Comments on: Where was Eki during the Tour de France?

Where was Eki during the Tour de France?

X4ster — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:42:37 -0800

Watching this years television coverage of the TdF there seemed to be a void in the absence of Viatcheslav Ekimov. During the Tour de France he was busy being team director for the non-TdF Team Discovery Channel cyclists who were competing in the Tour de Qinhai Lake bike race in China. Beautiful scenery, exotic peoples, described with interesting Chinese to English translations. Altogether a great preview for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

By: X4ster

X4ster — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:51:06 -0800

First post noob here. You go to the Blue with the post you have, not the post you'd like to have.

By: honest knave

honest knave — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:59:45 -0800

Thanks, X4ster. Ekimov has been an institution at the Tour. It's nice to be reminded of his career on the Blue.

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:14:52 -0800

I guess Ekimov will be polishing up his resume now that the Discovery Channel team is disbanding for lack of interest by sponsors. Odd considering they employ the current Tour de France champion...

By: space2k

space2k — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:44:01 -0800

Funny you posted this today. I was just thinking last night that, while I have reservations about China hosting the Olympics, the terrain for the road race should be great.

By: X4ster

X4ster — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:52:17 -0800

honest knave I have great regard for Eki's accomplishments. In my 60 years of life I've only asked 3 people for an autograph; one author, one scientist and one athlete - Ekimov.

By: turbodog

turbodog — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:50:04 -0800

How dare you make a post about Eki and fail to mention the mullet!

By: John

John — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:37:31 -0800

If Eki decides to be Tinkoff's new DS, he might get a free Russian toaster!

By: honest knave

honest knave — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 02:53:13 -0800

X4ster: Good for you. He deserves the respect.

By: afx237vi

afx237vi — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:32:21 -0800

Eki also had the best mullet in professional sport, and it's heartening to see that he has now passed the baton to his fellow Russian, Vladimir Karpets. But yeah, as a cycling fan, the Tour of Qinghai Lake has interested me for a few years. In it's early years it produced some great winners like Damiano Cunego and Tom Danielson, both of whom have gone on to have great careers at the very top level. I think I read once that in China it has a daily TV audience of over 300m, which is actually more than the Tour de France. With that, the Tour de Langkawi, the Japan Cup, the Tour of Siam, there are some great races in Asia and it wouldn't surprise me if we saw some great champions come out of that continent in the next 10-15 years. After all, how many Americans and Australians were in the pro peloton 20 years ago?

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:51:30 -0800

Eki was like 40 in last year's race, wasn't he?