who have you met

dave_1

who is racing in the TDF and whom of them in the TDF 08 have you raced with? Just curious..

vermooten

A girl in our club met Cav's dad the other week. So me & Cav are like that.

calvjones

My brother met Eddie Cheever on Friday. Which is a little off topic, but still very cool!

DaveyL

Sandy Lyle spoke to me once at the Scottish Open. He said, "Get out of my fking way"...

emadden

I know Thomas Dekker quite well (but he aint in the TdF 2008 :-( )and Martin Elmiger of AG2R lives about 1km away and I frequently meet him whilst out training :-) - one of the few advantages of living in Switzerland...

takethehighroad

My prize possession is a poster of British Cycling stars, signed by David Duffield, Hugh Porter, Phil Liggett and Bradley Wiggins that I got at the finish of the Tour of Britain in Sheffield in 2004.

GroupOfOne MkII

emadden wrote:

I know Thomas Dekker quite well and Martin Elmiger of AG2R lives about 1km away and I frequently meet him whilst out training :-) - one of the few advantages of living in Switzerland...

Are there actually any disadvantages to living in Switzerland???

Oh and meeting Eddie Cheever is quite cool 8)

ms_tree

Dave_1 wrote:

who is racing in the TDF and whom of them in the TDF 08 have you raced with? Just curious..

I met and shook hands with Pantani's dad last year. Does that count?

Guyzie

Overtook Cadel Evans one time and gave a victory salute as I went by... he told me to "F off!"

afx237vi

Guyzie wins the thread :P

emadden

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

emadden wrote:

Are there actually any disadvantages to living in Switzerland???

Well for a long time I was saying that swiss drivers really respect cyclists...That opiio was formed after I rode on my own for 1000s of KM around Switzerland... Last week, fore the first time I found a riding partner and we rode two abreast (as most club riders do)... The I discovered how awful the drivers here are. It is against the law to ride two abreast unless you are in a group of 10 or more... So I found the swiss drivers purposely trying to run us off the road... even when the road was 10m wide! Very scary.. the people here are ph*cked up....

Guyzie

Glad you enjoyed that one afx237vi.
I was chuckling to myself as I typed it:-)

Noodley

Guyzie wrote:

Overtook Cadel Evans one time and gave a victory salute as I went by... he told me to "F off!"

Did he suck your wheel?...

ricadus

None of the current crop and not exactly raced, but in a Sunday club run kind of way was joined on a ride in the Dolomites by Casagrande and Bartoli last year. I was waiting at some road works traffic lights and these guys just rolled up behind, so we carried on as a group.

Even earlier was Virenque, Rebellin when both riding for Polti at the Giro in 1999 (after the final Milan stage, thanks to my meeting an English-speaking Italian girl who was the sister of one of the team's mechanics).

Also slightly surreal encounters with Bettini and Basso at a chaotic improvised stage finish in the 06 Giro at Plan de Corones -not exactly met, just we were all caught up in the crush looking for team buses. I'm afraid my locked up bike was blocking Basso's sneaky way back to his bus, so he had to back out past me again and run the gauntlet of assorted fans and journos, including the diminutive and scary TV interviewer Alessandra di Stefano (minus her trademark sunglasses due to the bad weather) who later yelled at me big time for daring to stand too close to Bettini when they were trying to film.

Jokull

I spent an afternoon chatting to Phil Liggett at the top of Signal Hill in Cape Town a few years ago (he was working on the Giro del Capo at the time)

ajohn9

Met Dave Millar and Rob Hayles at the club hill climb a couple of years ago. Nice Guys.

knedlicky

I’ve taken part in 6-7 sportives where ex-TdF riders have been present (e.g. Laurent Jalabert, Maurizio Fondriest, Beat Zberg) but the only time I’m aware of having taken part in an event which included a current TdF rider was in 2005, at the La Gruyere sportive in Switzerland, and in which Cadel Evans also took part.
I only saw Evans from a distance at the start, and that not for very long. Oh and also at the prize-giving afterwards (I think he finished second).

Bernard Hinault is still a daily regular at the TdF, and I’ve briefly met and spoken to him (though not as I trundled off the podium, as they do nowadays – our meeting wasn’t at a TdF stage).

Over the last 5-6 years I’ve also spoken to a few TdF riders at start stage towns and wished them well. However, as nearly all responded in a rather taciturn manner, I’ve now forgotten who most were - although one was Bradley Wiggins. Still, I was able to inspect and (man)handle his bike before he set off.

RichN95.

I sometimes see GB track guys trundling along in the opposite direction on my commute - they always wave.

I've been passed by Magnus Backstedt, who said hello.

Brian B

Jan Ullrich who at the time and still am a fan off. I met him at the top of Alpe de Huez and he said hello to me. Later that day I saw Vino and him climb the Alpe again. Also was passed by the entire CSC team on route to Le Deus Alpe and they all waved and said hello and saw them in their team cars later and again they gave me a wave.

andy_wrx

I ran out of water one hot day last Summer, so I stopped at this house where a woman was watering her garden, asked if I could fill my bottle at the tap.
She turned-out to be Phil Liggett's sister.

Courage Monsieur

I was in Italy enjoying a holiday with my Mexican wife when we saw Michael Rasmussen leaving a local pharmacy.

Really nice guy. He insisted on having his photo taken with my wife and even asked if he could wear her sombrero. We swapped email addresses so I could send him a copy.

If only all pro riders had so much time for their fans.

flattythehurdler

I went training with Steve Cummings on his last training spin before last years Giro. Well sort of training in that he waited at the top of the hills for me. After 2 hours he said that this was the most he had ever talked when out training which was a nice way of telling me to shut up. He showed me how to descend, and made me the strongest espresso I have ever had.
A really really great day.

petegettins

In the old Eastway days I did a practise session where Magnus Backstedt was coaching some of the kids from another club. I also raced a crit where Bradley Wiggins (albeit he's not in this tour) raced. He came past on the hill like a bullet & wasn't even breaking a sweat. Got on his wheel for about 200 metres though!!

Pirahna

I was hiding out of the rain underneath a door overhang at a very wet Herne Hill Easter meet and was joined by Michael Huebner. Now that man was the pinnacle of drugs in action. For anybody that doesn't know who he is, Chris Hoy would look anorexic next to him.

Chatted to David Harmon at the Dragon this year. My wife had done the short route had had got him to look after her bike while she went for a wander round.

robmanic1

Courage Monsieur wrote:

I was in Italy enjoying a holiday with my Mexican wife when we saw Michael Rasmussen leaving a local pharmacy.

Ok, you got me.
Rasmussen + pharmacy = :shock:

andyp

Robmanic1 wrote:

Ok, you got me.
Rasmussen + pharmacy = :shock:

Hook, line and sinker by the looks of it!

vermooten

I nearly spoke to VP at the Velodrome a few months ago but I didn't want to distract her from her pursuit of gold medals with thoughts of lust and desire.

andy_wrx

calvjones wrote:

My brother met Eddie Cheever on Friday. Which is a little off topic, but still very cool!

Well if we're going to be OT, I can remember having a pee in the bogs in the pits at Brands, probably 20 years ago, between Frank Williams (pre carcrash) and Teo Fabi

robmanic1

little + Large, 'nuff said! :oops:

deltadawn

I meet Christian Vande Velde at the USA Pro Criterium Championships in August of 2002. He had a broken arm and was not racing, but came out in support of his USPS teammates in the race.

dave_1

of those currently in the TDF...have only met and raced with two ...Moreau..1991, Hincapie 1992