While the sun rarely shone yesterday, the yellow off everyone’s
backs and through banners and flags made up for this.
The winner of this year’s tour de France and the first
Australian to do so had come home to celebrate amongst his compatriots and what
a show it was!
People young and old came out see Evans a former road race
world champion and it was this man who in turn tried to shake as many hands as
possible, it was a show of appreciation and humility, a breath of fresh air in
a heady world of arrogance.
With a big grin on his face Evans made his way to the set up
stage at Federation Square. It was a rock-star welcome to an Aussie who has
done his country proud.
Watching this on the telly it was still hard to stave off a
smile that turns into a grin and all those happy like feeling flowing through
the system.
In the same way that it is hard to put a good drink down or
give up a good bed buddy, avoiding watching Cadel Evans was an impossible task
for he has an odd combination of magnetism and charm even though his persona is
less than extroverted.
The tour de France champion who claimed victory on the
penultimate day provided many an Australian with sore eyes and sleep
deprivation over three weeks as well as a show of uncertainty in times where it
had mattered the most. Nonetheless the battling spirit of a rider twice second
in 2007 and2008 prevailed and placed his own mark on the yellow jersey.
And the best thing about this homecoming and celebration? It
was all the television channels covering it, not one, not two but all. It was a
great show of support even though the race has a cult following that perhaps in
Australia is on the cusp of changing with the arrival of a the first Australian
based team and first Australian winner of Le Tour.
And so it shall be, bring on the 2012 tour!
No comments:
Post a Comment