Monday, October 24, 2005

On the receiving end

Although he (as far as I know) hasn't got a team for the 2006 UCI Pro Tour season as yet, Stuart O'Grady must have a little to smirk and chuckle about when reading about his compatriot Robbie McEwen getting a slap round the chops from some thugs. I use the term 'compatriot' extremely loosely as O'Grady refused to work with McEwen at this year's World Championships (which ended up as a nothing of a story as O'Grady was injured and couldn't participate anyway). This was following this year's Tour de France headbutting incident (shown left, with McEwen in the white/yellow of Davitamon Lotto and O'Grady in the white/blue/red of Cofidis). According to O'Grady, it was one of a long list of incidents involving Robbie McEwen and he's just about had his fill of him.

Here's the story, as taken from The Australian:

Cycle champ bashed at Indy
October 24, 2005


LEADING Australian cyclist Robbie McEwen was sporting a black eye today after being bashed by three men during the Gold Coast Indy motor racing carnival on the weekend.
McEwen said he was targeted by the group while walking to a cab rank near Kurrawa Surf Club, at Broadbeach, around 2am on Saturday.

He had been out having dinner and drinks with friends.

McEwen, who has a house on the Queensland tourist strip, said he did not know why he had been attacked.

"There were three guys walking towards me and as we got level one of them king-hit me," he said.

"I don't know if (the attack) was an attempted mugging but it was definitely a cowardly act.

Advertisement:
"I lost my footing after getting punched but managed to get back up and win the fight by 50 metres.

"I might have to look at an athletics career if cycling fails."

McEwen suffered a bruised cheek and swollen lip - as well as a black left eye - as a result of the attack.

The Tour De France green jersey winner said he was disappointed to see random bashings occurring in his home state after returning from a hectic cycling season in Europe.

He was in the middle of a 10 day break from training on the Gold Coast with his family.

"It's disappointing that there are young guys out there with nothing better to do than to try to ruin someone else's night," the 33-year-old said.

"Still, it didn't ruin my weekend at the Indy."

Queensland Police had earlier praised the behaviour of motor racing fans following a record four day attendance for the showpiece event.

Police said the number of incidents at the Indy was low "for an event of this size".

"The majority of arrests have been for public order related incidents," police operation commander Inspector Alistair Dawson said yesterday.
To give McEwen some credit (which I rarely do as he seems a bit of a turd), I liked the way he mentioned that it didn't ruin his weekend. It's good to let violent arseholes know they're not getting the better of you and making your life (albeit for a short period of time mostly) miserable. However, I thought it was funny how McEwen couldn't seem to admit he got knocked on his arse. I noticed he said he lost his footing rather than got knocked over. Again, it makes the assailants seem less potent, so he might have been saying it for that reason but it sounds to me like McEwen didn't want to admit he got knocked flat by a punch. Either that or he was rat-arsed and didn't want to draw attention to his inebriation. Whatever the case, you can bet Stuart O'Grady got at least a wry smile out of hearing about it.

No comments: