The Lions lost today to the Kangas. I watched a bit, they showed periods of fabulous play, especially Simon Black, he was sublime, but they couldn’t kick straight and are still suffering from a big injury toll – Merrett, Rich and, of course, Brownie, who knocked himself out last week just as the Lions were giving the Cats a massive scare. Apparently he shifted some of the existing plates in his cheek from his clash in Round 1. The guy is as hard as nails.

The Lions season has been pretty terrible, they struggle to put four quarters together, but they have lots of young players, so perhaps next year will be better. I have a draft blog post from the match which Jack and I attended v the Crows, I’ll get to that sometime… That was fun, especially because the Lions won. My key memory of the day was Jack screaming ‘C’mon McGrath!’ to encourage the (sometimes brilliant, sometimes careless) back pocket to escpae the clutches of a Crows player. He did, by the way…

But for me, the AFL has taken a big back seat to le Tour de France. Tonight is stage 20, the individual time trial. 58. That is the golden number. The riders have already spent 80 hours racing 3000+ km and now Cadel Evans has 42 kms to get 58 seconds on Andy Schleck to win the Tour de France. It seems inconceivable that an Australian has a really serious shot at winning the biggest cycling event. The pundits are split about who is favourite. SBS are overly, but perhaps understandably, parochial. The fans on the SBS website even more so. I imagine the Luxembourgers are exactly the same in favour of Schleck.

I have watched quite a few stages in some shape or form. How can one not love this event? Look at the scenery for goodness sake!

My absurdly modest cycling adventures have put me in occasional bouts of pain, but the Tour riders are cycling (at least) twice my speed every day for 3 weeks. They are the supreme athletes and the pain they endure is amazing.

Evans has looked fantastic, so much better than in previous years, especially in the big mountains where he has seemed to labour heavily against the likes of the Schlecks, Contador, and Basso in last year’s Giro. On that basis it would easy to say he is in career best form. But Schleck wears yellow and a minute seems a handy lead, but what would I know.

Evans slides off the ramp at 12.12 a.m. I feel a bit ill in anticipation – I want to watch and for it to be over, but I feel tired from too many late nights. Why invest so much emotion in these silly sports events? This has been common theme of the blog. Wouldn’t it be better to get a good nights sleep and wake up to watch the video highlights?

I channel flick. ABC4 – 80 or 90 Norwegians got killed today as a man went crazy with a gun. What does it all mean? Too much. I bypass and flick to ABC1. RAGE is on. Hell. I haven’t watched that for years. Radiohead ‘Paranoid Android’ is on. This could be a good set. Ch 9 – Gran Torino. Eastwood acting, directing and producing. Shot the whole thing in 6 weeks. Great.  I have a thing for Eastwood – I have a vivid memory of watching ‘Dirty Harry’, I think at the house in 9th Avenue, so I guess that’s 1983, feeling quite grown up, probably after feasting on a take away Friday night dinner from Chez Tessa.

But now back to Evans. He’s off in minutes. At this point I think Schleck will do it.

12.12 a.m.  He’s away. Looks fast. 3 minutes later, Frank Schleck, probably no show in a time trial. 3 minutes later, Andy Schleck. Flying and resplendent in yellow. The first time check is at the 15 km mark. Contador and Voeckler are somewhere up the road, the former is probably a show for winning the stage. Tony Martin the fastest so far overall. Even faster than ‘Spartacus’ Cancellara. Contador was apparently booed off the start line, the smell of the drug charges from the 2010 TdF still linger.

Evans is through the 15km check at 20.33, same as Contador. Schleck is through at 21.09. 36 seconds gained. My heart is pumping.  Evans needs 21 seconds to take yellow. Now they say it’s 13 seconds. Holy fuck! This is serious. Now it’s 2! But has Evans gone out too fast and blown up on the steeper bits? Evans hits the lead, 2 seconds! Back to 1! Farrkk! He’s crunching up a hill, where is the fast cadence of the last few days?  This is unbearable. They say Evans is up to 17 seconds up.

Through the second time check at 27.5 km. Evans at 40.34, 7 seconds behind Tony Martin’s fastest time. GO! He is motoring! Flying down the hills, oh please don’t crash! Schleck hits the second check 42.15. 2 min 18 behind Evans!  If Evans stays upright he’ll win.

Contador finishes second fastest at 56.38.

Evans up by a minute! Can he win the stage? 3km to go.

Voeckler is murdering the bike, comes in 12th best.

Evans in the home straight. 55.40! Second fastest, just 7 seconds behind Martin. BUT HE HAS WON THE TOUR DE FRANCE! (assuming he doesn’t crash on the road to Paris tomorrow!). The eventual lead over Schleck is 1.34.

Amazing!

Results: Stage 20, 42.5km Individual Time Trial, Grenolbe

1 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad 0:55:33

2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:07

3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:01:05

4 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:01:28

5 Richie Porte (Aus) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:01:30

6 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:32

7 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:01:37

8 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Leopard Trek 0:01:429

General Classification After Stage 20:

1 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team

2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:01:34

3 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:02:30

4 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 0:03:20

5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:03:57

And that other event…

North Melbourne: 17.20 (122) – C Pedersen 3 D Petrie 3 A Edwards 2 D Wells 2 K Harper 2 R Bastinac 2 T Goldstein 2 B Warren.

Brisbane: 11.11 (77) – A Cornelius 2 P Karnezis 2 J Hawksley J Polkinghorne L Power M Clark S Black T Banfield T Rockliff.

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