Voeckler the Pretender

In article
.com
,
"ronaldo_jeremiah"
wrote:

P.S. Magilla, was your 1520 on the SAT with the old scoring system or
the new one? And, in either case, is that really worth bragging about?

What are the old and new systems?

--
Michael Press

"benjo maso" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
|
| "MagillaGorilla" wrote in message
| ...
| benjo maso wrote:
|
| "MagillaGorilla" wrote in message
| ...
|
| benjo maso wrote:
|
|
| "MagillaGorilla" wrote in message
| ...
|
|
| benjo maso wrote:
|
|
|
| "MagillaGorilla" wrote in message
| news |
|
|
| http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...an07/jan02news
|
| Here's a guy who thinks he's done something in the sport by wearing
a
| yellow jersey knowing full well he would never keep it and not even
| crack the top 20.
|
|
| Actually, he did, He finished 18th.
|
| Okay, so he's a great rider after all. NOT.
|
|
|
| Same with that jackass Bertogliatta or whatever the **** his name
is.
| These riders are all one trick ponies like Debbie Gibson singing in
a
| mall.
|
| This whole idea of celebrating interim leaders before a race is
| finished is stupid and really needs to stop. It's an embarrassment
| to the sport.
|
| What Voeckler did is the equivalent of a talented miler leading the
| New York City marathon for the first 2 miles and then getting
| dropped...and doing that knowing he would get dropped and finishing
| 30 minutes down.
|
|
| I'm afraid you're wrong. Bicycle racing in general and the Tour de
| France in particular are so interesting just because it's much more
| that winning.
|
| Wrong, Benji. Riders dope because they want to win. Riders like
| Ullrich who keep getting second get all schizo, take ecstacy and then
| travel to Spain to pay doctors $70,000 for blood transfusion
programs.
| Pro cycling is all about winning. Ask Bettini. Ask Boonen. Ask
| Museuuw. Ask Armstrong, Hinault, LeMond, etc..
|
| Do you know who Lance Armstrong is without his Tour victories and
world
| championship win? He's Ernie Lechuga.
|
|
| About 5 % of the riders going to the Tour are seriously trying to win,
| about 80 to 90 % are taking dope. That's what I mean saying that
bicycle
| racing is much more interesting than just winning.
|
|
|
|
| And then he tries to tell everyone how great a performance that was
| in the marathon just because he was "leading" it.
|
| Since the Tour Voeckler won nothing but some trivial French
nonsense.
| And he's the lead story in cyclingnews just because he wore the
| yellow jersey for a couple of days when the real race leaders could
| care less. What an embarassment to Hinault's legacy and the sport
of
| cycling in general.
|
| Wearing the yellow jersey with absolutely no chance of winning the
| overall GC is pathetic, meaningless, and stupid.
|
|
| By wearing the yellow jersey for ten days, Voeckler earned about $
| 500.000 in presence money, endorsing, etc. That's neither pathetic,
| nor meaningless and certainly not stupid.
|
| So that makes him a great rider and a respectable cyclist?
|
|
| Nobody ever claimed that http://www.our-hero.com/DEBBAH.jpg is a great
| rider. But you said that "wearing the yellow jersey with absolutely no
| chance of winning the overall GC is pathetic, meaningless, and
stupid."
| Earning a half million dollars isn't exactly meaningless in my
opinion.
| And believe me, a lot of riders would have been very happy if they
could
| have taken Voeckler's place. So even from a purely sportimng
perspective
| it isn't at all meaningless or stupid.
|
|
| Benjo
|
|
|
|
|
| I'm calling the dog catcher, Benji.
|
| Magilla
|
|
|
|
| What does money have to do with this thread? The next thing you're
going
| to tell me is Paris Hilton is someone I should worship because she
makes
| a lot of money.
|
|
| Read your own statment: "Wearing the yellow jersey with absolutely no
| chance of winning the overall GC is pathetic, meaningless, and stupid".
|
|
| How did Voeckler make a half a million?
|
|
| Guess.
|
| Benjo
|
|
| I don't guess. Tell me.
|
|
| I'll give you some clues:
| 1. The Tour de France is one of the most important sporting events in
| France.
| 2. Lacking a winner and even a serious contender, Voeckler, ten days
yellow
| jersey and defending it in a spectacular way, was the great French hero of
| the Tour of 2004
| 3. After the Tour there are a lot of criteriums, kermesses, track races,
| etc.where the organizers are paying much a lot of money to the most
popular
| riders.
| 3. Companies, firms, brands, etc. love to call in a sporting hero for a
| publicity campaign and what's more, they are willing to pay for it.
| 4. Sponsors love to get a lot of publicity and are willing to pay extra
| money to their most succesfull riders and offering them new favorable
| contracts.
|
| Benjo
|
Don't confuse him with facts.

I'd say that here in France, Veockler was well known amongst the public
that follws cycling before his yellow days (he had just won the Nationals
after all), but not beyond it like a Virenque or Jaja. Afterwards, he became
a figure known to a lot more French people and his market value (in and out
of cycling) shot up.

"ilan" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
| Actually, while he had the Yellow Jersey, Voeckler was the most vocal
| French person with regards to the fact that he would lose the jersey.
| There was a nice documentary of his 2005 Tour ride in which you see
| that
| he is quite an amusing fellow, e.g., he does an imitation of his mother
| who
| called him when he got the jersey, a totally confused rant about how he
| won the race for the yellow jersey (I don't remember the exact
| details).
|
| Since I'm watching the 2004 Tour during my trainer rides right now, I
| just happened
| to watch the La Mongie stage, and can tell you who the real attention
| getting jerk is:
| Richard Virenque, who, when dropped, went to find Voeckler, also
| dropped, and
| tried to give him pace for a couple of minutes. Essentially, he was
| looking for
| a place where there would be TV cameras, and were he could get more
| sympathy
| from the French people by supporting the hero of the moment.
|
| -ilan
|

I remember watching the stage at the time and thinking how transparent
Virenque was.

wrote:
Comparing W to Voeckler is unfair. Voeckler's trademark
is going on early attacks that inevitably don't lead to victory.

Donald Munro wrote:
Don't worry, he working on a new strategy .

See a brand new shiny happy strategy involving abortive early and mid race
attacks. Its called the Wolkenkuckucksheim strategy.