Quintana is really 28.

In that case we've been had, he's clearly not one of the world's best then

I've had that feeling for a long time

Belgian commentators said during the Tour that there had been research and it was confirmed it was his real dob

Pfff, nothing compares to Pedro Mantorras, 21 in passport, 30 irl...

It's not even a govt guy, it's merely a helicopter pilot and a rich guy (for now anyway).

Atleast he ain't girl

One of my mate has just landed in Colombia for the Worlds Game. Sort of Olympic Games for non Olympic sports.
Many random sports there (Dragon boats, and many old fashioned ball sports). He's been flying with the duathlon team though, who have good chances of medals.
I got a message : "are they going to know you if I tell them about you ?". "Just don't embarrass me, I'm such a random guy in my sport(s)".
I might be good in terms of VO2 and endurance compared to him (mid-distance fin swimmer), but I'm nowhere near the level of the French top duathletes (run 10 km in ~29 minutes, and probably much stronger than me on the bike).

I should have focused more on *pick random sport on the list* erm, kudo or heavy ball !

Aquarius, can you fill me in on who you are, like it seems like you are a famous person!?

Hmm, Monaco won't be pleased, I doubt they would spend 50m on a 29yr old.. Funnily enough, I'm seeing the Monaco v Leicester City friendly at the weekend. Hopefully he'll still be playing despite this

Is there a history of this happening in sport? Is it just Colombians?

PCM is making me his whore.

Tons of africans and more brazillians than you can shake a stick at

Something the brazilian police have been doing for months.

They're not a shaking a stick. They've been shaking several sticks.

No, I'm just a random nobody, really. I'm famous in my own house, but that's about as far as it goes.

More seriously, I work in a firm with less than 20 persons (totally non sports related), but by chance we hired a guy who's gotten medals in several fin swimming championships (both on the national and European scene).
So, the guy is on the list of high level sportsmen (government list of people getting various advantages and state sponsorship). Then again it's fin swimming, not normal swimming. Niche sport, so much easier to become an international star in that, despite having a VO2 and an endurance which don't compare to an average sportsman like me (I can run 10 km in about 38 minutes, my VO2 max should be around 64 these days), really, despite all my efforts, I never had the talent to be a superstar in cycling or running.

Besides that, in my youth (middle and high school) I was in some sort of special section for cycling. We could skip some optional lessons to train and had a dedicated trainer. That's how I got to learn the basis of training and physiology, and got to "work" with a sports doctor (pass efforts test 4 times a season). Since I had a decent level, I got to participate in some important races (national races, for juniors), but I mean participate, not influence them.

Then I kept on studying science, so I had the "technical" background to understand physiology, and since I've kept my interest in cycling since then, I've updated my knowledge on that aspect.

There's not much more to the story, really.

@ the monarchy debate: It is never a good thing when you have one person at the head of the country (king, queen, president, ...). Or at least not when he/she has full responsibility/power/control. I have absolutely no problem with a king or a queen, as long as they don't have much control and as long as they don't get more money than they need. The parliament should always be the highest form of control in a country.

@ the royal baby discussion: It IS important news, but the media are just insane. We don't want to know if it's likely to happen soon or what names the baby could possibly have, we want to know it when it just happened and when the name of the baby is officially given. Speculation is bullshit, especially if it's boring as hell like this (waiting hours and hours for any kind of news).

It isn't important at all.

Not for you, for people in the UK it is a little important.

Let's say it's the equivalent of having someone win the democrat party nomination for president.

That's probably not a very good equivalent. Being nominated for a major party in the US means you have a pretty decent shot at getting into the whitehouse. Being head of state inthia country comes with significantly more power than in the UK.

What power? The military? There isn't much else, Congress controls everything and doesn't want to hurt anyone, so jackshit gets done.