C***s

As we put the tennis behind us [Front page bloody headlines yesterday and today. Of course Murray wasn't going to win. As we all knew but conveniently forgot, he wouldn't even have made the final if Nadal hadn't been freakishly knocked out earlier on] we can concentrate on more important matters, where Britain - England even - has a real chance of success: the Tour de France. And unlike the dull and dutiful Murray, Brad Wiggins can be quite...outspoken:

Wiggins, who again tracked Cadel Evans during a tough day to preserve the lead he first claimed on Saturday, had charmed French television for nearly half an hour before attending the leaders’ press conference when an American journalist asked him how he reacted to people who doubted his achievements and compared him to Lance Armstrong when he rode with the US Postal and Discovery teams.

The three-time Olympic champion, his generation’s most outspoken proponent of clean riding, exploded at the implication. “I say they’re just f------ w------. I cannot be doing with people like that. It justifies their own bone-idleness because they can’t ever imagine applying themselves to do anything in their lives.

“It’s easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of s---, rather than get off their arses in their own lives and apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something. And that’s ultimately it. C----.”

The Times report (£) a slightly different ending:

“And that’s ultimately it. C***s.”

So what was it? "C----" or "C***s"? Was he directly addressing the American journalist who asked the question (as I'd like to think), or was it a general comment on all the twitter sceptics?

Anyway, the story's clear enough. For decades now the British have underperformed in the Tour, partly because we weren't interested, but mainly because all these foreigners - with no innate sense of decency and fair play to guide them - were scoffing performance-enhancing drugs. Now that the Tour authorities are finally getting on top of the doping problem, we British are sensing a genuine sporting challenge at last, and showing how it should be done....with grit, determination, and a shitload of expletives.

Comments

[NicoleS]

The great British public and the BBC have been making me cringe. This morning on R4 someone suggested Murray could have won if only he didn't have to play against people like Nadal, Djocovic and Federer. So unfair, what?

[Ron B]

Love this post, well worth recycling if you'll excuse the pun.

[Mick H]

Well thank you.