Sunday 25 January 2009

Happy Burns day.



A clear victory to the Scots fellas!


Now then, now then, I have finally got to grips with Cycling.TV. And today have been carrying out a scientific experiment that involved comparing the comtatoary (is comentatory a word?) offerings to be had.

Downunder we had the old stagers Phil n Paul and in the sun of Milan we had a young pretender by the name of McCrossan. The young pretender was, sadly, on his own, with the King over the water, Brian Smith, doubtlessly getting the miles in. (Brian, Milan looks a whole lot sunnier than the UK, what gives?). Well IMHO it was a clear Hoy like victory to the young pretender.
Not that there's anything wrong with the P n P show, in fact when compared to other sports they continue to trade at the gold standard. But, times move on, and personally I find the slightly more relaxed tone of McCrossan doesn't distract from the action. Generally at a bike race I know exactly what's going on and I get excited enough on my own. So the measured pace of McCrossan coupled with the insight of Smith is a winner every time for me.

The other thing that impresses me about the M and S show, is they seem to make fewer mistakes about riders names than anyone else in the business. There is of course no scientific proof in this, it's just gut feeling, which could of course be way off the mark. But I would like to see some figures here, maybe there's a well funded PHd in watching bike races and spotting the deliberate errors?

So apart from Phil n Paul, M and S who else is there? Well for starters there's Harmon and Kelly, Porter and whoever he finds hanging about in the bar the previous evening, (this is normally Gary Sutton) and of course the man who made commentating on bikes races an art form, David Duffield (normally accompanied by his invisible friend). When you compare this to other sports (which I'm informed apparently do exist) we pretty well stocked with talent.

Burns, sores and boils.

Here's a dilemma. I have developed a saddle sore, it's painful and having just examined it in the mirror, bloody huge. I had one last year and it took about a week to clear up. So, no cycling for a week then? Fraid so, the track is given over to badminton all week, so that leaves the road.
Now do I ensure it heals before I ride again or do I just give it a couple of days, wack on a reskin patch and a bucket full of Asso botty butter and see how it goes?
If I don't ride next weekend I can watch the cross worlds live in the discomfort of my own back bedroom. Hummm, maybe I should let nature take it's course. This would of course ensuring that the cross is watched in the full company of some of Mr Duvals finest.

Whatever I do I will wish you a happy Burns night, may your hangover not impair you cycling.


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