Whuh?

The stage was set for a great night of sporting entertainment on the box. State of Origin and Giro. Da boys were in da house... Mitch, Scotty, Klink, Tomky, Col, Kedan, Christian, me. We got pizza and the beer was plentiful. We put HG and Roy on the radio and watched the footy and talked about bikes and didn't really get excited about the game until it was over...all the action happened in the last 15 minutes, I think. With an hour to kill before the start of the much-hyped Stage 17, we stuck on the Red Light Go DVD, a cool little doco about the crazy lives of New York bike messengers. Worth checking out, just for the freaks. And then it was time... I'd built this stage up for the boys, relaying to them the course profile, 50km's of climbing, the last climb with 8kms of gravel road, 25% grades, and rain. The images coming thru confirmed it, it was snowing at the finish, the road was steep and sloppy, and we were amped for an epic slog in horrendous conditions. As the stage progressed, we waited for the gravel, and then we see there's 10km to go... the gravel must be soon. Peipoli and Basso are on the front again, must be close to the gravel. Peipoli raises his arms in victory... WHUH? Was that gravel? No? Hmmm.... The helicopter shot goes beyond the finish line, following the road where the race was supposed to finish, up the gravel road. We deduce that the stage has been shortened due to the weather, and you can hear the wind being knocked from everyone's sails as we realise that's it. What an anti-climax! Maybe if Kedan had really spoken fluent Italian, as we had told the others, we might have known what was going on. It was pretty funny getting K-man's 'updates' though..."Hey Keedos, what are they saying now?" "Road's wet", "Almost there", "Gettin tired" would come his imaginative answers. So off the boys trudged, leaving only their souls and a pile of beer bottles and pizza cartons... Hey guys, Friday and Saturdays stages are also supposedly 'epic'... comin over?