Saul Raisin will return to the peloton

Gregers

Help! I've just realised that also describes our only other significant success in RWC 2003.
I'll get me coat.

Crankyfeet

I get the sarcasm Gregers. I also agree Brits don't stoop to cheating. They can do it standing up with their chests out anf their chins raised. Aussies also don't stoop, they get down on their hands and knees and crawl around to cheat.

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Crankyfeet

Lim...don't go there. The Brit's sporting self esteem is hanging by a thin thread. I'm charitable enough to realize that it is rude to kick someone when they're lying down.

And FWIW, it wasn't an Aussie who was declaring that there should be less Yanks in the peleton.

Cycling benefits greatly from its promotion in USA. Just as most sports do.

But WBT, I can understand your girlie opinion of Tyler, when you have He-Men like Brad Wiggins and David - keep him out of the sun - Millar on your side.

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Gregers

Sarcasm is a cutting remark intended to mock or wound, so it wasn't that. Try self-deprecation- a device customarily used by Brits. Of late its use has been something of a a necessity for us and it has little to do with our many sporting inadequacies. Rather, it is deployed in an ineffectual attempt to ward of the humiliation wrought upon us by our theologically inspired and deluded ex-leader who gave us much to be ashamed of. You remember him. The one who conspired to reduce our once sovereign nation to the level of an obedient, canine appendage of the U.S. and its small cabal of deranged warmongers. Or something like that.

Crankyfeet

Correct point. And if there is one sport you can still annihilate Aussies and Yanks in...its mastery of your language and its subtleties.

But then again, we are specifically taught in schools in Australia to talk crassly, use bad syntax, mix metaphors, and generally project ourselves as literary idiots....just to irritate the POMS.

And the term "self-deprecating" has as much use in everyday Aussie speech as the word "cultured".

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Gregers

Wrong. Colourful ocker-speak with its gloriously irreverent metaphors has, by and large, always entertained the Poms. Long ago, I recall that Bazza Mckenzie's inventive vulgarities were once disturbingly close to being trendy.
What really annoys we small minded pedants is the rising inflection, currently infiltrating and polluting the standard estuarial speech of our young and foolish wannabees. Now that is really grating.

Crankyfeet

People not sticking to the local accents that differentiate their class?

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Crankyfeet

Actually you're right again. I forgot what the teacher said regarding why we had to speak so badly. It was that it reinforces the feelings of English superiority so that you don't mind as much that we are whipping your butts in most sports.

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Gregers

Very true. It's just a pity that hardly anybody else plays them. We've always enjoyed trying to be the big fish in an evaporating puddle.

whiteboytrash

See Whiteboy look what you've started now......

Crankyfeet

Hardly anyone else plays them in America or outside the commonwealth, you mean. I think you are at a disadvantage because you invented them well before the other countries invented their sports. So english-invented sports are suffering more towards being anachronisms, given that many of them are over 150 years old.

I suppose you got the game of soccer right though.

And Australia has only invented Aussie Rules football. Which, despite being a fascinating game, baffles most of the world who watch.

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tonyzackery

Most certainly true - who is the one with the lack of brain cells, the over-age, has-been fighter who stands to pull down millions for additional fights, or Joe Q. Public who pays hundreds (or thousands) to watch it in the stands or pay-per-view, or John Q. Businessman who pays millions for commercial rights??? Now, tell me who has the natural lack of brain cells????

I know this reply is off the original subject but I couldn't resist commenting on this aspect...

Crankyfeet

Yes, but don't worry. Gregers and I have been bantering for a page about English sport and Australian grammar and speech articulation.

My bet is that Saul does return to pro-cycling in the future.

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Bro Deal

Ultimately it is the public's fault. They have been willing to put up with pitiful bouts for far too long. The boxers often don't have much of a choice; most get ripped off by the managers, promoters, their entourage, etc. Boxing is probably the most corrupt sport there is.

This is even further off the original subject, but boxing might have some interesting parallels with the possible future of cycling. It was not that long ago that boxing was a popular and mainstream sport in the U.S. Through mismanagement, corruption, and short term thinking, the sport has declined to a shadow what it used to be. It is embarassing to watch a heavyweight fight these days. The quality of the fighters and the fights are just so low.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates