Le Tour de France 2007

With last year’s winner still undecided due to Floyd Landis’s suspected testosterone doping case, this year’s race was again an open one with hot favourites for the General Classification (GC) like Andreas Kloden (Astana), Cadel Evans (Predictor Lotto), Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) and Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel).

The first week of the race was led by Fabian Cancellara (CSC) following his victory of the prologue and obviously a time for the sprinters to do their stuff with the relatively flat profiles of the first week’s stages. The real test of the tour will be in the mountains in which the best climbers would be able to gain a lot of time and consolidate their positions in the GC as well clinch points for the mountains points classification in order to win the polka dotted jersey.

Young gun Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile) from Germany took the first mountain stage of stage 7 in the Alps and got into the yellow leaders’ jersey but GC hopeful Michael Rogers (T-Mobile) from Australia crashed hard on a descent, breaking his shoulder and had to abandon the tour in tears. Fellow countryman Stuart O’Grady (CSC) also crashed, puncturing his lung and suffered multiple fractures. Not a good day for the Aussies.

2-time polka dotted jersey winner Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) took Stage 8, along with the lead in the mountains and overall classification. This put a lot of pressure on the Rabobank Team as they had to work to defend the yellow jersey holder Rasmussen, often leading the peloton and setting the pace of the following stages.

GC favourite Alexander Vinokourov’s (Astana) crash on stage 5 left him quite beat up and struggling in the Alps, with team mates Andreas Kloden and Andrey Kashechkin doing a lot to pace him up the gruelling slopes. Vino’s efforts in maintaining the pace and trying to keep up with the GC leaders was commendable, as he demonstrated a ‘never-say-die’ attitude despite his painful injuries. His tenacity was rewarded as he went to win the Albi time trial of stage 13.

Then it was the return to the hard climbs of the Pyrennes with explosive young Spaniard and white jersey wearer Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) ripping up the slopes and winning stage 14. Personally this was my favourite stage of the entire 3 week race, especially looking at the two climbers Rasmussen and Contador constantly challenging each other up the final climbs of the stage in a dramatic fashion, both refusing to give in to one another till towards the very end.

However, the tour was suddenly hit by 3 crises. Firstly, the news that Vino was tested positive of blood doping following his second stage win of stage 15 which resulted in his expulsion from the race along with his entire team, dashing fifth placed on GC team-mate Andreas Kloden’s dreams of finishing on the podium in Paris. Next, another positive test of testosterone doping of Italian Cristian Moreni (Cofidis) led to the exit of him and his team from the tour. Lastly, yellow jersey wearer Rasmussen was sacked by his team for lying about his whereabouts in June prior to the tour and was to leave the race. Therefore second placed rider on the GC Contador had to take up the yellow jersey nervously at the end of stage 17. Perhaps it was a little too much for the 24 year-old Spaniard to shoulder such a responsibility.

Contador kept his lead quite easily on the following stage, given it was one with a relatively flat profile. The real crunch came in the 55.5km time-trial of stage 19 that would more or less cement the final podium positions in Paris. Contador had a 1’47 lead over second placed Evans from Australia while third placed Leipheimer was about a minute behind Evans. It was really the battle of the top 3 men in this stage and Leipheimer rode the time trial of his life with a whopping speed of 53km/h that was enough for him to secure his first ever stage win in the tour as well as retaining his third position on the GC. Contador rode brilliantly and managed to maintain a 23 sec lead over Evans.

Though plagued by doping cases again, this year’s tour revealed the new young talents and future of professional cycling. The winners of the various jerseys were 24 year-old Spaniard Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) with the leader’s yellow jersey and best young rider’s white jersey, 26 year-old Belgian Tom Boonen (Quickstep-Innergetic) with the green points sprinter’s jersey and last and not least 24 year-old Columbian Mauricio Soler (Barloworld).

My favourite team Discovery Channel took 2 out of the top 3 positions in the final GC, along with the yellow and white jerseys as well as the overall team classification. I guess 7-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong who paid a visit to the Disco boys couldn’t be happier and again we see the magic of master tactician and team manager Johan Bruyneel.

Race-leader/winner Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) in Paris (Stage 20)

Photo: www.grahamwatson.com

The Tour de France never fails to inspire me (especially when I’m a cyclist haha) and indeed pushes its participants to their physical and mental limits, especially when you are covering over 3600 km in about 3 weeks. Furthermore, riders are subject to monstrous climbs, long time trials, unexpected crashes, over-zealous tour fans lined up along the roads of the stages etc. It is not over until you cross the finish line in Paris. Perhaps it is a parallel to life, with so many unexpected twists and turns: there are sweet victories as well as hard crashes in which you have to pull yourself together until you complete the race. Sometimes too the “uphill” trials in life are akin the monstrous climbs and time trials are a test of how mentally strong we are. Fortunately too we have “team-mates” (i.e. family and friends) to help us recover and pull us along if we suffer from “crashes”.

Thanks for reading if you have survived the first 999 words.
Vive Le Tour!

Dean

Scriptural verses ( Victorious Life)

Isaiah 26:3You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

Matthew 11:28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Mark 14:38Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

Romans 8:28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.

Ephesians 6:10-17Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Linus :)

all in a day's work

hey dong, i bet this traumatic workday rivals yours.

it had been such a long time since i relief taught.. about a year perhaps? strangely, i was much more nervous about it today than i was before.. perhaps cos i now know what's in store for me? nevertheless, nothing.. i repeat NOTHING.. could have prepared me for the class i took today. i could almost hear and feel my heart drop a whole one metre to the ground when i received my timetable for the day and saw the words '6 CHARITY' right at the top in bold.

Here are 10 reasons why i SHOULD NOT be a teacher.

1) i couldn't deal with a class that only had 16 boys and 2 girls

2) there was this boy who was extremely disruptive and rude and violent and i absolutely couldn't tolerate him for one more second. thus, i told him to get out of my class.
me: GET OUT OF MY CLASS NOWWWWW!!!
boy: ok loh. you want me to get out of the school also can. i take my bag first
i was afraid that he'd really walk out of school and thus i took his bag away and kept it behind me.
me: you leave your bag here and just get out. You shall only get it back at the end of my lesson (which was to be at the end of the day)
and then the boy attempted to hit/whack/beat me.

3) the same boy crushed 2 pieces of paper into balls and dropped it into his shirt
boy: my breasts is (wrong grammar may i add) bigger than yours
i was totally stunned/horrified/speechless/furious, please dont laugh!

4) recently, there's a 'decorate your toilet' competition among the classes. basically each class has to adopt a toilet as their own, come out with a theme and decorate the toilet according to the theme as well as keep it clean. anyway, this class hasn't been doing ANYTHING for the competition but somehow they all decided to do so today, bringing the materials that they needed to class and then, insisting that i allow them to work on it during my lesson. so cos i didn't allow them to do so, they decided to make full use of their materials anyway. they tore up their papers into tiny pieces which was strewn all over the floor. A chaotic mess is an understatement

5) next they proceeded to use their penknives to threaten each other and scrape their desks. i saw with my own eyes, one boy using his penknife to almost touch the cheek of another boy. i immediately went forward to confiscate it and he tried to slash my hand.

6) the other boys then decided to have some fun with the whiteboard markers. instead of harmless drawing on the board as one would expect, they went on to draw on each others' backs. one boy started. the victim tried to take revenge. the rest of the boys formed alliances to back each boy and grabbed more markers. you get the overall picture.

7) there were metal wire strips for some reason i dont know, lying around in the classroom. i noticed some of the boys twisted it into various stuff and then throwing it at others. to avoid causing any accidents, i walked towards them and demanded all of it to be passed to me. one unhappy boy threw the metal wire at my face.

8) they kept asking me for permission to go to the toilet or to refill their water bottles. i may be naive but i'm not an idiot. i let them go the first time cos i believed that it might be urgent. but seriously, how is it possible that one needs to pee every 10 min? even if one gulps down a whole bottle of water, i'm sure it takes a while to go thru the entire complex inner system of their bodies. so after a while, i refused to let them go to the loo and they said i was mean and bad.

9) the boys threw chairs at each other and kicked tables

10) the boy i mentioned at the beginning went round the class trying to punch people's stomachs. one boy cried.

there are more. but these are the more important ones. i tried everything i could think of, from simply staring them down to shouting very fiercely (i know this is unbelievable to many of you. but when i need to be fierce, i am fierce),from taking away their PE lesson, to keeping them in for recess until i heard complete silence, from turning off the fan (they're more inclined to listen when they want me to turn on the fan quickly), to just simply sitting on my chair and waiting.

If i had it my way, i would have given them 2 tight slaps and then walked right out. this class is notorious for their terrible attitude and nonchalance to discipline, authority and respect.

ahhhhh!!!

Remembering Our Fathers

Hey all,

apologies for the successive posts in as many days but it just struck me how under appreciated our fathers are. Although recently it was Fathers Day, it dawned on me that the emphasis on it and the recognition our fathers get is exceeded by our mothers.

Even for me, fathers day sort of passed by without too much consideration as compared to mothers day. Ashamed, I actually stumbled across this video on youtube where we see how one man changes all that and how he helps people around him appreciate their fathers more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQmq5fjTG4o&mode=related&search=

Enjoy

Dong

Introduction to the Working World 101

Hi there Streamies,

trust that all of you guys are enjoying the holidays! Anyways, just posting about my first 'backstab' experience in the office as I do find it rather eye opening as I've always heard about it, talked about it, and even witnessed backstabbing in action...but this would have to be my first encounter with it as the victim haha

here is the plot:

The CFO and the accounts guy don't get along very well and they often butt heads with each other, so whenever I get a job that has to involve the both of them it becomes a struggle as both guys will be giving me conflicting instructions! Its a real pain if you ask me.

Anyways, some time ago, a job given to me by the CFO was to help fix up the Group's accounting policies as per the instructions by the auditors. However, the accounts guy disputed that it wasn't important with our Annual General Meeting coming up! Anyways, had to do as the CFO said because he's the bigger guy around so his word carries more weight :( Anyways, the CFO followed by giving me a ton of other work to do and said that the accounting policies could wait.

Regardless, when I finished my tasks some 2 weeks later, the issue of accounting policies came about again. Again, I approached the accounts guy for help he assured me that he fixed it up already and it was in the Annual Report - which was great! No work for me to do

So when the CFO asked me for it I confidently replied to him that the accounts guy had finished it and it wasn't an issue. He followed by asking me for a soft copy which I replied to him that I would get it from the accounts guy. However, when I asked the accounts guy, he gave me the blank look and said "Accounts policy? Theres two of them, one for the AR and one for internal control. Which one is the CFO looking for"

And at THAT point, I knew I had stepped into quicksand and was in for a ride.

Anyways, rest of the story is rather boring so I'll omit it. Lesson learnt: everytime someone tells you that he's done something, get them to PROVE it...see the work in person, then alls good =)

Cheers and thank you for taking Introduction to the Working World 101.

Dong

reflections on UMAD5

Hi guys and girls,

my first time posting here..
well UMAD5 has come and gone, and i must share some of my reflections. It has really been quite a stressful, trying planning process for me, and i met many struggles along the way but at the end of the day, i really thank God for being by my side and also paving the way ahead for me.
Even though planning started in Jan this yr, the hard work came in only in april. we thought we were ahead of schedule initially, it was only later that we realised that we had lots of things to do. Also at the time, i had internship and cafe work so it was quite a challenge to juggle all three. Planning the games was the super tough part, think we went thru at least 4-5 drafts before finalizing the games. It was very encouraging to see Tania and Amanda working so hard and serving together for God. And also Dora, Sandra, Melody.. :) I know that they have certainly grown and benefited from serving in UMAD and as a cgl its really a joy and very rewarding! :)
Thru all the stress and tired days, God really pulled me along, up and down up and down, some emotional rollercoaster man! I'm sure you experienced my moody face and snappy-ness. Like to say thank you to many of you for encouraging me and also offering your help.
I learnt that serving God is an opportunity to grow and also be moulded by God. You know how we always sing:
Take me, Mould me, Use me, fill me..
Singing is one thing but moulding is really a tough process, i guess i knew that before but this time round, it was really impactful! Thank God for that :)
Thru serving, I got to see my faults and weaknesses clearer. I believe that God also gave me many chances to test myself and how i react in different situations. One thing i learnt is to control my temper and also serve joyfully. Hope to be a more selfless and community centred individual after this experience.
I thank God for each of you, thanks for helping me in my spiritual walk, in actual tangible help and also for being an encouragement in the many things you do. :)

go go living streams
go go to more rich experiences with our Lord Jesus! :)

drea

'Liking' VS 'Loving'

Hi everyone, it's the long vacation break and I have decided to read more books this time.

Almost done reading "C.S. Lewis: Readings for mediation and reflection", and there are 2 more books waiting for me to read: "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis (thanks Mabel for loaning me the book) and "Out of the Saltshaker" by Rebecca Manley Pippert (bought from a vcf camp earlier this week).

Can't remember when was the last time I was so looking forward to reading books. I guess books are a good way to provoke us to think deeply about issues in life and to consider things we might not have thought of before.

Recently I have been thinking what are the differences between liking and loving someone, and maybe what I have read probably gave me some idea. In a sense, liking someone probably means it is based on some perceived likeable characteristic/trait of a person and it is probably something quite 'easy' to do.

However, loving someone is a whole new level: we must learn to accept the not so likeable traits of him/her and perhaps a good parallel would be how we are so unlikeable and have nothing to offer to God but yet He chose to love us and restore our relationship with Him through the sacrifice of Jesus. That is the ultimate love. I don't really know how this translates to the human equivalent but the closest would be a mother's love for her child(ren). No matter how bad or rotten a person might be, I believe deep down his/her mum still loves him/her.

I don't know what to say about the romantic sort of love though. Is it a progression from 'liking' to 'loving'? Can it withstand the thresholds of the negative aspects of a person? How does it compare to God's love? For me I have a certain mental model of how it is like to be in love in a romantic sense (thanks to all the cheesy romantic shows), but most likely it would turn out to be very different in reality. Alas, many times I think I fall into the trap of falling in love with the idea of love but haven't yet get to experience the real falling in love with someone. How far am I able to go and accept the not so likeable aspects of someone?

Maybe love is a journey afterall and for us to experience the pains and joys in the process. Another question would be can we be 'prepared' for love or does it just 'seize' us without any warning?

Dean