le Tour Update

Big night in le tour last night. 2 uncategorised climbs and lots of people still in the hunt for le maillot jaune.

Cadel hung on strong for the whole stage. He finished in the second group with the rest of the contenders.

Frank Schleck maintains his slender lead, whilst Menchov and Vendevelde lost a lot of valuable time. Unless they can pull something special out tonight, they could be gone. this is good news for Cadel.

A spectacular crash from the young South African - Augustyn. He tumbled down an almost sheer, shale hillside after winning the big climb.

If Cadel can stay in touch with Schleck this evening, he should be well placed to take the prize in the final time trial.

Tonight is huge. The riders will finish high atop l’Alpe d’Huez. It will be exciting.

Check out the action here.

New favourite Google search that lead here!

1. Hey Guthers. Keep on Le Blogging! From Turns.

Nice work turns!

J’adore le Tour de France!

I have been loving le Tour de France this year.

Cycling is a hard sport to get into:

• It has complex scoring and strategies,
• It is long and, at times, uneventful,
• It is dominated by Europeans with hard to pronounce names, and
• It is on late at night.

But the much anticipated success of Aussie Cadel Evans of the Silence Lotto team, combined with the fact that I am now riding to work on a semi-regular basis, means that I am now keen enough on the sport to overcome these minor hurdles.

I have fallen asleep on the couch a couple of nights this week (much to Adri’s disappointment) and I am now talking enthusiastically with friends and colleagues about what has happened in the previous nights racing.

If you are not into cycling, I still recommend you give le Tour a crack for the following reasons:

1. To expand your French vocabulary - how else will you learn words like maillot jaune, tete de la course, peleton and hors categorie?
2. To pick up a few tasty French recipes from Gabriel Gaté in his “Taste le Tour” segment.
3. To cheer on Cadel Evans! He is only the 5th Aussie to wear the maillot jaune in le Tour and he has a great chance of being the first ever Aussie to win the general classification. It is your patriotic duty to get behind him.

If you want to get into it, but you’re not sure where to start, check out the SBS Tour website. It is packed with cool videos and previews of the stages. Very informative.

Are you a fan of le Tour? What is your favourite aspect?

Saturday

Had a great day on Saturday… and I promised Hamm I’d blog about it.

Played golf on Saturday morning - always fun!

Then Adri and I hung out with Hamm at Glebe markets. I bought some cool Lego cufflinks. Then we went to Bertoni’s Casalinga in Balmain for coffee and gingerbread men. Thanks for a lovely afternoon Hamm!

Saturday night, Adri and I went to La Disfida in Haberfield. A GREAT Italian pizza place. We had to wait about 20mins for a table, but it was well worth it. Right up there with Rosso Pomodoro for the best pizzas in Sydney.

Speaking of Rosso - we are heading there for dinner tonight - yay!

Catholic Archbishop

Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell has been in paper today. But not in a good way.

I just saw him out the front of my building in the city. Quite a rare sighting I thought. Maybe he was doing a pre-WYD tour of the sites?

He looked quite good for someone who is probably under a bit of pressure. Needs a new suit though. Double-breasted doesn’t do it for me. Especially if it’s ill-fitting.

Wouldn’t it be nice to double your pay check?

Check this out!

Adri got paid twice today!

I think they might want it back though… a shame.

Some google searches that lead here…

local taphouse st kilda

sam law and chongland

things to do on weekends

guthers machine

studying all night

gators eating people

hargreaves hill esb

career change to options trader

but my absolute favourite…..

“She felt terribly sorry for people who suffered from constipation, and she knew that there were many who did. “

Who searches for that?

Cycling

I’ve taken up cycling… sort of.

Ever sinced we moved to our new place I was sure we were close enough to ride into the city for work.

Today I finally did it! On a borrowed bike from Stu Lobb.

It wasn’t too bad. It took me about 40mins, I’ve had a shower downstairs and I’m about to enjoy some Weet-Bix at my desk.

I’m more nervous about the ride home. Will have to leave nice and early to catch the last of the sunlight.

Golfers live longer

Here is that article I alluded to earlier.

It says it controls for other factors. That would be hard to do though I’d think.

Still, any excuse will do. I must play golf every weekend - it’s science!

Maybe I should start hitting up the life insurance companies for a discounted rate?

:(

Cheap rubbish….