Join the Ardechoise race

"delpot" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

http://www.lamastre.com/theardechoise

Hi, you're welcome on june 2007 in green Ardeche to ride on one of the
most popular bicycle race in the world (12500 riders)

Join us.

see you soon...

FC

Pity -- I am passing through Valence just a week before and it would have
been nice to drop my travelling load and join in on the "Formule
Cyclotouriste" on the Saturday jaunt and wave the old Union flag

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Pinky said:

wave the old Union flag

er, St George's Cross surely??? I find that M. J. Foreigner is always
more interested in the old red and white than the RWB; shades of
R.Lionheart and all that, Crusaders'R'Us tabards etc.... ho ho ho.
Although I dare say the Union Flag would go better with the brass-topped
swagger stick.

Seriously though, a couple of years ago I had occasion to cross a remote
Austrian/Slovinian border post (just after is was officially shut for
the night) and the opening gambit that ensued from my red crosses on a
white background mellowed the gun toting guards enough to let me through
anyway. Although one of them did insist it was on the understanding that
I use his cousin's B&B at the bottom of the pass.

I also had an acquaintance a few years back who used to race enduro in
France, he always had a tricolour on his helmet as it guaranteed him
help from spectators in the difficult bits.

I think that once out of the UK (and away from the uglier connotations
of flags that we have here) it's a benefit to have such a thing on show.
Certainly, lots of Europeans manage to have a sense of national identity
and flag-ness without feeling at all guilty about it. As long as they
are removed once one returns to dear old Blighty, obviously: lest one is
mistaken for a raving right-wing nutter...

Tony B

"Tony B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Pinky said:

wave the old Union flag

er, St George's Cross surely??? I find that M. J. Foreigner is always more
interested in the old red and white than the RWB; shades of R.Lionheart
and all that, Crusaders'R'Us tabards etc.... ho ho ho. Although I dare say
the Union Flag would go better with the brass-topped swagger stick.

Seriously though, a couple of years ago I had occasion to cross a remote
Austrian/Slovinian border post (just after is was officially shut for the
night) and the opening gambit that ensued from my red crosses on a white
background mellowed the gun toting guards enough to let me through anyway.
Although one of them did insist it was on the understanding that I use his
cousin's B&B at the bottom of the pass.

I also had an acquaintance a few years back who used to race enduro in
France, he always had a tricolour on his helmet as it guaranteed him help
from spectators in the difficult bits.

I think that once out of the UK (and away from the uglier connotations of
flags that we have here) it's a benefit to have such a thing on show.
Certainly, lots of Europeans manage to have a sense of national identity
and flag-ness without feeling at all guilty about it. As long as they are
removed once one returns to dear old Blighty, obviously: lest one is
mistaken for a raving right-wing nutter...

Tony B

I just feel that the St Georges cross has been degraded by its use as a
football emblem and other more unsavoury groups. I cycled through the thick
of the world cup mania last year on the Rhein and was glad I had the Union
rather than the England flag . To be honest when I was in Koblenz for a
couple of days and surrounded by English "fans" throwing beer cans
everywhere - I spoke nothing but Deutsch and didn't display the flag at all!

(Never did have a brass topped swagger stick and was glad when canes slowly
disappeared from normal -- used to lose them all the time!)

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Pinky said:

I just feel that the St Georges cross has been degraded by its use as a
football emblem and other more unsavoury groups.

Indeed, and I am just as uncomfortable - but it's my flag as much as
theirs. My Scottish and Welsh friends never get hung up about THEIR
flag; maybe the real ugly connotation is with the people holding it,
rather than the thing itself. In which case, it's entirely appropriate
for nice people (like us) to get it back off 'em. Or something... hmm,
these really are half-baked thoughts of mine. I must try and sort them
out properly.

BTW I was in the Italian Alps for the latter stages of the WC; spent
most of the week wearing an Italian footie shirt. I had a great party
the night of the final... although I was somehow loath to wear it at all
for the trip back across France.

Tony B

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:37:27 GMT

Pinky said:

I just feel that the St Georges cross has been degraded by its use as
a football emblem and other more unsavoury groups.

Wouldn't you say the union jack's association with war and imperialism,
right-wing fringe politics (uk-national-british-independence party),
and latterly with the unedifying spectacle of politicians panicking
over the idea of scottish independence[1], make it the worse of the two?

[1] Good luck to our northern neighbours, and can we have some too?

--
not me guv