Monday, June 30, 2008

Mad Props Vol. 14


If Eddy Merckx is the "King" of cycling, Jeannie Longo is, without question, its rightful Queen. Remarkably, she has been a formidable presence in her sport longer (29 years) and accumulated more professional career wins (575) than his great highness Merckx (525). Jeannie has done it again. This past weekend she pulled on the French national championship jersey for both the Road Race and Time Trial. She'll turn 50 in October.

Jeannie's first French road title came in 1979. Today, she has 15 titles gracing her palmares. She also has twelve World titles (5 Road, 4 TT, 3 Track (Points, 3km Pursuit)), three Tour Cycliste Feminin wins, the Womens World Hour record (45.094 km/hr), a second place in the Womens UCI World Mountain Bike Championships, and countless others. You can see a more complete palmares here.

If Jeannie were to show up to your local ride she would surely tame the trademark arrogant snobbery. After all the dyke jokes and smirks of derision subsided, she would undoubtedly hand out a royal ass whuppin' and wipe the pave with myriad egos. Then, perhaps Martina Navratilova would be waiting at the local Starbucks to meet Jeannie for an espresso and scone only to further neutralize the last dribbles of testosterone from the remaining dingleberries.

All hail Jeannie Longo, Queen of Cycling.

Mad, Mad Props.

4 comments:

Ron George said...

Ha! We need more Testes killers.

gewilli said...

sort of the Gordie Howe of cycling

The King said...

Just goes to show the quality of Wms cycling if someone at 50 is still kicking ass.

strangelife said...

King: Touche'. Though, I believe she's more an exception to the rule than you think.