My best friend and i got the once in a lifetime, maybe twice, to get our photo taken with Eddy Merckx on the weekend but i blew it when i decided that i didn't want to carry my brand new expensive camera all over the city because i thought it might get damaged.
It started when we decided that we'd have a weekend in Melbourne (about a 2 hour drive) to go and see the Live concert and go out in Melbourne for a few nights.
After watching the Live concert on the Friday night, we didn't have any plans for Saturday, until that night. I knew that the Herald Sun Tour was finishing in Lygon St. that day but i didn't really bring it up, my friend isn't that crazy on cycling. I brought it up off handedly but he knew i was dying to watch the race. The race was due to start around 2pm, so we thought we'd check out the Bicycling Australia show just down the road first, i need a new saddle, i thought it would be a good place to find one.
We checked out all the exhibits and I wasn't really happy with my search for a new seat so we thought we'd go back through what we'd seen, maybe i'd missed something. We certainly did. On my travels back to the Fizik stand i had to walk past the Merckx bike stand and almost had to elbow my way through the people standing around, which was strange because they weren't there 20 minutes ago. I had an agenda to keep, so i kept trying to get through and my friend said to me, "Who is that guy signing autographs?"
I swore out loud, probably too loud, so one of the ladies standing near me thought.
"Sh*t, that's Eddy Merckx!"
I stood there watching him calmly shake hands, getting his photo taken and signing autographs for what seems like an hour. The guy has such a feel to him, you could see the energy he created. There were literally hundreds of people just standing there staring, myself included. Grown men were reduced to children watching this cycling legend. Thats when i realised i'd left my camera in the hotel room. It was a shattering moment, i feel sick everytime i think about it. I'm such an idiot. That photo would have been something great to tell the grand kids about. Like they're going to believe me now!
I also missed out on getting some great shots of Robbie McKeown and Simon Gerrans, in action. It was a great race and a great day. Congratulations to the Jayco National Team and particularly Simon Gerrans for winning back to back titles. Even though i forgot to take my camera, i had a blast. I'm still absolutely thrilled to bits about seeing Eddy Merckx. I'll never knowingly let that happen again.
It started when we decided that we'd have a weekend in Melbourne (about a 2 hour drive) to go and see the Live concert and go out in Melbourne for a few nights.
After watching the Live concert on the Friday night, we didn't have any plans for Saturday, until that night. I knew that the Herald Sun Tour was finishing in Lygon St. that day but i didn't really bring it up, my friend isn't that crazy on cycling. I brought it up off handedly but he knew i was dying to watch the race. The race was due to start around 2pm, so we thought we'd check out the Bicycling Australia show just down the road first, i need a new saddle, i thought it would be a good place to find one.
We checked out all the exhibits and I wasn't really happy with my search for a new seat so we thought we'd go back through what we'd seen, maybe i'd missed something. We certainly did. On my travels back to the Fizik stand i had to walk past the Merckx bike stand and almost had to elbow my way through the people standing around, which was strange because they weren't there 20 minutes ago. I had an agenda to keep, so i kept trying to get through and my friend said to me, "Who is that guy signing autographs?"
I swore out loud, probably too loud, so one of the ladies standing near me thought.
"Sh*t, that's Eddy Merckx!"
I stood there watching him calmly shake hands, getting his photo taken and signing autographs for what seems like an hour. The guy has such a feel to him, you could see the energy he created. There were literally hundreds of people just standing there staring, myself included. Grown men were reduced to children watching this cycling legend. Thats when i realised i'd left my camera in the hotel room. It was a shattering moment, i feel sick everytime i think about it. I'm such an idiot. That photo would have been something great to tell the grand kids about. Like they're going to believe me now!
I also missed out on getting some great shots of Robbie McKeown and Simon Gerrans, in action. It was a great race and a great day. Congratulations to the Jayco National Team and particularly Simon Gerrans for winning back to back titles. Even though i forgot to take my camera, i had a blast. I'm still absolutely thrilled to bits about seeing Eddy Merckx. I'll never knowingly let that happen again.
