Allez les bleus!
There's a saying: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Well, when in France during the World Cup, say "Allez les bleus!"
Yes, we were in Paris on the night that France beat Brazil in the World Cup. I can still hear horns honking and police sirens, as well as the occasional shout, outside our hotel window. We watched the game in a local bar in the Montparnasse area, and shouted "Allez les bleus" which translates basically as "Go France" into some guy's cell phone along with the rest of the bar. It was certainly better than watching England lose to Portugal in London. By the way, why are there so many Portugal fans in Paris right now? Or is it just that the French were happy to see the English perish?
Yes, we were in Paris on the night that France beat Brazil in the World Cup. I can still hear horns honking and police sirens, as well as the occasional shout, outside our hotel window. We watched the game in a local bar in the Montparnasse area, and shouted "Allez les bleus" which translates basically as "Go France" into some guy's cell phone along with the rest of the bar. It was certainly better than watching England lose to Portugal in London. By the way, why are there so many Portugal fans in Paris right now? Or is it just that the French were happy to see the English perish?
posted by Mrs. Werbenmanjensen at 12:02 AM
9 Comments:
Well, my poor YK is very disappointed. He was sure England was going to beat Portugal and Brazil was going to beat France! Any comments on the scandal within the biking world?
Portugal has played dirty throughout the tournament, although Wayne Rooney's, um, retaliation after getting mugged by the two Portuguese players certainly merited a red card. I wish some yellows would have been given to the Portuguese players in that incident.
Scandal in cycling? Well, I certainly think drug use and other forbidden activities are everywhere in professional sports. Cycling gets in trouble because it's always in the spotlight. Anytime there's money to be won, people will try to beat the system.
You think cycling is always in the spotlight? Not in the US anyway, given the emphasis on baseball, football (American style), and basketball. Anyway, now I'm not sure who I'll root for in the race.
Well, yes I do. In baseball they had a a terrible time getting players to agree to in-season testing of players, much less penalties and out-of-season testing. In American football, there is an army of 6 foot 6, 290 pound giants who can run a 4.4 second 40-yard dash. I have a hard time believing they got that way naturally. And yet we almost never hear of football players getting suspended. Maybe one or two a year. It's usually because their doctors screwed up.
Meanwhile, cyclists get 3 a.m. visits by the police each year during each of the grand tours. Not WADA, not UCI. The police. This latest scandal occurred because the police are involved. I don't know that police routinely investigate any other sport for drug use. So, yes, I think cycling is under more scrutiny than any other sport. Drugging is cheating, and I think if they applied the same investigatory techniques against other sports that they do to cycling, they would probably find the same level of cheating.
Okay, Okay, I give up. You're right that it certainly appears that many baseball and American football players did not get the way they are naturally, and you don't hear of the police doing raids on them. But, the big question is, who should I root for in the race?
O.K., if in doubt, root for the Americans (Bobby Julich, Dave Zabriskie, Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, etc.). I really like Jens Voigt and Andreas Kloden, but my favorite rider is probably Mickael Rasmussen, who used to be a mountain biker. If you want to cheer for the oldest rider in the Tour, it's probably Viatceslav Ekimov of Discovery Channel who just turned 40. Does this help?
That would be my choice, with the addition of Tommy Voeckler, because he's the closest the French have to a real fighter in the race.
BTW, the Eurosport commentators noted just a few minutes ago, with some disgust, that the CNN showing in their hotel failed to note that an American, only the fourth ever, is currently in the yellow jersey. "Lance is gone, so nobody cares," they noted.
Oh, yeah! I love Voeckler! Him, too.
We were celebrating Hincapie's good fortune, here, although we're all upset about Thor. We haven't started watching OLN, yet, today.
CNN is perhaps more concerned with the Space Shuttle problems than the Tour de France today. They found a teeny tiny piece of foam on the launch platform this morning, and a crack in the foam. So they are now trying to decide what to do.
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