Wiggo

abaxas

I thought cycling gave you 'ball cancer'.

chewmylegoff

DervProf wrote: »

Well, the Beeb seem to know his nationality, he's a "Londoner". I'm sure if he lived anywhere else in England, he'd be an Englishman. If he were Scottish or Welsh, then he's British.

What is it that you think the bbc would achieve by doing such a thing? I've read most of the website coverage and haven't noticed anything of the sort...

chris_m

Wookster wrote: »

Belgium is actually a country?!? Really?!?

To paraphrase the late, great Douglas Adams;
It's actually the most offensive word in the Universe, only ever uttered by the likes of Zaphod Beeblebrox in times of extreme stress and by the people that live there - who don't know what it means!!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

ILW

What happens if he falls off on the last day?
Seems to be most are saying his winning is a foregone conclusion.

Generali

DervProf wrote: »

Well, the Beeb seem to know his nationality, he's a "Londoner". I'm sure if he lived anywhere else in England, he'd be an Englishman. If he were Scottish or Welsh, then he's British.

He's a Lancastrian, not a Londoner:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-18945486

"I'll treat him to a beer next time he comes in," said Barry Newton, landlord of cyclist Bradley Wiggins's local pub in the Lancashire village of Eccleston.

Then again perhaps he is a Londoner:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/18940711

"Today was a superb performance," said Wiggins....



......stunning performance from the Londoner who finished one minute and 16 seconds ahead of fellow Brit Froome in a blistering time of 1:04.13 to win his second stage of this year's Tour, the stage 19 time-trial to Chartres.

It's another example of the Londoncentric media bias from the Salford based BBC.

chewmylegoff

ILW wrote: »

What happens if he falls off on the last day?
Seems to be most are saying his winning is a foregone conclusion.

If he falls off and injures himself (or injures himself in some other way) to the extent that he can't go on then he won't win. However the last stage is always a processional affair, no one will try to beat him (bad etiquette to do so on last stage) and the sky team will just surround him in the pelaton to make sure he doesn't get into a crash.

Generali

ILW wrote: »

What happens if he falls off on the last day?
Seems to be most are saying his winning is a foregone conclusion.

If he falls off in the last 3km he gets the same time as the group he was riding with and so would presumably win, unless that group was miles behind Nibali at the time. If he falls earlier than that and is unable to finish then he's not finished the Tour and so doesn't win which makes it rather strange that he isn't riding on the front of the peloton.

The BBC seem to have gotten it into their heads that nobody can attack Yellow on the last day because of etiquette. Twaddle AFAIK. It's such a flat stage that it's highly unusual that anyone could make up enough time to overtake yellow ordinarily. However in 1989, the Tour was won on the last day by Greg LeMond who beat Laurent Fignon in a time trial to take yellow.

Eddie Merkx once (1975???) announced his intention to take yellow from some French bloke on the last day and gave it a decent shot. He failed though.

It's 50 years since Tommy Simpson became the first Pom to wear yellow in the TdF. If you ever find yourself in Provence it's well worth visiting his shrine about a km from the top of Mont Ventoux. Cycle up if you can!

Jennifer_Jane

Generali wrote: »

What a ride! I never thought I'd see a British winner of the Tour de France.

All that remains is a glass of champagne on the way into Paris and hopefully a third stage victory for Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile.

What a race, exciting even when the overall winner is known, and fabulous countryside all the way through. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now let's just hope that the Isle of Man doesn't declare UDI before the Olympics are done. We need Wiggo, Froome, and Cav for some of our 'sitting down' medal tally.

moneyinmypocket

I thought belguims where classed as Flemish?

benb76

Generali wrote: »

He's a Lancastrian, not a Londoner:


It's another example of the Londoncentric media bias from the Salford based BBC.

Wind your neck in. He just lives there because UK cycling's HQ is in Manchester, so hardly born and bred. Chris Hoy lives around Manchester as well for the same reason, but he's still considered to be a Scot.