Competitive Spirit.

Well, this week they have queued in their thousands to be the first customers in the new Ikea store just opened in La Coruña. I hope they all managed to find some satisfactory introductory offers. I’m afraid it seems to me to be a form of globalised madness to spend hours or in some cases all night camped outside a big store waiting for it to open. I remember the long queues of traffic when they opened a store not too far from our home in the UK. Is any bargain really worth it? Now, don’t get me wrong, I quite like Ikea but I much prefer to be able to walk through the store at my leisure without being pushed around by huge crowds of bargain seekers. And, yes, I feel the same way about the sales!!!

In other places, the competition for the “transfer” of Paul, el pulpo adivino is hotting up. Even as I write this blogpost Carlos Alberto Montes, the mayor of O Carballiño in Orense province, is visiting Oberhausen in Germany to present a plaque of some kind naming Paul as Amigo Predilecto (more or less best or favourite friend) of O Carballiño. At the same time he is trying to start negotiations to buy the clever octopus or at the very least borrow him for the Festa do Pulpo which will take place in his town on the 8th of August. What is more, a representative of the Federación Española de Fútbol will be there as well. Hmmm, maybe there is something crazier than queuing up for a bargain after all: queuing up to gaze reverentially at an octopus in a tank!! Oh, yes, and then going and eating his mates!

While we are considering food based festivals I did say recently that Spain can organise them at the drop of a hat. Well, Whitstable in the UK is getting in on the act. From the 24th to the 31st of July they have the Whitstable Oyster Festival. Tony Naylor, writing about it in the Guardian, sounds as enthusiastic as I am. Describing oysters as “a mouthful of seawater with a lump of mucus in the middle”, he declares that he really can’t see the point. Neither can I. Oyster Festival or Festa do Pulpo? Give me the octopus every time!

Over in France one of my ciclistas predilectos (this is a test to see of you can remember that predilecto means favourite) has been getting some stick. Madrileño Alberto Contador and Luxembourger Andy Schleck are going neck and neck for the Tour de France winner’s podium in Paris on Sunday. Now the other day, on the way up some mountain or other in France, just as our Alberto took off to overtake his rival, Andy’s chain came off his bike and he had to spend a minute putting it back on. Manfully he made his way back into the race but he lost his pole position and went from being 31 seconds ahead of our Alberto to being 8 seconds behind him. Bang went his yellow jersey. He had to make do with his other prize jersey, the white one for best young rider.

When the Spaniard stepped onto the podium to accept the leader’s yellow jersey, some of the crowd whistled and hissed and booed him. There was a lot of polémica about whether or not Alberto Contador should have stopped and waited while Andy Schleck sorted out his mechanical problem. Was this going to break up a beautiful cycling friendship? Was Contador NOT a good sport? Had he broken an unwritten code of ethics? Was this a breach of el fairplay? Column inches were filled with the pros and cons. This was probably because the next day was a rest day and they had no exciting race developments of dramatic falls to comment on.

Anyway, yesterday it was all put right, apparently. The two riders slogged up the Col du Tourmalet, one of the steepest rides possible, in the mist and occasional rain, together but not obviously competing until the last few minutes when both put on a spurt, alternately overtaking each other and finally approaching the finish line almost side by side. Then our Spanish hero “gave” the glory to the Luxembourger. Everyone seemed to accept that he could have gone over the line first but, no, he let Andy Schleck have the stage win, knowing that he still kept the yellow jersey.

Such drama, such “fairplay”! The papers are full of pictures of them having a cyclists’ hug at the top of the mountain.

Amazingly they both managed to talk to reporters at the finish line, both commenting on the climb, Andy Schleck saying thank you to Contador and both declaring themselves good friends. Astounding! Almost anyone else would have needed to spend several hours at least just getting their breath back.

Then just as Teledeporte’s reporter was congratulating Alberto Contador on keeping the yellow jersey for another day, along came President Sarkozy of France to congratulate him as well. The Spanish TV sports commentator was over the moon.

And now, at the end of today’s rather quiet stage riding to Bordeaux, Contador was congratulated by Tom Cruise. Even the stars go celebrity hunting.

So we have a rather short cyclist who has now been congratulated by a rather short president and by a rather short actor. What more can we ask for?