Cadel Evans' Nickname

Far and away the best nickname submitted thus far for Cadel Evans was one from our Italian fan base: "l'orchidea". While it stands up next to "il (now-retired but still has a fan club) Grillo", I was hoping for something a bit more ... well, I was hoping for something that departed from the perceived truth and recast Cadel Evans as the fucking mountain climbing, time-trialing machine that he is. While I'll let "l'orchidea" stand in deference to the common belief about Cadel's delicate, yet beautiful but fragile persona and psyche, my own personal suggestions are (in Italian, to keep with the theme set by "John" from Melbourne):

1) "il metronomo" or

2) "la mantide religiosa"

And from the USA's own Bill Laudien, we have this doozy, which just arrived [Note: Pappillon checked with Mr. Laudien and reminded him he did not have to speak for attribution, but he insisted on being quoted. - Ed.] :

3) Cadel "Show" Evans - as in Win...Place...or Show. Ouch. That hurts. Though I bet Cadel Evans would be happy with third place on the podium of this year's Vuelta a España.

I'm not sure that either get at the REAL Cadel (especially because I've never had a chance to sit down for a beer and a chat with the guy - not that I expect he'd welcome me to his table), but at least it's not "Cookie" and these are certainly better than "Cuddles."

UPDATED (Sept. 16): More nicknames, delivered from the US and Australia. First those from down under:

4) "The Lung" - You could tell he was something special & was destined for great things.
5) "Chrystal Cranks”*
6) “Powder Puff"*
7) “Snow Flake”*

*(The Aussie who sent me these added a disclaimer pertaining to CC-SF: *"These of course are tongue in cheek as I know he is an incredible athlete and have total respect for his achievements on the bike."Fair enough. Good show.)

8) "Cradel"

Less kind are my fellow Americans, offering:

9) "Woody" - 'As in would he crack today or the next.'

10) "Adobe"- 'He crumbles with age.'

11) "The Conductor" - 'Would be cool but he hasn't punched many tickets as of late.'

We'll keep accepting suggestions through the end of the week, and will share some of the best ones with you. Submissions in any language are fine, as long as you ensure I can figure out what the language is, and Google Translate can handle the job of rendering it in English for my monolingual base.

Hey, we can't all be the Tommeke of our world. Or Can We? Click "Play" below and decide for yourself.


Ponder that, and until you have the answer, just Venga! But please remember, all photos are (c) UNIPUBLIC. Gracias!

(He just doesn't look that cuddly...) (c) UNIPUBLIC

If you're not exactly sure what Mr. Laudien meant when he gave Cadel Evans the "Show" nickname, it helps to know a bit about horse racing and bets. For that we turn to TurfnSport.com, which explains:

"Win, Place, and Show bets are commonly called straight wagers, and are the most traditional in horse racing. They are lower risk bets compared to exotic wagers like Exactas and Trifectas. These wagers are a good place for the novice horseplayer to jump in.

The three bet types:

Win: If you wager $2 to Win on your horse, you collect only if your horse finished first.
Place: If you wager $2 to Place, your horse must finish first or second for you to collect. But remember, you don't get the Win payoff, just the Place payoff, which is generally smaller than the win payoff.
Show: If you wager $2 to Show, your horse must finish first, second, or third. But remember, you only collect the Show payoff.

Many experts consider playing a horse to Win to be the best bet in horse racing. Before placing a Win bet a horseplayer can see the odds on the tote board and then determine if those odds represent good wagering value.

After all, return on investment is really the name of the game."

And there you go. But before you do, here is a reprise of our Vuelta a España Stage 17 preview:


Stage 17 Preview:

The 17th stage will take place on Wednesday 16th September and, on paper, represents the best opportunity the GC favourites have to take it easy and recover their strength as, following the three consecutive mountain finishes in Andalucia, they still have a good deal climbing ahead of them in and around Madrid.

The 17th stage starts in Ciudad Real and finishes in Talavera de Reina, a city that is world renowned for its ceramics. The route covers a total of 193 kilometers and includes no climbs. There are only two special sprints, both located in the final kilometres of the stage.

Previous editions:

Prior to 2005, Ciudad Real had only hosted on stage start. Since then, however, the city has been a fixture in the race schedule, to the point where the race passed through the city twice in 2008. Talavera has also figured in recent editions: in 2007 it hosted the finish of a stage that also started in Ciduad Real. The winner on that occasion was Daniele Bennati.