Strange Notations From a Laborious Life

 As I was writing the date at the top of the page I suddenly realised that it is US Independence Day! At least it is on this side of the International Dateline. Hope all my US readers have a great, happy and safe holiday.

 The Tour de France has completed it’s first weekend and it has been a positive one for Australian cycling followers. Our great hope Cadel Evans finished second on the first stage with a punchy little effort in the uphill finish and his team, BMC racing shocked everyone by finishing second to Garmin in the Team Time Trial. This was the stage where I feared Cadel could lose up to 30 seconds or so but the team went much better than I expected. This is the team he should have had 5 years ago. He would have had a couple of Tour de France wins under his belt by now if that had been the case.
 He wasted his time for far too long riding for Lotto out of Belgium. Lotto is a good team but like the other Belgian teams, French teams Italian and Spanish teams they still think they are racing in the 1970’s. They are very parochial and inward looking only really wanting to support riders from their home countries. This is where Cadel got himself into trouble. The team wouldn’t support him fully because he was a foreigner and with the rise of a few Belgian stars in the team I’m sure he had problems maintaining loyalty. The Euros always stick with their own under these circumstances. Cadel isn’t the first “outsider” this has happened to and he won’t be the last.
 The future of the sport lies with the big “multinational” teams such as the one he rides for now. Although it is nominally American it has a much more international flavour and outlook and is much healthier for any non-European looking to ply his trade in the professional peleton. It wouldn’t hurt that it’s first language is English either.
 I can’t see another Frenchman winning the Tour until they shake off their parochial ways and a few of them start riding on  international teams. French cycling is stuck in the doldrums and it is for multiple reasons but I think French hopefuls need to look further than their home countries if  they have ambitions in France in July.
 It would do the race a lot of good to have another French champion but I can’t see where one is going to come from in the near future. They haven’t had a winner since 1985!
 Back to Cadel and he looks to be flying but no one really has an inkling about what is going to happen until the first big mountain stage. That will answer a lot of questions. And where we will really see how Cadel is going.