Cadel Evans thinks he's unlucky? Meet Frane Salek.
First his rear tire blew, then Evans blew.
“I don’t deserve this. I do everything right in the fucking sport and I don’t deserve this shit,” said Evans at the finish of stage 13 on the Sierra Nevada summit. That was the R rated Cadel Evans, not the PG-13.
Evan’s is clearly one of the unluckiest riders around. But unluckiest guy in the world? Not by a long shot. That title goes to Croatian music teacher Frane Salek. A hilarious number of near death experiences and tragic events have befallen him. Things way worse than a lousy tube puncture in Spain or riding for the always weak Silence-Lotto squad.
Just for example, his car blew up in a ball of fire — with him inside. A plane door blew off in flight and he crashed into a haystack. A train he was riding in tumbled into an icy river, killing scores of people. He is both the unluckiest and luckiest man alive because, amazingly enough, he is still alive.
So Mr. Evan, bummer that the Cycling Gods dislike you but when was the last time you were hit by a bus like Frane Salek? On the flip side, Salek also won $1,000,000 in the Croatian Lottery. All true.
Buck up, Cadel. Your luck could always turn.
[…] As the media scrum engulfed him, Evan kissed again and again the wedding ring that hung from his neck. It was an absolution, an almost fervent release of all he had endured and suffered. Was that a little heavy on the religious imagery? The man was damn happy the hoard of monkeys were off his back. Fortune finally smiled on the self-described unluckiest man in the peloton. […]