Feel the wind in your hair

             So I have bought my Raleigh bike but that doesn't mean that I should stop talking about them, ha! Instead of talking about a Dutch bike brand let's talk about a Dutch cyclist shall we? Here enters famous cyclist Joop Zoetemelk. He is a bicycle racing legend.
           He has finsished the Tour de France 16 times, which is a record, and he also won the race in 1980. Not to mention the Olympics and 67 other professional races that he has either won or raced in the top 10 in. Joop started off as a regional champion speed skater before turning to cycling. This guy, who has actually become better looking as he ages (if that tells you anything), is an athlete and a robust one at that. In the 1980 Tour de France which he won, it was claimed that he only won because a competitor Bernard Hinault had dropped out of the race. This is what Joop had to say about that "Surely winning the Tour de France is a question of health and robustness. If Hinault doesn't have that health and robustness and I have, that makes me a valid winner". Dutch directness?
             He won the race on a Raleigh, my favorite brand, and raced under the TI-Raleigh Dutch team. The team was known for their discipline. Joop was known for doing his job and doing it well even though sometimes he did not communicate with his team mates.  He was also disqualified during drugs tests 3 different times. Joop is now retired and runs a hotel in Meaux, France. His wife is the daughter of a Tour de France executive and his son Karl is a French mountain biking champion. There is a lot of bicycling on the mind in that family.

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Ohhh the red, white, and blue

If you were given the job of creating a flag to represent your country, how would you design it? Myself, I would probably think of some symbols of your country then hand over the design portion to an artist, with the plan of choosing colors that aptly represent where you live. What have most countries of the world done? Three bars filled in with color. Lets talk about the Netherlands flag. This "orange" country has a drab flag, but not only is it drab it's deceiving. So many countries use red, white, and blue that it is confusing. + A little sun bleaching, Luxembourg +Sea sickness France + Dyslexia , Russia ...

de Vries, Hans de Vries. Almost.

In 1967 THE James Bond (Sean Connery) decided to step away from the world of James Bond films. EOS studios thus had to find a replacement. It came down to 5 men. 2 Brits, an American, a Australian, and a Dutchman. John Richardson, Anthony Rogers, Robert Campbell, George Lazenby, and Hans de Vries. None of those names ring a bell? George Lazenby won the part for the 6th Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. A movie that has been lauded both as the worst and one of the best Bond films in the franchise. If you haven't seen it, you should. It was the Bond film that 'Breaks the Fourth Wall', Bond gets married, wears a kilt, and goes skiing. But the reason for this post is instead of this; (Yes, THAT is James Bond) We could of had this. Improvement? Probably not. He looks a wee bit angry. Plus, no one watches OHMSS anyway. So, did de Vries have a movie career after Bond? Ha, no. The only notable movie rolls I can find for him were pre bond. And that was ...

Ray - Forest Boy

Remember around a month ago when the news story hit about Ray the Forest Boy who randomly showed up one day in Berlin, Germany? Well I forgot to post this but it has been found out who Ray the 'Forest Boy' actually is. 20 yr old Robin van Helsum of Hengelo Netherlands (100 miles east of Amsterdam). What allowed the police to finally determine who 'Ray' was? His stepmother. She recognized his picture on the news. He went missing 9 months ago. Now that he has been exposed as a hoax and not the Forest Boy who had been living in the woods for 5 years; Robin may face stiff fines and penalties for the extra police time and work put into his case which could cost as much as $40,000. 'Ray' originally walked into Berlin claiming he had been walking for 5 days after spending 5 years living out of a tent in the 'wild' where he had buried his father. One Berlin police officer said that there were things right from the start that did not match to his story. Lik...

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