerJil, it's the crown prince getting hitched.

Other news to be reported today:  cycling continues to reel from the Armstrong thing: like Jimmy Savile, he's been judged "guilty" even though there hasn't been a court case, and cycling is falling apart at the seams all around.

Rabobank are withdrawing from sponsorship, which is such a shame as they are one of the longest-running pro-team sponsors, 17 years so far, with the most consistent kit.  Luckily they are taking their contract and responsibilities seriously, and are continuing to pay the team for next year, but are taking away their name.

Bert Bruggink said " the USADA report into doping by Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team was the reason for the decision."

Thanks, USADA.

It seems like a ridiculous thing to say: I find it hard to believe that Johan Bruyneel, no matter how aggrieved he felt with either of the Schlecks, would stoop to actually poisoning them.

I can almost - almost - understand the idea of someone in his position giving a rider an illegal drug in order that they would fail a doping test, just out of spite.

I can certainly imagine one team setting out to "dope" a rival rider: or a demented fan (or cycling hater) doing something like that - if you remember, when Frankie's adverse finding was first reported, that was our main thought, that Frankie had accidentally taken a bidon meant for someone else.

Whether it was a doping rider's usual "special" bidon, or  merely a randomly contaminated bidon,  both suggestions were equally valid:  likewise whether it was meant for Frankie, or whether he grabbed it by mistake, again, we would never know.

But in all those cases, it would be done by someone outside the team. I find it very hard to believe that anyone in the management would do anything to harm one of their own riders - I believe the phrase is "cutting off your nose to spite your face."

It's not as though Shack have so many UCI points that they don't need any more.

But even if that were the case, and it was done by someone within the team, either by Mr Bruyneel, or at his direction - to give Frankie something that could possibly kill him?  There's a world of difference between giving a rider something that would cause him to fail doping, and something that might cause his heart to fail.

I don't quite see that happening.

But as Inge said (comments, last post), it's a bit of a coincidence that Frankie's hearing was postponed for a week, and within that week, we have had the suggestion - it came from L'Equipe, which I would have thought was a fairly respectable sports journal - that it was deliberate poisoning, to prevent him from being attractive to any other teams.

(As though he would leave Andy behind, pffff!)

Meanwhile, Andy has had some reasonable days of riding in Beijing: we haven't seen much of him, and he didn't quite finish the race, but the DS on the Shack site said that he'd had four good days of racing, and would now be going straight on into training, through the winter, in the sure and certain  hope that next season would be considerably better than this one, in every single way.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Beijing:

Reporter: So, Andy, what's all this about Mr Bruyneel poisoning your brother?
Andy: *stony silence*, face somewhat reminiscent of small child presented with spoonful of stewed prunes and wordlessly conveying the message "no, I won't eat it."

 Is that Sprite he's drinking?

Oh, and what's that on his upper lip? No, Andy, not another attempt to grow the Caterpillar of Doom, please!

Wow, I'm sitting down but I'm still staggering: yes, Mr Bruyneel has been given the shove by RadioShack:

As Mr Bruyneel seems to be firmly responsible for the general unhappiness of our Leopard boys, I can't be anything other than jubilant at this news.

Typically, Mr Bruyneel manages to put a "spin" on it to make it sound as though it were his choice: "“I have decided to step back from my official team activities in order to concentrate on my defence, and in order to shield the RadioShack - Nissan - Trek cycling team from unnecessary distractions,” he wrote on his website. 

Yeah, right. Shielding the team from distractions. Nice one.

I bet there are some celebrations going on in various places in Europe today! It appears from the above report that Fabian had earlier said "it's him or me", so he must be thrilled to bits. And of course Andy and his family must be just heaving huge sighs of relief that this horrible season is now over, Mr B's rule is now over, and next year they can all get back on track and just get on with the cycling. Suddenly, having another two years on the contract does not seem like such a ball and chain, after all.

I don't know if they will be celebrating so much at Frankie's place: I imagine they are still worried to bits about Frankie's adverse finding, but at least they now know that once it is over, Frankie will know (are you paying attention, Alice?)  that he will be returning to a much better environment.

Right, now we can start speculating about the new kit!

Fingers crossed, Our Andy is going to be starting the Tour of Beijing next week, and we all hope that his pelvis is up to the job.

It was widely reported that he started Binche-Tournai-Binche but was unable to finish it, leading certain journalists to speculate that he wasn't fully recovered yet.

I must admit, it's clear that he's not fully recovered, so I don't quite see the point of racing, as opposed to continuing with the training - it's well known that training is no substitute for racing, and that it's just not possible to achieve the speeds and pressure in training that you would encounter in an actual race: but I don't quite see why Andy needs that speed and pressure when, I would have thought, he could tell from training rides that his backside is still not 100%.

(Only on the inside, Andy, my pet, only on the inside: on the outside, please be assured your backside is 100% of what it was.)

Starting races and not finishing them just fuels the "Andy Schleck is a quitter" stories that we all hate.

Still, I'm not his DS, and I am sure there are good reasons for it, so all we can do it sit and watch with fingers crossed, and hope that he finishes at Beijing. 

From what I can make out, it's not a particularly punishing parcours, but I understand that long days in the saddle are currently the problem, rather than hills: and the Beijing course only appears to have one hilly day in it.

With all the Schleck-Shlack problems we've been having, it's actually a very good sign that Shack are prepared to send Andy to Beijing: they could easily have left him out, preferring to send another rider who is in better form, in order to support Eeee-bennati and get more UCI points. 

After all, Shack are not exactly at the top of the UCI points rankings this year - they are currently sitting 12th, which is not brilliant - but of course this year there are only 19 teams chasing the 18 places, rather different from previous years, and as long as Shack have more points than Stinkoff - not hard,  bearing in mind that Contador's points won't count, and he has 290 of Stinkoff's 385, oops - then they are unlikely to be in trouble.

So fingers and toes crossed, everyone: oh, and Andy, don't forget to pack your breathing mask.

Here's a bit of non-cycling news that could have a big effect on Our Andy:  Shack are in big trouble.

Their CEO,  James Gooch, has quit. Not surprising, as Shack's shares have tumbled 83% since he took over in May of last year.

83% !!!

For those of you who are not quite clear how much of a drop that is:

The report says that Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities (who? And why is he competent to comment on this story?) said one problem facing RadioShack is its name, which conjures up images from another era.

“Radio is a concept from a hundred years ago, and a shack is a place that essentially homeless people lie in,” he said.

Well, good point, hadn't really thought about it in those terms.

Certainly this can't be good for their sponsorship of a cycling team - even though the cost of running a cycle team is negligible to a company of that size, it is no doubt considered an easy thing to cut, when cuts have to be made.

Out of interest, how does this relate to AndyFan satisfaction with RadioShack and their team management style?  I asked a random selection of Andy Schleck fans how they would rate their satisfaction with how Shack have treated riders and staff, since the merger:


Yes, I can see a clear correlation there, can't you?

So, what will we get next year?

Nissan-Trek?

Hey folks, look what I found while checking out Andy Schleck Parameter of Legs:

http://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Andy_Schleck

I thought that this was far too good to keep to myself, and that you should all share in it's wonderfulness. 

And I quote:

"... you are nervous, expressive, lively and adaptable, with a quick mind and a good sense of humour. You are bubbling, playful, sociable, clever, curious, whimsical, independent, intellectual, flexible, ingenious, fanciful, imaginative, charming, cerebral, and you are into everything. You may also be whimsical, unfocused, quirky, superficial, indiscreet, opportunist, unmindful, selfish, sarcastic or mercurial."

This is somewhat similar to a Mystic Meg prediction, don't you think?

Note for non-UK readers: when the UK first started having the National Lottery, in order to try to make it interesting, they dragged in some weird woman in too much make-up, who would make a "prediction" each week. These were so bland that they were utterly useless, leading satirical comics of the time to do impressions of her giving a prediction along the lines of  "....this week's winner will be *long pause* a man.... *longer pause* or a woman."  End of Note.

Regarding his amorous activities, it suggests:

"Paradoxically, you are very charming and attractive but you are more interested in the game itself. Indeed, thrills of verbal joust, fun, the pleasure to communicate over and over again, remain the centres of your concerns."

Wonder what TinkerJil would say about that? Or, worse still, whoever did it clearly hasn't heard about her, as it goes on to say:-

"You clearly prefer to be a bachelor because you appreciate its hustle and bustle: outings, exciting parties or a wide range of encounters etc. However, when you meet with your soul mate, you turn into a pleasant and charming partner, although you may not be around too often!"

Andy's life path has been influenced, apparently, by the number 3.  Funny, I would have said the number 6, if anything, isn't that the number that has been his race number more than any other? Which, incidentally, will be my question if I ever have to speak to Andy in person: I thought it showed an in-depth study of his racing life, without being too stalker-y, don't you think?

Anyway, do enjoy the chart.... and do let me know how accurate you thought it was? *sniggers*

At last, the Tour of Britain was underway, LLB and I went to a couple of stages, and some of my predictions were coming spookily true...

Luke Rowe, for example, winning the first stage, and generally whizzing about the place. Go, Luke!

Mark "Marky Mark" Cavendish going for every sprint stage: check!

Bradley waving at the crowd and signing autographs along the way: ok, not terribly accurate on that one, he worked like a real domestique for days, then on the very stage that LLB and I went to, he went down with a stomach bug, drat. So we didn't get to see those famous sideburns in person this year.

Boy Van Poppel certainly did me proud - he won the overall points jersey, so well done to him.

I also mentioned John Herety who runs Rapha Condor - check! Saw him, in fact he nearly ran my foot over in the team car, but more of that later.

Didn't see Sean Kelly of An Post Sean Kelly team: but I saw quite a lot of team UK Youth, and Yanto Barker (pause for mild swooning) came 6th in the final stage, quite literally in front of me.

Sammy Sanchez - check! He's not as scary in real life as on the TV, possibly because I saw him on his way to sign in, so the scary corrugated forehead was not in sight, he was quite relaxed. And rather smaller than he appears on TV.

Orica Greenedge were there, saw them, got a musette, check! Did the "Call me" to the team car, got a big smile and a return of the gesture: check!

Team UK Youth: check! I have to report that Magnus Backstedt is a huge bear of a man, even allowing for the fact that, like all pro cyclists, he's lean: he's very easy to spot in the peloton! I think he's as tall as JVS (honorary Schlecklander Johan Van Summeren) but much beefier. I am now a confirmed UK Yoof supporter, or had you already guessed?

So, what are my impressions of a Start, then?

You might remember that last year, LLB and I went to a couple of stages of the ToB, we learned about good places to stand, how to find a good spot on the route, what fun TTs are, how close the cyclists get, and how to avoid being caught on camera - well, except for that one video - and we experienced a stage race, a loop, a crit, and a TT.

This year I specifically wanted to go to a start, and to go to a finish,

Our "start" was Stage 6, Welshpool to Caerphilly, and I had cunningly lured LLB on a short holiday, just a couple of days, to visit a couple of places in Wales that I had been wanting to see, and to just casually, on the way back, take in the start.

We agreed that we wanted to get to Powis castle nice and early, about an hour and a half before the start, so we left the hotel straight after breakfast and headed out.

There was I, merrily driving along the Shrewsbury by-pass, both of us full of Little Chef cooked breakfast, when suddenly I noticed a UK Youth car coming up on the outside. Followed by a UK Youth van. And then another UK Youth car.

Aha, the UK Youth team are clearly on their way to the event! I waved at them as they passed,  and was tempted to follow them, but they were pressing on a bit, and we weren't in a rush, so we let them go.

On arrival at Powis, we were quite surprised to see the queue of cars ahead of us, bearing in mind that we were good and early. Car parking was beautifully organised in a massive field, with lots of marshalls on hand to direct the stream of people up to the Castle - and there was a constant stream, far more than I would have expected for a mid-week, somewhat overcast day in the middle of Wales.

If you've never been to a start, I can tell you, the podium area is really, really, noisy! They seem to think that playing loud music is the way to get everyone excited, along with a hyper-thyroid children's TV presenter (well, that's what he sounded like) geeing everyone up.

They also bus in as many loads of schoolkids as possible - the younger the better. They rope off areas against the barriers right by the start for the schools, thus ensuring the maximum volume of screaming.

Not wishing to lose our hearing,  we strolled away from the start in search of team buses. There were only a couple on site, which rather surprised us: the three UK Youth vehicles, of course, and the big Garmin bus and their team cars. We did wonder where the UK Youth riders were: were they squashed in the back of the van? Surely it was a kit van, not a mini-van?

The Garmin bus was, obviously, getting all the attention: there was a significant crowd gathered around it on all sides. Slightly unfortunate then, that one of the mechanics decided to move one of the team cars, and didn't quite realise that the car park area was far from level. CRUNCH!!!!  Heads turned from all directions, and gales of laughter swept round the audience once they realised that no bikes had been harmed, just the bumpers of the two cars.

Luckily for the extremely embarrassed Garmin workers, the Deathstar appeared - you know, that huge Sky coach with the satellite dish on top.Apparently they have two of them, Deathstar 1 and Deathstar 2. Deathstar 1 does all the big races, the Tours and so on, while Deathstar 2 covers the less important outings. We were clearly being honoured with Deathstar 1, and it swept slowly into the parking area, like a gigantic black magnet that pulled all the spectators away from Garmin and the dented cars. I think the driver had planned to stop the coach next to the Garmin one, neatly in line, but he had to stop where he was, because of the huge crowd.

At that point, taking advantage of the sudden silence around the Garmin bus, I made my quivering way to the bus in my search for a musette. See Mumping of the Musettes for the gory details.

Shortly after the Deathstar, other teams started arriving, including - about half an hour later - the UK Youth hired minibus and the nauseating pink Wyndy Milla van, they being the company who supply the bikes. They've changed their logo from horrible pink:

 Yes, they used to sponsor a domestic team, and forced them to ride horrible pink bikes while wearing horrible pink lycra.

I have nothing more to say on this subject.

...to a very tasty Union Jack logo on white background, which is far, far nicer.

Sadly, their kit van is still pink, and now rather faded pink at that.  But as we know, the UK cycling scene is still at the bottom of the scale of popularity etc, so sponsorship, and therefore funding, is still hard to come by. Obviously, it's a lot cheaper to put up with the pink van than to have an expensive respray.

The UK Youth kit is likewise mostly white (cries of "No! Not white shorts!") although sometimes they wear black shorts with their white jerseys, of which I approve highly.

The time was ticking by... for a 10.30 start, it was a bit odd to see buses still rolling into the car park at gone 10 o'clock.  And hardly any signs of riders, just mechanics doodling around, checking bikes, and fending off nervous but determined Cougs who were mumping for musettes.

Oh, before I leave the subject of UK Youth, LLB and I did our bit towards supporting them: being first in, they were parked right at the top, by the big metal sign saying "Team Parking" or something similar. It was a heavy metal sign, but not quite heavy enough for a windy day in Wales: LLB and I looked at it and said "let's hope that doesn't fall over on the team car."  A little later, we were inspecting the bikes on the team car roof - they are a great deal chunkier than you would expect, btw - and the wind caught the sign, which started to fall over. Luckily, quick-thinking LLB caught it before it fell, and stood on it, to hold it upright, while I attracted the attention of one of the management team, and advised them about the sign.

They moved the sign away from their team car, and then additionally moved the team car back a couple of feet. We felt happy that we'd prevented an accident.

Even more so five minutes later, when, with a loud CLANG! the sign fell over, right where the car would have been.

Hey, we saved them money on their car insurance! And they have the nice mechanic to thank for it - if he hadn't kindly given me the musette earlier, we would not have been hanging around by their cars admiring the bikes, confident that they wouldn't shout at us to go away.

The buses kept rolling in, right up until about 20 past 10 - and don't forget, the start was due at 10.30, and I found this really weird. Presumably riders have done their warm-up on rollers at the hotel, or maybe on the roads, earlier on? They certainly would not have had much time at the start zone.

Note for would-be stalkers: not much point hanging out at the buses, everyone else is there and you will be just a face in the crowd. Plus, they keep the riders locked on the buses until the last minute, behind mirror glass......  however, they all have to go up to the  podium to sign on, and they do this very, very slowly indeed. So, if you want a good close look at them, work out the route between where the team buses are parked, and the start podium,  and get yourself somewhere between the two.

We found a nice spot on the lead-in road, settled down with flags and cameras, and watched everyone coming past once in order to sign on, then coming past us again to return to the team buses. Absolutely near enough to touch, if you really want to get yourself arrested for molesting a cyclist.

We saw most of the Sky guys coming past at least once - three times, in the case of  Jeremy Hunt - but no Bradley. We kept wondering where he was, and it wasn't until we got home and checked the news that we heard about him having to drop out due to a stomach bug.

There now follows a selection of the photos I took on the day, just to prove that I was there: my captions are below each one.

Magnus Backstedt, of UK Youth, coming back from the podium, fiddling with his shoes. Pity there isn't another rider in the shot, to illustrate just how very BIG he is!!

Oh, and yes, barriers on one side, but no barriers on the other side, you really could mingle with them, if you wanted to.


Liquigas coming back down.


Drat, I missed him. Sorry about that.


Endura racing, one of our domestic teams: merging with NetApp next season, which means they are going up to Pro Continental status, just as their star, Jonathon Tiernan-Locke, leaves them. Ironic, huh? Rumour has it that JT-L is going to Sky, but we don't know for certain yet.


Ah, that will be an elbow, then.Behind the elbow, Christian Knees! No, not really, it's VacanSoleil.


Sky's Jeremy Hunt.You can tell, he has it written on the side of his jersey.


Euskaltel - ah, dear little carrots. Sadly, one of them was dead within a week.


Team Great Britain: nice kit! Last-minute addition to the Tour, apparently.


My pet, Luke Rowe. Go, Luke!

Are you ready for a terrible religious joke? *in voice of thunder* And God cried out to Luke, crying "Luke! Luke!" But Luke never looked, and fell down an 'ole. OK, it works better when said in a northern accent.


Marky Mark Cavendish, not looking happy. He rarely does, actually.


Jeremy Hunt returning.


Oh, Jeremy Hunt going back up again. With a different UK Youth rider. (no arm warmers, did you notice?) Perhaps he's on escort duty. Funny, we didn't see him come down again...


Rapha Condor looking nervous.


Pff! That kit is even worse than that of Farnese...it's Node 4, in case you've never heard of them.


NetApp look nervous...


"Call me, maybe"  Drat, Christian Knees got in the way. Never mind, I'll catch them later.


The start line. As you can see, crowds of people.  Just after 10.30, nothing happened, and after a while the announcer-car came backwards up the start funnel, saying "Sorry, folks, slight delay, we're going to be about 15 minutes late in starting due to a technical problem."

LLB and I decided we'd had enough of the crowds, so we made our way along the route away from the start, until the crowds thinned right out, and there was plenty of room to stand right at the roadside.

We found a good  place at the head of the cavalcade, and (being me) I struck up a conversation with the Blackboard motorcycle. Well, with the rider and  passenger, obviously, not with the actual motorbike, that would be strange.

Coug: "So, Mr Motorcycle, how are you enjoying your participation in the Tour?"
Bike: "                          "
Coug: "Is it tough on the clutch?"
Bike: "                          "

Yes, best not to go there.

The blackboard girl was very nice, she was happy that the weather was improving, and that they were not likely to have to drive through deep puddles today, but commented that they - her and the rider - were now famous as they'd been on the BBC news following the Blackpool stage: apparently there was deep water on the road, and she'd lifted her legs up to avoid getting wet feet. We had to admit that we were away from  home on holiday, and hadn't yet watched that footage.

(But we did when we returned, and sure enough, there she was lifting her feet up - very comical.)

The chap on the front said it wasn't his first Tour, he'd been a motorcycle rider in the Giro and the TdF as well, in fact he was very experienced at doing it.  He said the worst part about working the Tour of Britain, apart from the girl on the back (who swiped him with her blackboard for saying it!) was having to work with some of the domestic teams, who were not as savvy as the Pro Team riders, and who would always try to take a draft from him.  He said that the pro riders didn't do that, they just kept on cycling.

The technical problem turned out to be the police outriders who were having problems with their radios, but new batteries had been found, and sure enough, ten minutes later, they got the word that all was ready, so we said goodbye, wished them well for the day, stepped back and let them make their way off.

The rest of the leading motorcade went past, then the cyclists, led by Team Sky:


And when the Orica GreenEdge car got to us, that was the moment when I gave the "Call me, maybe" gesture and received it back from the driver.

Proud!

It was a good time to do it, they were going really slowly, as they were still within the grounds of the Castle, well within the neutralized zone, and the driver's big smile made it all worthwhile.

And that was that! We made our way back to the car par field, and I was staggered to see how many cars were there. It was an enormous field, and it was completely covered in cars - there must have been way more than a thousand cars there, which is fantastic, and I'm really thrilled to think that so many people in Britain are now interested in cycling.

So there you go, that's the "start" done - check! - now just the finish to go.

Note for non-UK readers: "mumping" means asking for something of low value for free. Not stealing it, or demanding with menaces, just asking, sometimes slightly cheekily.

Now read on.....

Well, we did it: LLB and I went to two stages of the Tour of Britain this year, and fulfilled my ambition to attend a start, and a finish, of a stage race. Adding those to last year, when we did a mid-point of a stage, a Crit, and a Time Trial (right to the end, in the rain), that only leaves a Mountain stage to be attended, and we've done everything!

My additional not-so-secret agenda for the ToB was to get another musette or two, to add to my lovely Leopard Trek one.

In case you've forgotten, at last year's Tour of Britain I eventually managed to get one from the Leopard bus, with much fear and trembling, and a lot of pushing from LLB ("Go on, ask them!" "Nooooo, I'm too shy!" " Go on, get up there!" "Nooooo! I can't!" "Go on, just ask them, think what your fangirls would say if you didn't even go and ask." "Oh all right.")

As soon as I got home, the musette was converted into a handy shopping bag:



...and has been in almost daily use every since. And no, not once, NOT ONCE! has anyone tapped me on the shoulder and said "Hey, nice Leopard bag!". So disappointing.

Anyway, (*pauses to wipe away a tear. Surely I am not the only Andy Schleck fan in the area??*) there we were at Powis Castle, Stage 6, nice and early, ready for the start, with time to kill hanging around the Team buses.

Team UK Youth were there, my "underdog" team for the Tour, so I waited until they didn't seem to be over-busy, picked out the youngest chap on duty, then approached them.

"Errrr, 'scuse me, I know you're busy, but-" (*big eyes*) "...I was wondering if there'd be any chance of having a musette - an empty one?" (*rising inflection, faint Leelu tone in my voice*) "I'd love one as a souvenir..." *voice trails off, bats eyelashes.*

It worked! The nice mechanic told me to "'Ang on a min," grovelled around in the back of the van and brought back an somewhat battered cotton bag. "Ooo!" I squealed like a complete girly, "Thank you very much!"



The nice mechanic leaned in, confidentially. "We call them the Bag For Life" he grinned. "Why?" I replied, with a slightly confused look. "Because they are so big," he said, "they're much bigger than everyone else's!"

Second note for non-UK readers: supermarkets in the UK, in an effort to wean us away from using millions of flimsy plastic carrier bags, now make what they call the Bag For Life, which is a bigger carrier bag, made of very sturdy plastic. The idea is that instead of lots of free flimsy ones, you pay 10p for a Bag For Life, use it instead of the free flimsy ones, then when it gets tatty, the store will swap it, free of charge, for a new one.

And yes indeed, the UK Youth musettes are huge! And please note the two handles, just like a normal shopping bag - clearly these bags have been designed and/or supplied by a company who have never seen a cycle race in their life. One strap, guys, one long strap so they can swing it over their necks, remember?!

Also, you might notice that it's a bit crumpled - yes, it was a second-hand bag, with mud and a partial footprint on it, possibly some sweat stains (not quite sure) and it contained some empty wrappers.

Awww, that's so sweet, UK Youth re-use their musettes!

Oh no - a horrible thought occurs to me - what if they were one bag short at the feed station? They are a charity, they have a really, really small budget....oops, perhaps I'd better make a donation after the race? Anyway, this bag is therefore ready for use, once it's had a quick wash.

Next was Garmin: I felt a bit sorry for them - they were the first big team in the parking area, crowds of people all around, someone decided to move one of their team cars and crash! it hit the other team car. Gales of laughter from the crowd, lots of glum faces from the mechanics. Oh dear, left in charge of the cars for half an hour and look what happens? Two dented bumpers. Oops.

Then the Deathstar arrived (Sky's big team coach, so called by Dave Millar, who is, we can guess, ever so slightly jealous) and the whole crowd flocked over to it, like metal filings to a magnet.

It was a bit sad for Garmin, really. One minute they were the "big" team, their posh coach and natty matching cars (now with matching dented bumpers. mwah hah hah!) utterly overshadowing the UK Youth's tiny little white van and odd mix of cars.

Next minute, cries of "Oooh, Sky!" and everyone had fled.

So I repeated the dialogue above, and the nice Garmin mechanic went round to their road van and found me a brand new musette:

"There you are," he said, "seeing as you asked so nicely."

So nicely? All I said was - well, you've already read the dialogue. Please and thank you did come into it, along with a smile: but it rather made me wonder how other people ask for things. LLB, when I reported this later, said that most people probably just stomp up to them and say, "gimme a bidon, mate," or something like that.



Here it is, very similar indeed to the Leopard Trek one, smartly printed on nylon, none of your rough calico bags for these big teams.

Next on the hit-list was the Orica GreenEdge bus. My third ambition for this Tour being, of course, to do the "Here's my num-bah, Call me maybe!" dance and get a response.

Sorry, did you miss that?

Where have you been!

With huge thanks to Brisbane Gal for bringing this to my attention, the Orica GreenEdge team did a spoof video of themselves miming along to "Call me, maybe", having seen the video made by the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders. Oddly, LLB was familiar with the cheerleader version, but hadn't seen the Orica one.

It's brilliant, and as Brisbane Gal quite rightly said, that's what we want to see, a team having fun. Fun! Our poor Leopards used to have fun, but not any more *sniffle*.

In case you missed it, try this: or just type "Orica GreenEdge call me maybe" into google...

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEvX_vKDYEw&w=560&h=315]

So I bravely made my way up to the Orica bus (well, LLB had to give me a bit of a shove, actually), asked, but was told they were too busy, and to come back after the start.

Oh well, fair enough, lots to do, race to attend.. so we left them to it.

After the start, of course, by the time we'd made our way back through the crowds, all the Team buses were long gone...

...but on Sunday at Guildford, we located the Team Bus area, and I tried again. This time, success! They brought me out a musette, and proudly pointed to the front of it:



If you can see it, there's a piece of tape with Daryl on it.

"Daryl!" they beamed at me ("they" being the two rather italian mechanics, in case you were wondering).

I must have looked a little confused.

"Daryl Impey!" they chorused.

Yes, I know who Daryl is, but why are you giving me his musette? He's not even in this race.

Oh well, who cares! For your general information, I can tell you that the Orica GreenEdge musettes are a bit of a disappointment, being a) quite a bit smaller than Leopard/Garmin, and b) made of a woven nylon fabric that has a very odd texture to it.

Well, I won't be using that one for shopping. Pity, as it's quite the prettiest one - apart from the Leopard one, of course. *she says, loyally.*

Here we are then, a selection of freshly mumped musettes:



So there you go, all ambitions achieved. "All" ambitions? Yes, I did the "call me maybe" gesture to the Orica team car as they rolled away at the start, and the driver returned the gesture! Success!