Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

tuttobiciweb.com points out a gaff on the UCI website. They list a Laurent Jalabert born in 1968 as a rider on the Agritubel Cycling Team. The link can be seen on the Agritubel Team Roster Page. The rider that should be listed is Nicolas Jalabert born in 1973 as can be seen on the Agritubel Cycling Team Website. Maybe a Frenchman was daydreaming when they were filling out the roster and put in Laurent’s name instead. For Nicolas this must be tough living in the shadow of a famous big brother. This is much like a teacher calling you by your older sibling’s name.

Poor Nicolas can’t even get bio pages on the web to get the year of his birthday correct. The Agritubel site lists his birthyear as 1973, while other sites such as Eurosport and CBS Sportsline list his birth year as 1972.

Nicolas’ Wikipedia entries are minuscule when compared to big brother Laurent’s entry.

Sure it is a small detail, but it just adds to the mound of overlooked details such as putting your long retired brother’s name on the team instead of your own. Nicolas Jalabert is mostly a support rider and does not have the winning potential that his brother had in his day. Still, cycling domestiques should not be overlooked in this way. Much line a lineman in Football, or the pit crew in Formula 1, not every rider can be a star. Being the brother of a famous older sibling hurts even more when your star does not shine so bright. But many siblings have thrived. Ron Howard’s brother Clint gets plenty of accolades while still being that anonymous character actor that is just about in every movie.

Lets hope that the Clint Howard of Cycling Nicolas Jalabert gets a big win in 2007 to come out of his brother’s shadow.