{"id":4103,"date":"2018-09-20T12:05:31","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T11:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4103"},"modified":"2018-09-21T09:10:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T08:10:26","slug":"4103","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4103","title":{"rendered":"Grand Tours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20160328_150515-e1537437399102-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">I became an avid fan of cycling, especially the \u2018Grand Tours\u2019 during the eighties in Long Kesh. The mental toughness of these fantastic athletes was nothing short of magnificent, and was a wonderful example of not giving up \u2013 something that resonated with a lot of prisoners.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">Delgado, Sean Kelly, Greg Lemond, Laurent Vignon, 5 time winner Bernard Hinault all got our interest, but Stephen Roche\u2019s victory in 1987 was especially unbelievable and reinforced my interest in the sport.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">A funny story from the year Roche won was at the finish of stage 20 \u2013 a monumental stage traversing the Col du Galibier, Col du Madeleine and finishing at La Plagna \u2013 Roche, after finishing second to Delgado, collapsed and lost consciousness for a period of time. When he was revived and asked if he was ok, he replied, \u2018Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite (yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away!)\u2019 Classic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/froome-painting-picture-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">After Wiggins, Chris Froome became the main man in the sport and his hiatus coincided with my attempt at painting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">The above painting, guided by the photographic image I used to copy, was my first attempt at painting a face, arms, legs etc. I gave it to a 72 year old cyclist who was over the moon with it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;\">BR<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" ><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-top:5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\"); var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_counters_lang=\"en_US\";var hupso_title_t=\"Grand Tours\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I became an avid fan of cycling, especially the \u2018Grand Tours\u2019 during the eighties in Long Kesh. The mental toughness of these fantastic athletes was nothing short of magnificent, and was a wonderful example of not giving up \u2013 something &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4103\">Read more <span class=\"meta-nav\">&raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" ><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-top:5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\"); var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_counters_lang=\"en_US\";var hupso_title_t=\"Grand Tours\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4103"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4108,"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103\/revisions\/4108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}