I’ve wanted to write about this two days ago, but things got in the way. Oh work, how you ruin my ability (and desire) to blog. What I wanted to say on Wednesday was how disappointed I was that I just didn’t have time to watch the Vuelta. So I miss Sylvain’s second place finish in the ITT on stage five. I knew he had it in him, you could see it over the ITTs in the Tour de France last year and especially this year. I just didn’t know quite how good he was (is) until Wednesday. Sadly, I didn’t see (and probably won’t ever) the stage because I was working. That’s fine, I can accept that. Especially after what happened on Thursday.
I was lucky enough to find a working stream and listen to Eurosport commentary (as of yet, cycling.tv is just far too expensive for me right now) of stage six. Originally, I hadn’t planned to watch, but then I read Sylvain’s cyclingnews.com diary. It was written the morning of stage six and I knew that I had to watch on the off chance that he might do the impossible. And, in the end, that’s exactly what happened. I was ecstatic 
and couldn’t believe that he’d really done it. Just like with the Tour de France stage win. Sylvain met and then surpassed my expectations. I was happy that he was in second place, it’s a huge accomplishment. And then he goes and takes the gold jersey and the Vuleta lead and I don’t even know what to do with myself.
It’s funny, as a fan you wait so long for your favorite rider to win. You wait through heartaches and accidents. You watch other favorite riders go by (they fall, they crash, they quit) and yet you stick by. And you watch this French cyclist who you always knew would amount to something. And you defend him through thick and thin and then, finally, after all that time, he proves you right. He blows your mind and keeps doing it.
2008 is the year of Sylvain Chavanel
If he never wins another race, he should be proud of his efforts. Of course, I want him to win a stage of the Vuelta, to win the whole thing. I’m not kidding myself, I know (mostly) what he’s capable of. I know that his strengths lie in the Classics. But I also know that he’s motivated, more motivated that I’ve seen in all the years (all five of them) that I’ve been a fan. I know that, in the end, that only amounts for a little — that it’s luck and skill that really make a winner. But I think he’s got it, somehow. And if he can do the impossible, just a few times more, as a fan, I couldn’t ask for anything else. Hell, after what’s happen this — I won’t ask for anything else.
I am so extremely proud of him and proud to be a fan of cycling.
