The Mind Of OverlordTomala
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More Spills + Duval-Leroy Champagne!

Welcome Back to the Drunken Game Corner, where we will continue our exciting coverage of the Tour de Underpants in France!!! Yes indeed, we have more thrills, chills, and spills waiting for you!!

Today’s race, Stage 5, starts in Rouen and finishes in the ancient Roman town of Saint-Quentin.   This is the flattest stage so far, travelling due east.  It is raining at the finish line, so look out for that!

 

 

The cyclists are riding through the Picardy area of Northern France, which includes some of the vineyards in Champagne!  Therefore, today’s beverage is Duval-Leroy Non-Vintage Champagne!  It’s my favorite party Champagne since it’s a tasty and relatively affordable Champagne with a bit less acidity than many of the food Champagnes, so it’s perfect by itself or with a meal.  Plenty of effervescence and lemon, fruit forward green grapes and apples, light yet flavorful on the palate, with a nice clean chardonnay-like finish.  It truly is a delicious beverage!!!

 

 

Who will win today?  Will it be Cavadish?  Greipel?  Sagan?  Cancellara?  Or maybe even Cadel Evans?

We start off with the coverage beginning with the peloton ahead by about 5 minutes with 4 riders in the lead.  Many beautiful fields here as they make their way towards Saint-Quinten.

 Fabian Cancellara is going back to the team car for a chat to relieve the boredom, apparently tram!

 Now they are cruising along past another wind farm area.  Now they are grabbing the food and water bags.  nomnomnomnom!  They are picking up the pace now as they head for the sprint.  I can see the Dutch influence in the architecture here tram!

 Bernie Isen is winning the sprint so far as he pedals hard!  They are attacking!  In the end, it ended up being Ladagnous, Urtasun, and Simon for the intermediate sprint!  Wheeees!

 Oh noes, it’s starting to rain a bit there!  And helmet change time!

 Oh yes, Clean Bottle, with the nipple on top!!!  I just saw a pizza shop there that I would like to visit!!!! nomnomnomnom!

Things have cleared up as they continue on.   Nice bicycle sculpture on the lawn!

Awww, a graveyard with both British and German soldiers from WWI & II.

Epic fields of hay with some turrets in the background!  Now the peloton is catching up, just over two minutes behind at about 30 miles outside of the finish as they crank it up a notch!

 The road has split as a few drops of rain have started.  They are back together on a very narrow stretch with some interesting architecture coming up! 

 Wow, nice squares of farmland among the wind turbines!  Interesting sugar mill and gravel pit!

Here again, one can see the Dutch influence on some of the buildings with the different colors of brick in the same building and such.  Pretty!  This area also has several canals that are still used as a shipping lane and such.  Cool!

The peloton is once again speeding up as they wind themselves around roundabouts and narrow town streets.

Well, that was nice!  Mark Cavandish’s teammates are rallying around him as they get closer to the finish.  Wow, beautiful fields of yellow!

The peloton is in sight of the leaders as the pedal down a veryyyyyyy long straight road through the farming area, just about a minute behind at 10 miles away from the finish line.

 LOL!  At the finish line, before the riders got there, they had some fake race horses going across the line, along with a whole parade of blow-up figures!!! Wheees!!!!

The peloton is behind by 44 seconds at the 6 mile mark!  And another mile done!  And now uphill a bit!  Awwws, nice depiction of a bicycle using a bunch of different colored tractors!!!!! Wheeees!!!!

 Cute kids riding around a sign that says “Long live the Tour” !  Yays!

5 km to go with 29 seconds to catch the leaders!  How ironic, a sudden traffic circle split with a sculpture with some impaled bicycles on the top of it – LOL!

Oh noes!! After a peaceful and scenic day of racing, suddenly there is an accident right at the end!!!  Jonathan Cantwell went down, oh noes!  Some shoulders were touching and down they went tram!

 

 

 

The remaining cyclists continue to pedal their butts off up some narrow and turning roads, along the edge of the canal towards the finish as the gap closes to 10 seconds behind the leaders.  Can the peloton catch the leaders?  They are all pedaling like crazy and then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Andre Greipel comes from the peloton to suddenly take over for the win!!!!!! Wow!!!!  What a sprint!!!!  How exciting tram!!!!!

 

 

 

Awwws, ‘Le Tour’ is spelled out in different colored canoes on the water!  So cute tram!!!

Whew!!!  Thanks again for reading meh latest post about the Tour de Underpants!!! It has been sooo epic to be covering the Tour with all of you tram!!!!  Have tons of funz out there meh hearties!!!

 

 

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Day 5 Crashing + Cider!

After working on meh Pacific Northwest sunburn, I’m back inside for the 5 p.m. coverage of the 4th leg of the Tour de France!

I’m wondering if Fabian Canellara can keep his yellow shirt or if Frank Sagen will win the stage again, or if someone else will manage to win!!!!

Today’s coverage of the stage from Abbeyville to Rouen started about the feeding station.   Today they are riding along the beautiful Alabaster Coast, here at Ste Marguerite sur Mer!  Super scenic, not including the guy with the swimsuit thing going up his butt crack!!!

Ste Marguerite sur Mer

It turns out that one of the riders broke his hip yesterday during one of the crashes but it didn’t hurt him much yesterday, and he didn’t realize that he had broken it until an X-Ray showed it at the hospital!!!!

Yann Hugo had to stop and change a tire right after the feeding station.  The peloton turned away from the misty coast and through a woodsie area.  Oh wait, he had to have another tire changed!  Catch back up!

Now they are heading back along the coast along the English Channel and through some open fields and fields of hay in Veules-les-Roses.  Beautiful!

Yes indeed, the beverage of the day should be traditional cider!!! I lovvve a great cider!!! Get whatever kind is available in your area, whether it’s French or English, it should be totally yumm!!!!

 I love the huge modern wind turbines, also in Veules-les-Roses!  Beautiful!

 Veules-les-Roses, France

Oh noes, I just saw the update about yesterday’s crashes and appeared to include 8 or 9 injuries including a broken tibia, a separated shoulder, chest contusions, a concussion, a huge gash down the front of Mark Cavandish’s leg, and more!!! Oh noes!!!  Take care, everyone!!!!

Now they are heading through Fecamp.  Three riders are in the lead with the peloton a bit over 7 minutes behind.  Yukiya Arashiro is in the lead at the moment and he lives in France year-round.

Ahhhhs, someone is sharing the love with a huge yellow shirt on the lawn, awwwww!!  I loved the Gingerbread Man of hay that appeared earlier too!!!

One of the Dutch cyclists needed a new tire and the mechanic was all fumbling about with the longest tire change so far in the Tour, as the peloton goes riding by!  The little girl outside of Faconne was so thrilled to see the tire change so I suppose it was all worthwhile!

Ohhhh, the Benedictine Palace is beautiful!!!!  So epic!!

Now some the cyclists are getting foodz to share with their teammates!!!   Nice tram!!!!

Wow, someone in meh neighborhood is really having funz with the fireworks at the moment, as someone had issues with his bike helmet and got a new one – Yays!

Nice huge fake giraffe at it starts to rain a bit, and around the roundabout in their brightly colored jerseys and helmets!  Rain water on the camera lenses with some blue skies with clouds off in the distance!  Wet roads in a little town and now some open fields!  Hello Team BMC and Cadel in the peloton!  The leaders of the peloton are having a chat now as the pedal through the tree-lined road!  Oh, there is flourescent rezzing for a few seconds – LOL!

Now the peloton is a bit over 4 minutes behind outside of Alloveyea.  Great fields as the peloton stretches out!

Oh noes, a new crash towards the rear of the peloton as the water bottles go all over and a few wheels about.  Most seem ok through a bit of chaoes.  The road was very narrow here and a few bicycles ended up on the grass to the side of the road.

The LiquidGas team has the word ‘fizik’ on their butts and it cracks me up – LOL!

Awwwws, a football field with a large pink sculpture of a bicycle!

OK, now picking up the pace along the river Seine, the same river that runs through Paris, of course!  The road seems to have dried out now, making it much safer for the riders.  The peloton is almost 2 minutes behind the leaders as they rapidly approach the finish.

Oh cool gate and gardens!  Oh yes the Clean Bottle with removable bottom tram!

 Who will win, Cavandish or Sagen?  The Route de Duclair is a beautiful area as just about 8 miles from the finish with less than a minute behind the leaders as they race through some country side here.

 They are rolling up towards the finish now as the fireworks go off.  Now we see the ancient Abbey from the 12th century as they line up the hill.

 24 seconds behind now, hello firemen display!!!

 The peloton is catching up, uphill at six miles from the finish!  Pedal pedal pedal!  Fireworks go boom here as the frantic pedal mounts!  They are closing in and in sight!!!  It’s every rider for themselves now!!!!

 LOL!  A few almost crashed into the center island, while one rider rode right on the middle of the traffic device, just like he was in Amsterdam!!!

Yes indeed, Rouen is a much larger city than the prior towns they were in, with large bridges across the river Seine.  Looks like a wonderful place to visit tram!!!

Now the peloton is pedaling their asses off tram!!!   Oh noes in front of the shopping!   Someone towards the front of the peloton crashed!!!   Here’s Mark Cavandish on the pavement!  This is probably going to prevent him from winning this stage!!!

 

 

 The aftermath of Robert Hunter crashing right at the finish! 

 

 

 

 

Some riders towards the front were able to carry on towards the finish!!!  900 meters to go over the bridge!!!  Swing hard around the corner towards the finish!!!!  Pedal pedal pedal!!!  And Andre Greipel wins it!!!!  Nicely done!!!

 

 

One nice thing about watching the coverage later in the day is that there are more photographs available on the Interwebs, but the coverage in the evening contains less actual footage and more interviews and profiles of the athletes and more hype in general.   I like the raw coverage in the morning but not getting up at 4:30 a.m. or so to see it – LOL!

Ok, thanks again for reading, meh hearties!!!

~Ettetram, from the Drunken Gaming Corner Tram!!!!

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Slack Day on the 4th of July with the Tour de Underpants!!!

Happy 4th of July, meh hearties tram!!!  I hope all of you dears are having lotz of funz out there!!!!

Thank you for following meh this far through the Tour de France!  I was more fatigued than I thought, so I managed to sleep in a bit this morgen, and when I got up, I discovered that there was no Tour de Underpants being broadcast in meh area until 5 pm!!!  It was quite distressing!  So meh post will be delayed until I am able to view the Tour and make meh goofball commentary!!!  Borkers!!!!!

 In the meanwhile, check out meh Tour de Underpants!!!

Wheeees!

Welcome to the Tour de Underpants, Amsterdam!!!!   Get a tiger butt!!!!

 

All in an Overlord's day / Work1

Survived.

Well, I managed to survive through yet another Geriatric Tuesday. I’m real beat. Allergies have been bugging me too. I think I’ve sneezed 17 times within the last half hour… Might pop a benadryl even though it makes me drowzy. That might do me some good though because I have to be to work a bit earlier tomorrow for the 4th.

Work today was absolute chaos. People crowding everywhere emptying the shelves and 4 managers giving us orders that had no consistency (in otherwords a regular day plus 2 extra managers). We did get one extra body to help us tonight, or they would have if they didn’t call him to check the moment he got there. sigh

Decided to run windoze update tonight to get some security fixes (since I’m on an x64 platform) and surprisingly I only had to restart twice. O_o

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Day 4 is Crash Day, + Taylor Fladgate Review

Yay! I managed to get out of bed in time for the live coverage for the first day of the Tour in France, starting in Orchies, a beautiful coastal town in France.

The question of the day is, “Can anyone beat Mark Cavadish and his Bulge of the Day?”

 It didn’t take long for an accident to occur around a sharp corner with an island in the middle of the road.  One cyclist was able to get his arm patched up by the team doctor as he was cycling down the road – Wheeeees!!!

 There they go through the food station where they get their extra power bars and they stuff them into their mini backpacks, then they throw their water bottles off the side of the road, where they are collected later.

Oh noes, another minor crash!!!  They managed to clear this one up pretty quickly, thankfully!

 Now they are in the sprint area with a group of 5 out front by about 5 minutes. I love the narrow roads in the small town and the kids in the school yard running over to the fence to catch a view of the riders.

 Oh noes, a big crash happened towards the end of the peloton! Most the riders were able to get around it all right.  A Russian from the Sky team was laying on the pavement and another rider had a flat tire.  The Spanish national champion is out of the race.  The peloton is about 3.5 minutes behind the leaders.

Ooops, another pile up, this one towards the front of the peloton on a narrow road.  Tyler Farrar ended up in two crashes and looks a bit beat up with his arm scraped up!

A person can see the Dutch influence in the architecture here in Aire-sur-la-Lys, France.

Now one of the BMC riders needs a new shoe.  Meanwhile, another rider has abandoned the race after crashing, awwwwws!!!!!  The peloton has broken up and the riders are scrambling to catch up with the four leaders who are ahead by a minute and a half.  All the riders are further scrambling as the finish rapidly approaches.  The peloton is less than a minute behind now as they head towards the finish.

Oh my, the corner around the roundabout is very sharp as the riders are hauling ass through some narrow streets of the beautiful Boulogne-sur-Mer towards the finish.  One rider almost crashed, and another rider went from the front of the peloton to the back of the pack just by missing the turn.

Now they are fighting their way uphill as they seem a bit desperate for the finish line.  Oh noes, another crash almost at the finish!  Then, I saw a rider miss the last turn and try to go the wrong way – LOL!  It’s a crazy day on the Tour de Underpants!!!!  Some riders will prolly need some new underpants after all that skidding about!!!!  LOL!!!!

And, finally, after much sprinting……….it’s Peter Sagen for the win again!!!!  Wootz!!!!  Nicely done!!!  Too BAD I didn’t see any candidates for the Bulge of the Day Award today!!!! Oh well,  I’ll see what I can find tomorrow tram!!!

And on another note, the Tour de Underpants goes especially well with a lovely tawny port such as the Taylor Fladgate 20 year port for about $54 here in Washington.  A rich and concentrated port, with intense flavors of pecan, walnut, a bit of caramel, rich, sweet, woody vanilla, and even a hint of apricot with a strong, lingering finish.  This would be an excellent cigar port since it has a nice kick to it as well – Yay!!! A person can have a lot of funz with this, making it perfect to go with the Tour!!!  Yays!!!

OK, have all the funz, meh hearties!!!  Have a safe and fun 4th of July, all of my American readers and anyone else that enjoys setting off fireworks and BBQ’ing!!!!! Yays!!!!!

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Tour de Underpants with Butt Rezzing on Day 3!

And here we are on Day 3 of the Epic Tour de Underpants!  After all that waking up at 4:30 am, I slept in this morning and am watching the replay. I heard the alarm go off, so I rolled over and shut it off and kept sleeping – LOL!

I’m viewing a bit into the race, and Andy Roux has his left hand bandaged and is cycling uphill with only his right hand on the handlebars.  Fortunately, he is making good progress up the Cote de Citadel (hill by the military school.)

Wow, I love the ruins of the old Abbey al Villages, former home of many Cistern Monks!  The buildings look similar to the Notre Dame in Paris with the pillars jutting out the side of the building and all.

Now, at about halfway through the race, the peloton is running over 6 minutes behind the leaders, so they have some catching up to do if they want to win this stage!  They went from a high of over 8 minutes behind!

Now they are in Nevel, Belgium, with a 2000 year old Abbey, so epic!  And tree-lined streets and a cool town!

There are 3 riders ahead with the peloton behind by about 2.5 minutes.  Now the peloton is heading through the trees towards the sprint section in the beautiful small town of Tourney.  A large group are fighting hard and pedaling their butts off to try to earn a few points towards the sprint competition.  A group of like 6 cyclists are digging deep and itssss…… Mark Cavandish!  Nicely done!

Interestingly, there are over 3,000 different beers in Belgium since each abbey makes their own!  I would like to try them all tram!  Beeeer!!!!!!!!

Something I noticed that is unique to this year is the way that the picture rezzes in and out on occasion.  Just now, it appeared that someone’s butt was rezzing in tram – LOL!

The peloton has settled down after the sprint, with the peloton falling back to about three minutes behind the leaders.   It seems as though the riders have lost most of their ‘Start of the Tour Jitters’ and settled into a bit of a routine.

Ah yes, the modern windmills that were seen all about in the Nederlands to generate electricity.  The Dutch will put a windmill or solar panels in any spot they can find, including the airport – LOL!  This section of Belgium reminds me more of France overall than the Nederlands to me.

Oh mys, they have been racing for over 4 hours now!  That is alot of racing!  The peloton is about a minute and a half behind now.

Oh mys, the peloton has caught up and is only seven seconds behind the leaders!    The last 8.5 miles are all together!  Will Mark Cavendish win with just a few miles to go?  Or will it be Paul Sagen?   Or Cadel Evans?  It’s heating up to be an exciting finish!

The peloton is still tightly packed towards the finish with just 3 miles left to the finish as they travel about 40 mph through Tournai! 

Still packed together as they kick the speed up a notch towards the finish in Tournai!  They are starting to stretch out a bit as they start sprinting towards the finish!!! Less than a minute left!  Bikes are shaking as they dig deep!  Grimace tram!  Mark Cavadish won by a half a tire length!  Whew!!!!  How exciting tram!!!!!!  Mark Cavadish is all smiles now and for good reason!  Andre Greipel finished 2nd and Matthew Goss in 3rd for today.  My favorite, Cadel Evans, hasn’t been performing as strongly as I was hoping for.  Mark Cavadish is doing well this year as are Bradley Wiggins (2nd overall) and Fabian Cancellara, first overall and continued wearer of the yellow jersey.

It looks like Tournai would be be a great town to visit, with a large abbey like the and plenty of traditional French buildings.

Oh mys, I could see the outline of Mark Cavadish’s wanker in his black shorts while he was on the podium, so he is the winner of the Bulge of the Day Contest!  Peter Sagan appears to have some sort of wanker protector under the neon green shorts, so he is #2 for my Bulge of the Day Contest!!!!  Too bad I can’t find a picture of that to share with you all!!

It was another invigorating day of racing, and it’s so great to bring it to you here on SNews!!! Yays!!!  Have lots of funz out there, meh hearties!!! Thank you for reading tram!!!