My name is Elin - A pro cycling lover's reflections

Joon Yong Seo won Stage 6 of Tour de Korea-Japan today and Nolan Hoffman finished second. Hoffman is also second placed in the general classification but it was no danger for Sergey Lagutin as they all finished in a bunch sprint. Well, not all but many of them. Yes, the biggest part of the peloton and then we had some young boys in the Uzbekistan National Team who finished 15 minutes behind the peloton, but I can't say that I am surprised. Yuriy Ivoljatov, Temur Mukhamedov and Yaroslav Malakhov were guys I had barely heard of before this race. To me Yuriy Ivoljatov was the most famous as I actually mentioned his name in October 2006 and he also finished second at this year's national championships after Sergey Lagutin. But the other boys were totally unknown for me. They may have belonged to the group of riders I saw in Tashkent in May, but how can I possible know? Anyway, they are young and it's not strange that they lose time after working so hard for so long time. I the end their leader Lagutin is a pro cyclist and he has a different speed and style of riding than the amateurs, so of course it's tough. They will certainly have an experience for life after this race so I hope they take this as a great opportunity. And of course this can give them a ticket to Europe or to the US.

The headlines today come from the song When You Wish upon a Star from the Disney movie Pinocchio. It's a very beautiful song and says that you should believe in your dreams. The woodcarver Gepetto in the movie and novel created a wooden puppet, Pinocchio, and one evening when he see the wishing star in tells the star that he would like to have a real boy. The next morning the puppet has become a real boy and the novel continues. If these Uzbek riders want a pro career then they shall take care of this opportunity to race with Sergey Lagutin, who is the only pro rider from Uzbekistan in the pro peloton this year. And as said "If your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme" I am sure the riders will do great and I hope they are proud of themselves even though they lost some minutes today. They shall be proud over themselves.