My Annual Soap Opera!
Jul. 3rd, 2010 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
endlessraritiesI've had it up to here with football, tennis, football, cricket, football, football, more football...
In case you haven't guessed, I don't much like sport.
But...
I do like pro-cycling, and today saw the start of my annual fixation with the Tour de France.
The Tour is like a complex novel. The plot's very involved. There's larger than life, and yet strangely vulnerable, characters. There's a main thread of a plot - the yellow jersey (aka the Golden Fleece, perhaps) - and then there's a whole load of minor sub-plots threading through it. There's drama and tension and all sorts of strange folk along the way. And it's damned hard to follow. And the setting's hard to beat - fields of sunflowers and lavender, little French market towns, glorious mountains. There's magnificent heroes battling out in an epic confrontation - why, the Ancient Greeks would love it, I'm sure! Men break bones and suffer all manner of hardship, and yet they keep on going regardless.
Yep, I'm hooked. I'm rooting for Contador this year, because I'm fed up with the likes of Lance Armstrong and Cadel Evans trying to become celebrities (swaggering around with bodyguards, for Chrissake! What are you thinking about??). And Team Sky just doesn't hit the spot for me. It's too commercialised and over-hyped. But I will be cheering on Cav in the Green Jersey competition.
An aside to all would-be or actual team managers out there. White skinsuits are a seriously bad idea. They're fine in the blazing sun, but when it rains they're a no-no. The end result is very nice for voyeurs who like oogling shapely young men as they strut their stuff in the time trials (the Ancient Greeks would approve of that, too) but it's probably not ideal for family viewing. Lycra shorts are black for a reason.
In case you haven't guessed, I don't much like sport.
But...
I do like pro-cycling, and today saw the start of my annual fixation with the Tour de France.
The Tour is like a complex novel. The plot's very involved. There's larger than life, and yet strangely vulnerable, characters. There's a main thread of a plot - the yellow jersey (aka the Golden Fleece, perhaps) - and then there's a whole load of minor sub-plots threading through it. There's drama and tension and all sorts of strange folk along the way. And it's damned hard to follow. And the setting's hard to beat - fields of sunflowers and lavender, little French market towns, glorious mountains. There's magnificent heroes battling out in an epic confrontation - why, the Ancient Greeks would love it, I'm sure! Men break bones and suffer all manner of hardship, and yet they keep on going regardless.
Yep, I'm hooked. I'm rooting for Contador this year, because I'm fed up with the likes of Lance Armstrong and Cadel Evans trying to become celebrities (swaggering around with bodyguards, for Chrissake! What are you thinking about??). And Team Sky just doesn't hit the spot for me. It's too commercialised and over-hyped. But I will be cheering on Cav in the Green Jersey competition.
An aside to all would-be or actual team managers out there. White skinsuits are a seriously bad idea. They're fine in the blazing sun, but when it rains they're a no-no. The end result is very nice for voyeurs who like oogling shapely young men as they strut their stuff in the time trials (the Ancient Greeks would approve of that, too) but it's probably not ideal for family viewing. Lycra shorts are black for a reason.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 10:07 am (UTC)Don't get me wrong - I think he's absolutely amazing, both as an athlete and a survivor. But I really don't like his attitude. He has to create an enemy - he probably destroyed Pantani, and now he's trying to undermine Contador by building him up into an evil foe that must be crushed. It's an unhealthy attitude, and one which I think is unbecoming in any sporting endeavour, let alone cycling.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 04:18 pm (UTC)P.S. -- We lived near the Trexlertown Velodrome when the skin suit was first introduced, and as I worked for Rodale at the time some bike race attendence was de rigeur. Besides, we enjoyed ogling the bodies. I had a friend who enjoyed shouting "Does your mother know you're wearing that?" at the young cyclists most likely to blush.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 04:34 pm (UTC)Your friend's so mean, embarrassing the poor cyclists like that! I must admit, the good scenery was one of the advantages of my joining the local chain gang. But the boys got their revenge one day when I crashed and ripped my shorts. I had a few of them jostling behind me eager for a good view.
What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander...
no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 12:53 pm (UTC)Giggles at peek-a-boo clothing. Where can I sign up?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 01:42 pm (UTC)Methinks the telly folks got wise to it after a while - the edited highlights had a distinct lack of wet white skinsuits. And Fabian Cancellara, who won, and was wearing a virtually white outfit, managed to get round in the dry and avoid any embarrassment. But I still can't help wondering why they haven't got wise to it...
I personally find the lean whippet-y type of male that takes part in pro-cycling more aesthetically pleasing than the squat, oafish ones that are the standard pin-up boys of soccer and rugby. They tend to be very polite and well-spoken, too, the kind of lads you really wouldn't mind your daughter bringing home for dinner...
Perhaps that's why I married a cyclist. He wasn't ever a pro, but he was a schoolboy champion (long before I met him). And he knows better than to wear white shorts, too!!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 01:55 pm (UTC)I do my part!
Totally agree that the lean and wiry male physical is more aesthetically pleasing.