Tweets of the week: a stowaway for Boom, the Olympics and the Eneco
tuesday 14 August 2012 at 22h18

It's been a few months already but finally, the Tweets of the week make their comeback! It's not easy to write an article every week with the best of the best on Twitter in the world of cycling since this takes lots of time to read all the tweets, to make a selection and finally to write the article ... today we take a look at the past week in 10 tweets!
From Lars Boom and his stowaway in his suitcase to Bernard Hinault seen by Philippe Gilbert, we live the dream of BMX during the Olympic Games and some connection problems with ... Movistar.

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Lars Boom's stowaway

Lars Boom (Rabobank) was probably at that moment not quite sure yet he would win the Eneco Tour one week later but when he was packing his stuff, his girlfriend, Niké Timmermans, saw that the rider of the Dutch team was about to take a stowaway with him ... and that was their own daughter Kee who perfectly fitted in the suitcase on top of all the cycling clothing!

Let's hope Niké finally went to the finish of the Eneco Tour in Geraardsbergen with their daughter in her hands instead of in the suitcase ...

It's not always fun to be national champion

When you become the champion of your country that of course brings a lot of joy. You're happy when you take the victory but also the rest of the year since you're allowed to wear a national champion's jersey in all upcoming races. That is for example the case for Alex Dowsett (Team Sky) who's the current British time trial champion.

Until September the friendly rider from Essex can thus wear the white jersey with blue and red stripes. Nice ... or maybe not? Indeed, if you don't know how a team time trial will work out, especially since you've never done it before ... it's not really surprising you're wondering whether a white jersey among all those black Team Sky jerseys is not a bit too visible. Alex Dowsett thus hoped for a good performance in the Eneco Tour's TTT so he would go unnoticed. Team Sky ended at the 12th place, 36 seconds behind the fastest team, Orica-GreenEDGE.

The Olympic Games make people dream!

Once every 4 years the Olympic Games take place and this time it was in London that many sports got a whole lot more media attention than usual for these sports.

Indeed, you're normally not expecting to be able to see modern pentathlon or canoe on TV, are you? Cycling seems to be lucky next to these sports with quite a lot of media attention, but some specific disciplines in cycling are less in the picture than others. That's for example the case for BMX, the discipline of cycling on a sand track with obstacles. And when this sports discipline is broadcast on TV, some professional road cyclists start dreaming.

David Millar (Garmin-Sharp) for example immediately thinks about the Slovakian rider of the Liquigas-Cannondale team, Peter Sagan. Sagan is known for doing a wheelie just after having crossed the finish line of the cycling races in which he participates and Millar thus thinks the Slovakian rider is ready for a race on a BMX bike .. or for a BMX race on ... a road bike!


Robbie McEwen who recently quit his career as an active cyclist but who remains active in the Australian Orica-GreenEDGE team thinks about something completely different when he sees the track for this race during the Olympic Games in London. Of course no one can blame him for thinking about the Teletubbies since the Olympic Games take place in England and are being broadcast by the BBC, the company which was the first to show these creatures on TV!


Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) on his turn realises that the New-Zealander Greg Henderson (Lotto-Belisol) also got some inspiration when watching the BMX race. Indeed, on his photo we see Henderson do a wheelie as only Sagan usually does them!

The badger out of shape?

You probably know that Bernard Hinault's nickname was Le Blaireau or the badger in English. The five times winner of the Tour de France is better known today for his role in public relations during the cycling races which are organised by ASO but Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) thinks he's seen him, not really in perfect shape, in the climb of the Col d'Eze between Nice and Monaco!

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The Eneco Tour is boring!

His team mate, Martin Kohler, said out loud what almost everyone thought of the Eneco Tour. As a Dutch man I shouldn't probably say this since this is the only race at this level in my home country but anyway, long flat stages as in this race and that every day of the race is of course not very interesting. When you know beforehand that all stages will finish in a sprint you understand that it's quite difficult for a TV commentator to fill up the time during the stage!

Martin Kohler explains that it's not the number of kilometers which frightens off a rider but it only makes it more boring for everyone!

A table for two!

During the Eneco Tour the BMC team slept in a hotel where Marcus Burghardt discovered that the hotel owner made up a table especially for the two youngest riders of the team, Taylor Phinney and Adam Blythe ...

What Burghardt didn't see is that there's even a pot with pencils to allow Phinney to draw out his latest love story!

A bit expensive to dry clothes?

We all do it sometimes .. a bike is a perfect place to dry a part of your clothes, especially when you're on the move. Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) realised it when he put up his Irish champion kit to dry on his bike ... €5000 is a bit expensive anyway for a drying rack!

Movistar, quicker on the road than for an Internet connection?

Many riders move to Spain, at least part of the year and most often to Girona, for its climate and its perfect scenery and climbs for a pro rider. Apparently that's now also the case for Marc de Maar (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) and the champion of Curaçao realises at that point that Movistar is probably faster on a bike than for connecting an Internet connection ... That was on 12 August, we don't know if the rider from The Netherlands got his connection in the mean time or is still waiting for it!

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Soon a new edition of the Tweets of the week!

That's it, you've just seen the 10 which passed the selection criteria to be part of the Tweets of the week.

I cannot promise there will be a new edition every week but I'll do everything I can to more regularly publish one. Since I'll be at the Châteauroux Classic de l'Indre and the Tour Poitou-Charentes from this weekend, I don't know if I'll be able to write an article and do the selection of all Tweets in the next two weeks but one thing is sure: soon you'll find a new edition of the Tweets of the week here!

In the mean time, please don't hesitate to follow velowire.com on Twitter!

door Thomas Vergouwen
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2 comments | 4525 views

this publication is published in: Tweets of the week | Olympic Games

Comments

There are 2 comments!

  1. Encore un coureur, Martin Kohler qui s' ennuie sur les étapes de plat à répétitions en WT.

    | pascal51 | Wednesday 15 August 2012 om 12h35

  2. Great seeing Alberto Contador back in racing. The Vuelta should be very exciting, with Chris Froome in top shape, and Contador, well who knows?

    | curleyman | Thursday 16 August 2012 om 09h26

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