Wannabe Bike Girl

It’s funny (in the interesting sort of way instead of amusing) to realize how much I love sports. Not just cycling, but others too. For almost a week I’ve been watching the Deutschland Tour on WCSN (thanks to Pete at cyclingfans) and for the past two days, I’ve watched soccer (football) in the evenings, and on Sunday morning, I woke up at seven for Arsenal. Maybe it’s a little odd (I know the people I work with pretty much think I’m insane), but I enjoy it. Why? I’m the type of person who needs something to look forward to, and more often than not, it’s sports. So when a big sporting event ends (Tour de France, World Cup, Olympics, Wimbledon), it’s a bit of a let down. Except that because I like so many sports (you knew this was coming), I have a lot of things to look forward to.

But there’s really nothing quite as fun as waking up and turning on the TV or computer (in this case) and watching some live cycling while cleaning/eating breakfast/getting ready for work. And so while the Deutschland Tour is just another race to a lot of people, it’s more than that for me. It’s really fun and I really appreciate WCSN’s broadcasting of the race. It makes my life a lot better (selfishly), but it’s also nice to have this race available to watch when I otherwise wouldn’t be able to watch.

As for the race itself? It’s been fun to see. I missed a couple of the early stages and I have to work during tomorrow’s stage, but there’s the whole on demand feature, which I haven’t tried out yet, but I might tomorrow. I am not Jens Voigt’s biggest fan, but I really hope he does well. It’s fun that there’s this Rabobank kid, Robert Gesink, in the young rider’s jersey. The Milram rider, Niki Terpstra, in the KOM jersey. And I’m hoping Zabel will pick up the sprinter’s jersey, but that being said, I like Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (back when he was on LS) and wouldn’t be sad if he ended up in that jersey.

Ideally, of course, I’d like Cuengo to win the whole thing (the stage was nice, though), but that’s clearly not going to happen. Hopefully next season he’ll be able to find his form again. While this season wasn’t as bad as last year’s, it’s not great. I have high hopes for Cunego next season, hopefully he’ll have them too.

Sometimes we forgot that athletes are real people. And sometimes we forget that there’s more to sports than doping. And sometimes we’re reminded in good ways (stories about cyclists having children, helping people out, getting married, etc), but sometimes we’re reminded in horrible and sad ways. Today is one of those days.

Tragedy in South Africa as Ryan Cox passes away

South African cycling is in shock following the news that Team Barloworld’s Ryan Cox died early Wednesday morning in Kempton Park hospital in Johannesburg. The 28 year-old rider had undergone an operation in France on July 4 to treat a blood flow problem but his condition deteriorated on Monday and he was taken from his home to hospital in a serious condition. His heart reportedly stopped beating due to a ruptured artery in his leg and although he received several transfusions to try to save his life, his condition continued to worsen. Doctors fought to save him but were ultimately unable to do so. He passed away at 5:15 am Wednesday morning.

I’m not a Ryan Cox fan, I only know his name in passing, but it’s sad all the same.