* originally published 19/7/11 on the sports website:  theroar.com.au http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/07/19/its-time-cadel/

Lance Armstrong once noted that professional cyclists looked like vampires. Cadel Evans, with his large reptilian eyes and nervous disposition looks more like an exotic lizard.

Evans was born in the Northern Territory, home to a number of reptile species, but he’s not your typical Australian rural type. Married to an Italian classical pianist, he resides in Switzerland, reads Tintin and is an active supporter of Tibetan independence, and animal rights (not including those of the pigs that go into the antipasto at his favourite restaurant in Barwon Heads).  Continue reading “It’s Time Cadel” →

The Tour de France is a race for the climbers, and if you’re not the creme de la creme you can forget it.

There are 198 riders in this year’s Tour and 190 of them don’t have a hope in hell of winning it.

And that includes most of the teams’ best riders. Little Thomas Voeckler, Team Europcar’s number one man and the current yellow jersey holder, is little more than a serial breakaway pest. He’ll finish where he usually finishes,  somewhere between 60th and 70th place.  Continue reading “The Tour of Pain” →

“Level at the break, the Matildas composed themselves and, helped by the substitute Lisa De Vanna, killed off the Equatoguineans“.

(News report on Australia’s 3-2 win over Equatorial Guinea)