What Would Jens Do?

Photo by Robin Wilmott

Jens, you are as hard as they come.  You chase back onto the groupetto using kids bike with toe clips after crashing at 70km/hr.  What else would you do?  Chapeau you bloody legend.

From Bicycling.com:

I came over the top only 20 seconds down on the front group, but about 2 kilometers into the descent my front tire blew and I thought, “Oh God,” and I went down. Just one year after my horrible crash, and there I was tumbling on another mountain descent. And let me tell you, about the only place that feels good right now is my right ankle. The rest of me is all road rash. Plus I’ve got five stitches in my left elbow and then there are some ribs that are not in the right place! I may have to get x-rays, but I hate x-rays (the radiation), and plus, if I’ve got a fractured rib, what can anyone do about it?

The worst thing of all was that I almost got forced out of the Tour for a second year in a row. The problem was that the first team car was behind Andy Schleck, and the second had decided to go up ahead to hand out water bottles at the foot of the next climb. As a result I had no bike, because mine was shattered.

So then the broom wagon pulled up and was like, “Do you want to just get in?” And I said, “Oh no, I don’t need YOU!” But there I am with blood spurting out my left elbow and no bike. Finally, the race organizers got me a bike, but it was this little yellow junior bike. It was way too small for me and even had old-fashioned toe-clip pedals. But that is the only way I could get down the mountain, so I had to ride it for like 15-20 kilometers until I finally got to a team car with my bike.

Then, I still had to get up to the grupetto. All I can say is that that desperate times need desperate measures, but I got up there. And once I did it was grupetto all day long.

Needless to say, I had plenty of time to come up with a fitting book of the day. It’s from the Disk World series by Terry Pratchett. In it, the protagonist is Conan the Barbarian, who is a 70-year-old who has just survived everything. At one point he, and his other old warrior friends capture this village, but then they find that they are surrounded by an army of tens of thousands, and his only reaction is, “Oh man, it’s going to take days to kill all these people!” And that’s the way I was today when I was lying on the ground. I just thought, “Oh no, I’m going to Paris this year, I’m going to Paris. There’s just no way you are going to get me out of this race for the second year in a row!”

Also, Bicycling.com just informed me that editor-at-large Bill Strickland will be having a live chat about his thoughts on the TdF 10-11 a.m. EST. If you’ve ever heard his speak you’ll know that it should be very insightful.

More Random Jens Voigt Facts here.

Shut Up Legs

I have a few small and medium sizes of SHUT UP LEGS t-shirts sitting at home.  I’ll check on the exact quantities when I get back to Aus.

I’ve had dozens of emails asking about them since Matt Keenan mentioned them on SBS the other night during the TdF coverage.  If I can get a minimum order together I should be able to order some more.  I’ll keep you posted!

UPDATE:

Another t-shirt idea a reader came up with and sent me today. LMAO!

Tagged as: jens voigt, shut up legs