TotW: Belgian tortoises, jungle cats and hot gorilla statues

Snow. Omloop. Strange lavatory signs. Taylor Phinney as a mountain man. Lots to get through this week but first up, someone had a birthday last week and we celebrated.

The Hubba Hubba Club

A certain Ladies’ Favourite turned 32 last Sunday (the 17th) and so we decided – and when I say ‘we’ I mean it was me, my decision alone – to start the Bernie Eisel Hubba Hubba Club. Panache made us a lovely logo and some of his most loyal fans did a little birthday blog for him. I think it might be catching on – even with the guys! (And who better to have a mancrush on?!)

I was thinking of making up a bunch of little badges and doing a little Hubba Hubba membership pack. Anybody out there think that’s a good idea?

Omloop Onesies

Of course, Bernie was riding Omloop on Saturday as were a few other of our favourite boys, including Tom and his magnificent Boonens. However, Tom is wearing what has to be the strangest looking get-up – is it just me or with that ugly, ugly helmet and the black onesie, does Tom look like a big Belgian tortoise? No? Just me?

This tiny tot, however, was having none of this black onesie nonsense and came dressed in the proper OPQS colours. I love this picture – I say it all the time, but I love how cyclists really take time for their fans, especially the little ones. Tom, you might look like a tortoise, but you’re a good tortoise.

This from Sep Vanmarcke, last year’s Omloop winner. Must be a proud moment when you get to pin the number 1 onto the back of your jersey before a race.

Not only were Tom and Bernie racing in Belgium this weekend, but so was That Boy Phinney. Here, he is doing the Twitter equivalent of looking at himself in the mirror, flexing his muscles and psyching himself up.

These Belgian fans, however, needed no such psyching. Bike race = standing around outside. Cold = man up, a woolly hat is plenty!

And we’re back to the crazy black onesie, this time modelled by Sylvain Chavanel. During the race, he looked like some sort of cat-burglar. Well, for much of the race, he was riding it like he stole it …

But cold? Onesies? Woolly hats? You bunch of big sissies and wusses. Cold means nothing to a podium girl. Nothing!

So we know how Chavanel went in the race, and we know how Boonen and Bernie went in the race (in the chasing peloton waving cameramen away and then frantically asking them the time gap), how did Mountain Man Phinney do?

Favourite hashtag of the week: #likeajunglecat.

Flaked out

It was cold for Omloop, but it was downright dangerous with the snow and ice for KBK on Sunday. There was a lot of speculation early Sunday morning as to whether they would call the race off – and our boys were ready with their phone cameras and Twitter fingers to show us what they did not want to race in!

By the way, when the Czech cyclocross national champion (and two times world champion) says the weather doesn’t look good, just do yourself a favour and call the race off.

Bit of a shame that we didn’t get to see Greg Henderson and the Lotto boys riding for Andre Greipel in KBK. No one would get past Greg with these muscles!

That sign mystifies me. Why are there gorilla statues, for one, and why might they be hot?

Random tweets too good to get away

Hello there, I’m Mr Euskadi … Euskaltel Euskadi. Maybe I’ll name my first-born Euskaltel. Euskaltel Fondue – got a real ring to it.

Castelli instagrams are the best.

Possibly because they have photographers of the calibre of the Grubers shooting for them. Jered and Ashley are back in Belgium… we can expect some phenomenal pictures coming out of the Classics in that case. Can’t wait!

I wonder if he wore the rainbow jersey down to his local Tesco Metro – you know, just one last time.

I’m fairly sure I had a nightmare about this the other night – along with the one where the ceiling was falling in. I’d rather the ceiling fall in than be given this really, really, really creepy guitar. Who thought of this?

Do you think they’re acting out something in the Da Vinci Code? Marcel Sieberg‘s quiff – utterly divine!

I laughed a lot about this, not least because apparently if you have your baseball cap on backwards, it means you spray like a firehose, willy-nilly, so to speak. But baseball cap on properly? All under control …