Bit of racing going on here. The Final of the European stayers Championships was exciting to watch. The Swiss won but the papers claimed the Germans where paid to take a dive and the Swiss winner didn't like the crowds attitude, I was there and it all looked above board to me. Eight stayer motorbikes with riders roaring round Alkmaar track was an impressive site, the final was a one hour race at speeds of around 70kph, both stayer and riders looked pretty sore at the finish.
Our turn to race on Tuesday night. I raced the open omnium consisting of points, scratch, miss and out, mystery distance and a race where only the first two across the line each lap get points. I seem to have made the mystery distance my specialist event, sadly it is not on the World champs program next week. I came third in the omnium, which is an overall for the five events. There was a couple of races on the program for stayers. I resisted the temptation to enter, anyway I didn't bring my stayer bike over to Europe.
Also spent a night at the Amsterdam six day event. Six days of track racing under disco lights and DJs stirring the crowd up. At half time we were even “entertained” by some short fat Dutchman who sang songs about Amsterdam and windmills. Anyway the riders played up to the crowd, in the sprint events the Dutch cleaned out the American team and lots of beer and frites were consumed.
You had to be impressed by the skill level displayed by the riders, the interesting thing was a few of the riders are the same ones I train with on Thursday nights group sessions, young kids get to train and interact with the stars of the sport which can only be inspiring to them. I have no idea how it is possible to to hear riders attacking or communicate between teams when Lady Ga Ga is doing her thing over the speaker system.
I have been listening to a lot of Irish Folk & Country music lately. Its not that I enjoy it or even can stomach it, its what Mrs Hopman puts on the stereo. I suspect that she does this to get me out of the house, and I have to admit that after half an hour of hearing about the green fields of Ireland I'm only too happy to head out into the wind, rain and cold weather and ride my bike for hours.
John Cleese once said of Palmerston North that he thoroughly recommended going there if you were contemplating suicide but lacked that final push to end it all. I now can offer a cheaper alternative than driving all that way through the Gorge, and all for the cost of a simple CD.
Of course I understand that some people do enjoy this type of music and I don't wish to offend anyone but there is a lucrative market out there that can be exploited and I have been thinking how to tap into this. The good news is that all these songs follow a rigid pattern with their lyrics, and it would appear that as long as you stick strictly to this pattern you can pretty much sit back and watch for the royalty checks to start appearing in your mail box. All songs sing of a poor orphaned blind Irish boy who gets deported on a convict ship to Australia, discovers when he gets there that the pub has no beer and then for no properly explained reason dies in prison. Its as simple as that.
So next time you feel a strange urge to marry your sister and move to Taranaki, write a country music song and make some money.
All Good here.
