And now for something completely different...

[graculus]

So, in the past couple of years, I've become a fan of cycling. This is mostly the fault of some people on my flist (they know who they are) and at least it's not ice hockey and the resultant RPF that seems to generate, so that's a small comfort

Comments

[morganmuffle]

We used to have an RPF fandom and a comm but it's sadly died in the last couple of years (gruppetto.

I do love OGE, they're not my team but it's hard not to love them after watching a couple of their behind the scenes videos and I'm also impressed that they sometimes do the videos for their women's team too which is rare!

Horrible crash today though :-(

[graculus]

Anything is minor compared to the hockey folks. ;)

The behind the scenes videos are so good and I think what sold it for me (apart from Chaves and his need for XXSmall and they only had XSmall) was how delighted, not to mention a little overwhelmed, they've been with all the success so far. Sadly nobody does the women's teams much justice to date.

That crash was pretty horrible and so unexpected, just goes to show how quickly things can go from ordinary to awful - I've seen varying accounts of how badly injured one of the riders is but it definitely hasn't been Vangarderen's year.

[morganmuffle]

It's true, they can be rather.. all-encompassing!

I started watching the OGE videos the year they did their version of Call Me Maybe and I fell into a spiral of all their backstage passes. The enthusiasm is one of my favourite things, I always tend to love the cyclists who care the most (hence Cav)

Tejay's been having a terrible year, Dan Martin is just terminally unlucky too I think but I was just REALLY glad when they said Kris Boeckmans was conscious & breathing on the way to hospital. When they lie still like that it's so awful.

[nausica2]

Well, online fandoms never cease to surprise me. :-)

Cycling is sort of followed here. I say sort of, because even if it's on national TV (the equivalent of the BBC) every afternoon, people use it as background noise to nap. Really. Especially the Vuelta, which appropiately falls when everybody is on holidays and no one would dare get out under the heat. So nap with the vuelta it is. I've never been really interested but it's around, so I can name the mountain passes. And there is an idiom in Catalan, something really hard and difficult is "the Tourmalet".

[graculus]

Isn't there an internet rule that if you can think of it, there's fic for it? So why should sports be any different, especially contact sports and/or ones involving lycra... ;)

I can't say that I see the attraction of watching it live (i.e. standing by the roadside and watching folks whip past, or grind past if it's uphill) but on TV you at least get an idea of what's going on in the entire race. Particularly when it's Spain in August, I can see the attraction of napping instead!

[nausica2]

You are totally right about fandom. I should know better, but I am still surprised when it touches stuff that I consider part of RL.

The only cycling I have seen live is the "volta a Catalunya", the Catalan equivalent, which is actually pretty old (1911, if I'm not mistaken). When I was a child, they passed just next to where my parents still live and they took me to see it. It was quick and apparently I wasn't very impressed.

I do think it's one of those things that look better on TV, with the dramatic camera angles and the pretty landscapes...