Well, what can I say? This has been quite a week on Twitter. Because I’ve already compiled a Special Tweets of the Week around the subject of Lance Armstrong this week, I’ve decided that this TotW is going to be light and frothy and in celebration of the good things in cycling. And what better way to start than with the mighty Jens Voigt.
#LiveJens
TheJensie tore up the USAPro race last week – he won stage four in a solo breakaway, which he started 2km from the start. He rode the whole stage alone. And won! Marvellous! AND he signed for another year (albeit with RSNT but hey, we just want him riding!)
Even Elvis wants to be Jens Voigt!
@AntBeal and I have been toying with some new hashtags over the past few weeks. We’ve got “finding our #InnerVoigt” but considering what happened last week with LiveStrong, Ant has come up with the perfect antidote for LiveMalaise. It is:
Vive le Voeckler
There’s really nothing quite like a blistering attack by Thomas Voeckler – we love seeing him jump off the front on what is oftentimes a kamikaze mission. That said, sometimes that launch off the front reaps benefits. But win or lose, breakaway or caught, there’s one thing you can count on. A lot of tongue action. Here is a montage that, well, made me laugh long and hard this week.
That and the uncanny resemblance he has to a certain lead singer of an Irish rock band.
Fabulous Phinney
If Jens is the epitome of fierce joy in all he does, then Taylor Phinney is the sparkling optimistic voice of the future. He was so effusive and enthusiastic during the Giro this year and he was practically jumping for joy while racing on his home turf in Colorado during the USAPro Challenge. God, I love this guy.
My brother lives in Boulder. Why the hell wasn’t I there last week? Won’t be making that mistake next year!
Other beautiful tweets about cycling
Here’s a little random round-up of tweets that made me laugh and made me love cycling a lot last week.
Did I mention I had a thing about @UCI_Overlord? [Many many times ... Ed]
This one is actually kind of disturbing but I love that Paige went to the trouble to mock this up.
And Wiggins is now immortalised in sign language. I’d have maybe used another gesture but I’m not supposed to say things like that, even in sign. Ooooooooooooooh, she’s in the catnip again! Behave, Kitty, behave!
‘Beautiful man cherub’ … what a fabulous turn of phrase! If you don’t know who won Plouay, it was Eddy Boss Hogg Haagen Dazs Higgs Boson.
Cycling is a hard sport, filled with hard men, who look hard done by at the end of a race.
Speaking of hard men, one of the hardest of them all is the mighty Stuart O’Grady, who now has a scar like Frankenstein.
If you haven’t noticed this Vuelta – well, all year – I love those Argonauts! They race with verve and heart, they punch above their weight and they land some knockouts!
I also love that Argonaut Tom Dumoulin chirpily tweeted that he didn’t have any internal bleeding after a nasty crash so he’ll be back on the bike soon! Tougher than a Tough Thing from Tough Town!
A word about Armstrong
Neil Armstrong. Come on, people, wink at the moon …
