Edvald Boasson Hagen – a winner for all the family

8 Jul
Yesterday was surely one of the finest days for Norwegian cycling, with a  stage win for Edvald Boasson Hagen, and Thor Hushovd, the yellow jersey wearer,  finishing third. As there’s only two Norwegians in the race, that’s not bad. And with Contador’s various misfortunes added on, I am having a very good Tour so  far…

Indeed, there have been plenty of discussion points. Alberto Contador is  already over a minute behind the main contenders, which should make for some  explosive mountain stages. Mark Cavendish has continued his incredible winning  streak, this time even more impressively so, as he wasn’t able to rely much on his  lead-out train for his win on stage 5. He has contested the intermediate sprints  too, in a competition which may well have been changed in order to disadvantage  him. And what exactly is Garmin Cervelo’s tactics for the green jersey? Thor  Hushovd is slowly climbing his way up the leader board, even whilst the stated  aim is to win it for Tyler Farrar. I predict a change of approach (though that  might just be my national pride speaking).

Meanwhile, Norwegian papers are now likening Boasson Hagen to Eddy Mercx,  which is only slightly less incredible than the fact that Boasson Hagen had  never heard of the cycling legend before 2008.  He hadn’t been particularly  inspired by Hushovd either, in his formative years, which is also somewhat odd,  as he is the only Norwegian to have one more than one TDF stage, let alone any  jerseys. He’s a fast learner, then. Indeed, he showed his inexperience on stage  5, when he miscalculated the finishing line by several hundred metres, and thus  attacked too early. He joked that the subsequent ribbing he got from the peloton  would now be turned to congratulations, which was reward enough in itself.
But whilst Boasson Hagen’s win generated no end of national pride in the  Norwegian part of the household, there was plenty of merriment in the English  contingent too.

‘Have you see what his father is called?’ Simon asked. ‘Odd Erik!’

And that was the end to all sensible conversation.

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Thor Hushovd – pretty boy with pretty wife?

6 Jul

Every so often it’s rather good fun to look at the search terms people have used to find my blog. (I generally have good faith in Google, but I must wonder what possessed it to direct the searcher who typed in ‘sex in Pulloxhill’ here??? And if you have just found me by searching for just that, I must disappoint you. You can stop reading right now.)

Lately, it is Thor Hushovd who is dominating my stats; much as he is putting in some good work in the Tour, he is also working hard for my blog. Specifically, it’s the search term ‘Thor Hushovd wife’, which has accounted for a whopping 50% of my search-based traffic these last few days.

So, if you just found me by searching for ‘Thor Hushovd wife’, I would like to know: are you looking for photos of said wife, or were you hoping there isn’t one? Just wondering…

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The Tour de France, the selectiveness of French fans and the dangers of meat

1 Jul

Alberto Contador is having a tough time these days. Not only is he under a cloud of suspicion following a positive doping test at last year’s Tour, he was also jeered by the fans (predominantly French) under the pre-Tour presentation, and now comes the news that he has found it impossible to eat meat since that much-debated test result as well. He ate his last steak on that fateful evening when the disputed Clenbuterol allegedly entered his blood stream, and hasn’t touched any since.

Now this might just be a way of saying ‘see how much I really do blame that blasted piece of meat’, but if he really wants to endear himself to the French fans – and he could do with a bit of that – then forsaking the country’s beloved boeuf is surely not the best way forward. I don’t think his culinary habits will have much sway over WADA or the UCI either, somehow.

Anyhow, the greatest show on sporting earth starts tomorrow. Are you ready? Here’s hoping Andy Schleck is up for the battle!

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On borisbikes and Austrian cyborgs

1 Apr

This is the fickle world of politics, where you can call someone a ‘monosyllabic Austrian cyborg’ one day and then go on a nice little bike ride with them the next. Or perhaps it’s just the bicycle’s unique peace-making abilities.

Either way, the man-love was everywhere when Boris Johnson and Arnold Schwarzenegger went for a ride together today. Boris commented that Schwarzenegger’s ‘got a lot of great policies’, whilst Arnie had the following to say:

‘The bike rides really well, it is solid, it burns calories so you can eat a few extra Wiener schnitzel and you get away with it… It’s a brilliant idea and it shows great leadership from the Mayor. Great, great leadership.’

I obviously applaud anyone who supports cycling, and especially when they make the connection between two wheels and good food, but we should perhaps point out that the whole thing was in fact the previous Mayor’s idea. Which he pinched from various trail-blazing Europeans.

But never mind, at least no-one fell off their bikes.

(And no, this is not an April Fool’s joke!)

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Putting the X into biking (and skiing…)

16 Mar

I did my first ‘social’ bike ride of the year last weekend, frolicking in sun, daffodils and the onset of picnic weather. My thoughts are thus turning to recipes and route notes, and away from fog and rain, but the misery of English winters hasn’t quite left us yet.

And winter has largely meant X-Biking. I’m a bit of a fair-weather cyclist, truth be told, so my bikes have seen little action over the last few months. X-Biking is a take on spinning, but with moveable handlebars, which means that I can rock along to Bon Jovi whilst pummelling imaginary foes with my arms. Demonstration below (and if it’s good enough for the army, it’s good enough for me…).

It’s more cross-training than cycling, to be honest, but by putting some resistance into the handlebars you not only get to vent any frustrations, but also work out your upper body. All in all, it is thoroughly knackering.

Forgetting one's sunglasses + minus 20 windchill = crimes to fashion

Now to the skiing. I have been nowhere near a bike lately, having returned to snow and minus degrees in Norway, with a copy of Jo Nesbo’s The Leopard under my arm. I was only a few chapters in when I discovered that the murder victim is from Levanger, my home town. Now, believe me, it doesn’t happen often that Levanger is given much mention in the world of fiction, so this was thrilling to say the least - until I got to the following sentence, that is: ‘You can take the girl out of Levanger, but you can’t take Levanger out of the girl’ Is that me, then?

For naturally, the first thing I do when I get back home is to head into the mountains and strap on my skis. This is when I discovered, joy of joys, that I now possess arm muscles. They are rather useful for cross-country skiing, but I have gotten along fairly well without them until now.

I credit X-biking with my new-found advantage, since regular cycling never did much to improve my cross-country abilities. So there you are – miserable English winters are good for something.

Ice and snow in Frolfjellet

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