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C'mon Wiggy, or should I say - 'Le Gentleman'!


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And it headed the BBC evening news tonight - in front of the "serious" news which is usually covered first.  Never before achieved .... etc.

We were a pretty proud household also, though we are not real devotees,  nor have we seen any of the tour this year - not near enough, and rather busy with other things.  Last year it came through our village /town, about 200 yds away from our house (on two different sides) but this year it's nearest spot was too far away, but would have loved to have seen "Le Gentleman" in person ride by in the yellow jersey, as he certainly was wearing by the time he was down in this neck of the woods.

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The French press find it hard to swallow, as can be seen from this rather sour article in Le Figaro

Le retour des absents et un tracé différent devraient donner au centième

Tour de France plus d’enthousiasme et d’émotion que la victoire

manquant de punch de Bradley Wiggings.

Il fera date pour la première victoire britannique et confirme l’ouverture du cyclisme «à un monde qui parle

anglais»

Thomas Voeckler soulève. «Il a manqué un peu de charme, de panache.

http://www.sport24.com/cyclisme/tour-de-france/actualites/vivement-2013-571161

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I am not at all surprised, as those are comments I have been hearing throughout the Tour from some French commentators, journalists, and cyclists alike.  It seems that the SKY team's dominance of the Tour is not well perceived everywhere.

Lots of sour grapes everywhere! They don't want to have to compete against athletes who are so rigorous and strict in their training all year around, as are Wiggins and Froome, as this goes against the French cyclists occasional lackadaisical-ness.

 

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Absolutely thrilling...though I don't really understand all the flag-waving and jingoism.

There is a wonderful Mac cartoon today showing a couple at a French restaurant with the waiter hovering them.  On the table, the menu says "Bradley Wiggins".

The caption says it with sly humour:  We don't want to order anything - we've just come to gloat!

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The problem with the tour this year was that there was only one team prepared and able to dominate the race whereas most of the others were either weak or incomplete. In previous years there have always been two or three.

 What the press conveniently forget is that all the great riders have had excellent team backing, even the great Bernard Hinault.

The French want some home grown heroes on the Tour and, I suspect, do not understand why they have not been more successful.

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I have some sympathy with the French ideal of charismatic - eccentric even - characters, rather than highly organised teams working to a tight script. But that's the way things are now. The others will have to up their game; I hope it does not make the Tour too clinical.

My friend from Bordeaux sent me a message of congratulation for the British result. But he couldn't resist adding that he admired more the performance of "the Kenyan Froome" to that of Wiggins and Sky.

It's a French thing.

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[quote user="Alan Zoff"]I have some sympathy with the French ideal of charismatic - eccentric even - characters, rather than highly organised teams working to a tight script. But that's the way things are now. The others will have to up their game; I hope it does not make the Tour too clinical.

My friend from Bordeaux sent me a message of congratulation for the British result. But he couldn't resist adding that he admired more the performance of "the Kenyan Froome" to that of Wiggins and Sky.

It's a French thing.

[/quote]

They would have no objection to a highly organised team if such a thing could be French ...

[;-)]

As for nationality it will be interesting to see the French athletes at the Olympics..

The 1998 World Cup team was celebrated and praised for inspiring pride and optimism about the prospects for the "French model" of social integration.[23] Of the 23 players on the team, the squad featured players who could trace their origins to Armenia, Algeria, Guadeloupe, New Caledonia, Argentina, Ghana, Senegal, Italy, French Guyana, Portugal, Spain, Martinique and the Basque Country with the patriarch of the team being Zinédine Zidane, who was born in Marseille to Algerian immigrants.

All to the good say I, but then why whinge about the UK having  sports people  of commonwealth descent?

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