Sporting Heros - 2008

NervexProf
NervexProf Posts: 4,202
edited December 2008 in The bottom bracket
from a Guardian blog:

Kenyan cyclists
In September Zakayo Nderi, a shoe-shiner, and Samwel Myangi, a bicycle taxi rider, competed in a time trial on the Alpe d'Huez, Tour de France stage course. Both are from the Kenyan town of Eldoret, which has provided most of Kenya's recent distance-running champions. Neither had ridden a proper racing bike before arriving in France, and neither had competed in any kind of formal cycling event. Nderi did the Alpe in 42 minutes, Myangi took a minute longer. That would have put Nderi comfortably inside the top 50 in the 2004 Tour de France time-trial. No black African has ever ridden the Tour. Watch out cycling. The Kenyans are coming.

- and

Mark Cavendish
The other bloke on a bike. No, not the one with the thighs. The one who won four stages at the 2008 Tour de France, an unprecedented haul for a British cyclist, and the one who then waited around while everybody else got their golds before missing out in the Madison with partner Bradley Wiggins, who already had a couple of golds anyway thank you very much. Cavendish, the only British track cyclist not to win a medal in Beijing, has since retired, huffily, to concentrate on the road stuff. "People can take me as they want, I don't give a shit really," he said in October. Which would have made a more interesting BBC SPOTY acceptance speech.
Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom

Comments

  • iain_j
    iain_j Posts: 1,941
    NervexProf wrote:
    from a Guardian blog:

    Kenyan cyclists
    In September Zakayo Nderi, a shoe-shiner, and Samwel Myangi, a bicycle taxi rider, competed in a time trial on the Alpe d'Huez, Tour de France stage course.

    Ah i remember seeing something about this at the time, that they were going to give it a shot. I was going to keep a look out to see how they got on but i've got a memory like a sieve :D

    Weren't they going to consider setting up a pro team based on a good result from it?
  • iain_j
    iain_j Posts: 1,941
    As for Cav i'm suprised he's not had much media attention, considering the Tour de France is the one bike race that most non-cycling enthusiasts have heard of.