Funny, cruel, odd, personal … you get it all on Twitter. Each week, we’ll have a rundown of some of our favourite tweets. Here are the tweets for the week ending 21nd October 2012, except I put in stuff from 22nd October as well. I’m playin’ it fast and loose, people!

It’s just one damn thing after another these days, isn’t it? Let’s start with Lance.

Le fraudeur

Did I ever mention that I would cross 75 lanes of heavy traffic just to slap Ben Stiller? I would. He’s supremely irritating.

Je ne regrette rien

On Monday, UCI president Pat McQuaid gave us all assurances that doping doesn’t happen in the peloton anymore, mainly because of his constant crusading – helped by anti-doping equipment bought out of donations from doping riders (“I have a subtle and cunning plan! I’ll use their own money to catch them!”), it was a shock that that sort of thing went on in the peloton undetected for so long (um, except everyone knew) and “if you think I’m going to step down, you’ve another thing coming…” Gives you hope for the future, doesn’t it?

Here are some of the reactions to his performance on Monday.

The mental picture of Pat McQuaid leaping into action still makes me laugh out loud.

Vive la Revolution

You may have noticed that all of a sudden your tweetstream is filled with what looks like classical portraits, as you see with UCI_Overlord. Well, these are portraits from the French Revolution – why? Because Overlord, Festinagirl, Velocast, Panache etc, are all calling for a revolution to bring down the old order – as can be seen by this screenshot of Velocast’s landing page. Even Jonathan Vaughters has changed his avatar.

And this tweet from Overlord shows why we need a revolution …

Stripping Lance of his titles and then merrily going down the same road as we’ve been travelling is not going to change our sport for the better. That’s like lobbing off a few branches of a diseased tree but leaving the poisoned root structure. Anyone know Latin?

[I do! It means ‘who guards the guardians?’ – Ed.] There are many ways to get involved. You don’t have to don the red Phrygian cap of the Revolution, you can take Inner Ring‘s advice. But if you do want the sport to change, you have to do something.

I see Cav has drunk the ‘it happened so long ago … nothing to do with us’ Kool-Aid that’s being passed around (as has Tom Boonen, et al). If you don’t examine the past and learn from it, Mark, it repeats itself. Over and over and over again.

David Millar‘s wife offered up a bit of levity to the proceedings yesterday.

Ne me quitte pas

All these Lance and UCI shenanigans pales into insignificance compared to the big news of last week. Forget Brad Pitt leaving Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie. Forget Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis calling it a day. This is devastating! Yes, the affair is ended, the bromance is over, Bernie has said “On your bike.” Mark Cavendish is going to Omega Pharma-Quick Step … Bernie Eisel is staying at Sky. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the news broke, not least by our own Tim.

Petit fours

But let’s end this column with some levity … a few choice morsels I’ve collected through the week to amuse and delight after such heavy going. And who better to sprinkle a little sparkle over the proceedings than that boy Hollywood Phinney?

Ivan Basso won the Japan Cup last week. I didn’t even realise there was such a thing. But there is. I just liked this picture. Oh, and I really like his avatar – really cool!

A little Jens humour:

The mighty Greg Henderson is making the most of his off-season! Bottoms up!

And Koen de Kort is going to grow a moustache! For a good cause, of course – let’s see how much money we can help him raise, shall we? Once Koen gets his charity page sorted out, we’ll give you the link for it!

In the ‘what the f*** are you wearing?’ category …

And last but not least, a goddess among women – especially in Overlord’s eyes – but also in ours. Bridie O’Donnell has been shopping – doesn’t she look fabulous???

While we’re trying to revive Overlord, we’ll leave you for another week. But remember – cycling is a brilliant sport, full of passion and grit and beauty. Don’t give up on it – and don’t let idiots ruin it. Stand up for your sport in any way you can. If you don’t, we might not have much of a sport left.