A Very Special Day. Two Very Special Jerseys.
Saturday might have appeared to some as a pretty ordinary day – at best, maybe Stuperbowl Eve. Here at CycleChick Headquarters, however, even though we were a little sad about missing out on the Winnipeg caravan to Cyclocross Worlds in Louisville, it turned out to be a very special day chock full of excitement and surprises.
First, things at Worlds got us a little excited when they moved all of the Sunday races to Saturday due to a high risk of flooding in the area. Always trying to outdo the Europeans, the Yanks apparently called in an Act of God – which would have made for an AWESOME foam party and easy course tear-down, but otherwise sketchy and dangerous conditions. No matter, these guys came prepared for anything.
I was sure they must be European, but they are actually from Atlanta. Go figure. Thanks to SpeedMetal Cycling for the excellent, if slightly disturbing, photo.
Second, there was the matter of Lisday Gauld’s Cool Million. With a goodly number of cycling folks treading water down in Louisville, it was up to the rest of us to pay our respects to the little big man.
For most of us, reaching a million kilometres on a bike in our lifetime would require more years and cojones than we could ever hope to have. So to ride that symbolic millionth with a local hero was pretty special indeed. Think he’s done? No sir. In fact, as we tipped a glass later, he told me about the changes he was making to his Iditarod plans this year to make sure his face doesn’t turn black with frostbite again.
Congratulations Lindsay. Now go kick Alaska’s ass!
Which brings me to the jerseys. It was at Lindsay’s celebration that my friend Matt presented me with a couple of very special jerseys for the CycleChick Collection of Awesome Cycling Things. They had come into Matt’s possession via a close connection at Cervélo, and had been stashed away in his closet. He figured I might appreciate them. He was right. Let me show them to you again to remind you of their awesomeness.
The one on the left is the 2010 world road champion jersey signed by Thor Hoshovd, who is definitely up there on my list of favourite riders, and even enjoyed boyfriend status a couple of years ago during the Tour de France.
The one on the right is the yellow jersey from the 2008 Tour de France, signed by winner Carlos Sastre.
Sastre is one of those GC riders nobody really talks about, in spite of the 2008 win. He retired in 2011 to little fanfare. But given recent events, this jersey is very, very special. Here’s why:
Note: Since I made this chart a number of months ago, the years 1999 to 2005 are now listed as “vacated”.
Not including the last two years’ winners, to find a Tour champion other than Sastre with no doping blemishes, we have to go back 22 years, to Greg LeMond.
Neither jersey is race worn, or official on-site race issue, but they are exceptional nonetheless. And since it is considered bad form to wear the WC stripes or yellow jersey unless you have actually earned them, the jerseys will be framed and put in a place of great distinction here at HQ.
Suddenly the fact that I missed out on Louisville doesn’t seem quite so bad.
Who dosen’t have a crush on Thor? He is the Man. And now he is healthy he will be kicking ass this year. What a score. You have some good friends if they give you things like that.
Here is a beautiful video from the CX Worlds. OK, maybe not beautiful but funny. via Pez Cycling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7qsiZem6wXA
Ok, how awesome was that? Thanks for sharing that.
And yes, I am a pretty lucky girl. I keep asking if Thor come with… no luck so far. I’ll keep asking.
Maybe riding the goddamn rollers with a Thor World Championship jersey would help. Something has to help, riding the goddamn rollers for for more than twenty minutes is bad.
Roller racing in Winnipeg? That night be fun if some genius could rig two sets of rollers with a cyclometer display. Beer, music, rollers, that might be tolerable.
More than tolerable. And certainly little more than a thinly veiled excuse to get together with bike minded individuals to drink some high alcohol content Belgian beer. Perfect.
There used to be roller races here at the Belgian Club, I even went to spectate before I had the balls to participate. By the time the balls had materialized the rollers had vanished. And now it’s a matter of finding them and getting someone to organize something. Who that someone is remains a mystery.
Just a ton f&^%ing jealous. Although we could now put on a right proper display of Thor champion jersey with my collection of his Norwegian champ jerseys. Wanna go for a ride and show off ????
Totally. We should send him an invitation to join us. Mind you he might not have much to wear. Mind you, I wouldn’t mind…
I believe we hung with those fellas from Atlanta briefly at the foam party. At that point they were wearing bunny suits. One of the photos of Cousin Thomas with his shirt off has him wearing one of those arm warmers.
As for the jerseys, those are pretty neat.
Of course the question is, where exactly was Cousin Thomas wearing the arm warmer? On second thought, perhaps that is best left unanswered.
Bunny suits? I can’t fucking believe I wasn’t there.
Here is the photo: http://instagram.com/p/VRcAmHx7QN/
I should also mention that Miriam was the happy recipient of a jersey too–from Helen Wyman. Who is very, very awesome and had a very, very unfortunate race.
Wow! That is really something special! Miriam’s jersey that is – she must be over the moon! Cousin Thomas is quite something as well.
Cousin Thomas is a key ingredient in any road trip. Along with Jonny G, he has a special gift for making good times happen. Unfortunately, he has very stinky feet.
Needless to say, Miriam is over the moon excited and totally in LOVE with Helen right now. I’ll share more photos in due time. Now, off for some mini-golfing.