#I broke my record! this was 21 pages long woo!

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight 7: Living in the state of dreaming.

Her life is a play, is a play, is a play....

For the previous episode go here!

To go to the start of these posts, go to the Prelude!

WELL. THAT ESCULATED QUICKLY.

The tipping point is here my dudes. And it’s fucking, amazing! Absolutely incredible! Blew me out of the water! The storyboarding is amazing, the fucking music the lighting like everything is so well done I can’t believe it! I’m telling you guys, masterpiece right here!

Theres a lot to talk about regarding this episode so be prepared for a very very long post.

If you haven’t seen Revue Starlight or episode 7, TURN BACK NOW. I’m spoiling everything and you REALLY don’t want to be spoiled for this! 

If you haven’t seen this show yet, please PLEASE do so! Seriously, I can’t empathis enough! Don’t ignore this holy shit! Really! Seriously! I’m screaming this from the rooftops for a good reason, this is extremely good! It’s not yuri bait, it’s not an idol anime just, for the love of god don’t ignore this series! Don’t let this slide under the radar Western anime fandom! It deserves so much better than that!

Ok now that the PSA is done, here we go! 

The title and caption of this post is from the song “The State of Dreaming” by Marina and the Diamonds. It’s, pretty fitting for here for sure.

>*Daft Punk voice* One more time!

*deep breath* Alright, here we go.

We open the episode in the past, this is mostly a flashback episode. It’s March 3rd, 2018, the Starlight play is being performed and we get to see more than we ever have of the play. Claire and Flora ascend up a fuck ton of stairs to get the star together, they have to pass through seven other goddesses as they climb upwards. The seven goddesses all seemed to have tried reaching the star itself in the past but failed, and they tell Claire and Flora why they failed and to not seek the star themselves. Nana’s character refers to it as a cycle of despair. Claire and Flora make it to the top and it goes how we know it does, Flora is zapped down and Claire ascends without her. As the play ends sand (or maybe it’s supposed to be stardust) rains down from the ceiling, the audience applauds as the girls take their bows. We focus on a very happy Nana who says its bright.

Wow it looks like she just put them in a...gilded cage. *Foreshadowing intensifies*

We now go to March 5th, 2018, the play’s run is over and the girls are having an after party. We get several shots of the Venus De Milo here and throughout the episode. Junna and Sanai (head play writer in case you don’t recall) walk in front of a Venus and a small scale version of the star tower and make a speech, congratulating everybody on the play’s success. The party continues with the girls talking, taking pictures, eating, etc. We go to Nana who has her phone camera in front of her eyes, she’s taking pictures of her own.

She first takes one of Junna telling her good work, Junna gets flustered and says that this play was only the first year and they gotta prepare for next year soon. Nana then walks to Karen and Mahiru and takes their picture, Nana tells Karen she did a good job and Karen says Nana was really good too. Nana asks if Mahiru was nervous, she says she wasn’t thanks to Karen. Nana walks to Maya and Claudine congratulating them on a good job, Maya thanks her and Claudine says she did NOT lose to Maya thank you very much. Maya is like “ok let’s face off again at the next audition”. Maya then looks directly at Nana and tells her essentially that she would like to face off against her too. Nana seems confused, but no matter. Nana goes to Futaba and Kaoruko next. Futaba is like idk how to play a goddess but it worked out somehow, Kaoruko starts to tease her when they both notice Nana. The two run up to her and Futaba gives her a hug, she thanks her for helping her out during this whole play. Kaoruko also thanks her for the same reason. Mahiru and a few rando girls also thank Nana for helping them during the play production.

Karen picks up a banana muffin and comes up with Nana’s legendary nickname while Nana, Kaoruko, and Futaba are doing a message train. Karen reasons that Nana is like a banana because she’s sweet and good for everyone. Junna, who had just joined the group to get food, is confused. But Mahiru thinks the nickname is cute, Kaoruko and Futaba like it too. Kaoruko says its because Nana is tall like a banana, Futaba says its because Nana smells nice. Wow Futaba. Nana laughs, she also likes the nickname. But her laughter soon goes into crying, much to the alarm of her friends. Futaba and Kaoruko ask her what's wrong and Nana smiles and says she’s crying because she’s happy. It turns out Nana’s crying caused literally everyone at the party to notice. Nana says she’s glad she came to the school and says she’ll never forget this play. Internally Nana says she found her forever friends and her destined stage. On this day, Nana was reborn as a Stage Girl. Then we get the opening.

Ah yes, the message train. A theater kid tradition!

We jump to spring break, March 26th, 2018. All the girls but Nana and Junna leave the dorms to go home for break. They say bye to Nana, who has her camera phone in front of her eyes again, and watches everyone leave. We get a few shots in the empty dorm with Nana in the same pose, she comments that it’s very quiet with everyone gone. Nana goes back to her room, Junna is reading. Upon seeing Nana holding up her camera she’s like you’re taking pictures in our room why?? Nana responds saying that she needs to take photos of all the important moments for the next school festival. Junna asks if Nana was fine not going home, Nana is surprised by this question. Junna says she isn’t going back home until she graduates (reminder note: Junna’s parents don’t approve of her being at this school) so if Nana was just staying to look after her she probs shouldn’t. Nana smiles and, after offering udon, says she’s here because she wants to be here. Junna smiles and says yes to the udon.

Fellas is it gay if you take multiple pictures of your room mate everyday?

Now it’s a new school term, they’re second years. It’s April 9th, 2018. Nana is recording Junna finishing tying her school bow on, she’s like hey Junna got a speech for the new year? Junna is like hold on I’m the class rep I gotta not do anything embarrassing! She puts on a new pair of glasses and Nana says they are the same glasses but look like new ones. Nana and Junna go to school into their new classroom, Nana goes to the front of the room to record everyone. The girls in the class wave to her, Nana shifts to the back of the classroom.

Then, Nana realizes something is off. Mysterious creepy music plays as we see our girls and the girls in the class, Nana is doing a headcount. As the number 99 zooms slowly towards the camera Nana says two of her classmates are missing. The music cuts out, Junna tells Nana that the two girls had dropped out of school. Later Nana and Junna are in the locker room, Junna is removing the dropped out girl’s name tags from the locker. She laments that it’s sad this is the first task she got as class rep, but it’s time to move forward. Nana pauses before simply saying, yeah.

It’s now May 16th, 2018, the (regular as far as we can tell) auditions for the play have started. Nana stands in the back of the practice room with the camera in front of her eyes, through the camera screen we see Claudine declaring she’ll have a perfect victory over Tendou Maya. A picture is taken, Karen pops in declaring she’ll be Flora. Another picture is taken, Mahiru pops in saying if Karen is Flora then she’ll be Claire. The next photo adds Junna, Kaoruko, and Futaba to the mix, Kaoruko is like I’ll be in the main cast this time bitch! We go back to Nana, Maya appears next to her. Maya asks if Nana had a moment to talk after class and Nana says sure, Junna notices this exchange.

Kuro is best wingman pass it on!

And now...Now is when things start taking a turn.

Maya and Nana walk outside, Nana reminisces about the starlight play as they walk. The girls pass by several buildings, some girls are there and Nana waves to them briefly. Nana wonders if they could make the exact same play as they did last time. The music changes, Maya says that even if they have the same components as the previous play it won’t be the same. While Maya is speaking we see several other girls around the area. She continues saying that the girls (the ones who dropped out) chose their own path, with their own hardships. That sometimes there are people who can’t make it even when they try their hardest, so they leave the stage. Maya says she will challenge Nana for the main character in the play this time around. Maya tells Nana that she’s very talented so she wonders why she doesn’t step it up more. And then, after we zoom in on an empty locker, the music suddenly drops out and ALL the girls we saw earlier snap their heads up and look in the direction of the screen.

After that haunting sequence, which legit startled the fuck outta me, we go to Futaba and Kaoruko standing between two vending machines. Kaoruko is taking her time deciding something and Futaba tells her to just pick already. We go back to Nana and Maya, Maya says to Nana that if she doesn’t try to give her all and refuses to change. She will never forgive her. Nana is shocked.

Later nightmare fuel aside, the framing of this shot is so good oh man!

It’s now the evening, the sky is purple. Nana sits on a bench looking through her photos from the after party. Junna, Karen, and Mahiru come on in, they look at the photos and reminisce about the party and the play. Nana says how much she loved doing the play and the three other girls also say they loved it too. Nana wonders again if they can put on the same play, she looks at her photos fondly. Karen then is like, well I hope I can be on the stage again. She says the stage is alive and always changing, therefore it can’t be the same play at all. Junna points out they also are missing classmates hence it really isn’t possible to make the same exact play. Karen stands up on a bench, ripping open a bag of dried banana chips, and is like we’ll make a WAYY better play this year! Junna is like, you dumbass don’t stand on the bench! Karen says this is her stage now and it’s fine since she took her shoes off. Junna is exasperated. Nana tunes out of the conversation, staring at the sky.

Now Nana is in the changing room at the dorms, she’s lying down staring up at the ceiling. She wonders if they’ll be successful in creating a better play. She thinks the play they did in the past was perfect as is. And then, her phone rings with a VERY familiar ringtone. Giraffe has texted Nana for the first time, Nana thinks the giraffe is cute.

We go to Nana on a stage, a very bright stage of yellow light. Behind her is a piece of the prop star tower hanging out. Giraffe is standing in front of the real one, he greets Nana with a good evening. Giraffe asks if it was too radiant, Nana doesn’t really give an answer instead she’s like giraffe?? As Giraffe explains what a revue is, we get shots of the underground stage. It’s in ruins, the chairs are messed up, there's rust on the machines, everything is cracked and ruined to hell and back, and the whole thing is partly flooded. Or really it’s sinking. We also get a shot of the props from audition duels we’ve seen already. 

Nana is confused by what Giraffe means by radiance, he explains whoever shows the most radiance will get to be Top Star. After we hear a bizarre sound we get a shot of the tiara, Giraffe says that she will stand on in the Stage of Destiny if she gets Top Star and will radiant forever as an eternal star. Nana says she isn’t interested in that. Giraffe understands, so he offers her something else. What wish she did she have then? What kind of stage would she like to stand on? He says Nana has a radiant stage inside her, one so bright that she might not even be able to reach it. Nana asks if she could choose any stage she wanted, and Giraffe is like sure just join the auditions. Nana accepts joining them.

Hm, seems legit. Nothing bad will happen here.

It then cuts to, Nana winning against Maya. Nana stands in the light looking spacey and she speaks in a robotic dead sounding tone, Maya is shocked and said “so this is your true self?” she asks what made Nana change. Nana responds by asking if it’s too bright, because it’s too bright for her. As the curtain comes down, Maya asks why she’s doing this but all Nana says is she can’t reach it. Maya tries to ask what drove her to go to this extreme but she’s cut off by the curtain falling down on her. Nana claims position zero but, she doesn’t announce her name. Instead she says again she can’t reach it because it’s too bright. We see a shot of the rankings board, Nana is at the top at number one.

In the next scene Giraffe congratulates Nana on becoming Top Star. He asks if it’s too bright. Nana says yes. Giraffe asks what stage she desired, Nana says she wants to perform the Starlight play from the previous year again. Giraffe is like, alrighty then. The tiara drops at Nana’s feet on position zero, there are bright pink lights and a buzzing sound. The script with the frog on it we’ve seen Nana with before falls from the sky and we go to black.

Never underestimate the power of fruit.

The next thing Nana knows, she’s in class. The teacher announces that they will be doing the Starlight play for their three years, the class is excited. Futaba and Kaoruko don’t know what it is. Nana is like ??? what, she turns to Junna and is like hey wtf is going on. Junna is shocked and flustered at Nana using her first name, she calls Nana by her last name. Nana stares at her shocked. She realized what just happened.

She went back in time. It went from May 25th, 2018 to April 17th, 2017. We see the Starlight play being prepared and practice while Nana reveals something else. Nana going back to the past like this, isn’t a one time thing. No, it’s been done many times before by her. Nana….has trapped everyone in a time loop.

Holy shit.

Anyways, Nana has convinced herself that being in a time loop is a good thing. She has nothing to fear, no one has to grow up and feel the pain of being alive and growing. Nana says she’ll protect everyone, she’s doing this for everyone's sake. It’s fine. Nana smiles, whole holding the script close, in the bright yellow stage under the tower prop. There's a giant box with the number 99 painted on its side behind her. We learn that every loop she fights Maya, every loop she beats her. She makes the same wish. It all starts over again. But she still can’t reach the light, it’s still too bright.

And then, one day. Something different happens.

After winning again, Nana tells the Giraffe it’s still too bright. Giraffe (standing by a sudden random tree) says he has lost count in the number of times these loops have happened but he will grant her the same wish anyways. Nana asks him, why does he do this for her. Giraffe says when a Stage Girl becomes Top Star she releases a powerful radiance, a shining stage. He wants to see that, he wants to see shining stages. But, it seems like Giraffe has gotten bored of Nana’s same stage so. Something is gonna change it, or really someone. A knife is thrown down smack in the middle of position zero at Nana’s feet. It’s Hikari’s knife. Nana is shocked, she looks up and sees Hikari’s blue cape in the tree. Hikari herself stands under the tree, staring. The scene goes to black, Nana is back at the start of her loop wondering who the fuck that was.

COME TO THIS WEIRD STAGE TREE IN 5 MINUTES FOR AN ASSWHOOPIN.

Nana’s loop continues as normal, until. Until May 14th, 2018. Nana wakes up and knows something is off right away. We see the scene from episode 1 where Karen falls off her chair, Hikari is in the hallway with her suitcase. The teacher tells the class that they are getting a new transfer student, Nana is shocked.

Nana is like holy shit this is new. We then see a bunch of lines go by, they are time loops that have happened. When I slowed it down, I counted 60 lines total. So there have been 60 time loops, each one is a year and 5 months….Nana has been doing this for 60 years.

Jesus fucking christ Nana.

We then jump back to the present, the sun is going down while the girls walk home. Haunting music plays while Nana stares out a window at Hikari. She wonders how this change even happened at all, she wonders if doing the same play for 60 years really gets boring. Geez Nana, ya think? 

However, Nana says her world will never change. She says Hikari’s name, and turns creepily to the camera staring directly at it. She’ll put that girl in her play. No matter what. The episode ends.

The ending theme has no vocals.

Nana...what have you done...

>We never saw it cominnnng!

-Holy mother of fucking god. I. This. Was incredible. My mind is still blown! What an excellent twist! I love this show so fucking much! I told y’all this was something special! I fucking told you! Episode 7 proved it! They could fuck it up at the end but my gut feeling is still good! Fucking anime of the year!

--Also there were AMAZING shots in this! So much good storyboarding holy shit!

-In my episode one and five write ups I took note of the dates but at the time I said they “probably aren’t relevant”. WELL GUESS WHAT PAST ME. THEY VERY MUCH ARE RELEVANT! I picked up that the show was showing us dates but not why. Gdi.

-With time nonsense happening, I made timelines (here and here) so we can keep track of what’s going on. Will update as needed and put in future write ups as needed.

-I wanna address something real quick, a lot of people are quick to make comparisons to Madoka Magica and Homura’s time travel powers. I can see why people make that comparison but the time travel here isn’t really the same at all. Homura can start the time travel whenever she likes, sure it’s limited to going to a certain day but if say she was three days into the timeline and Homura decides to go back again she can. Nana can’t do such a thing. If Nana was three days into hers and she wanted to go back she can’t, she has to become Top Star to go back in time at all. Higurashi is a closer comparison but even that isn’t too close to Nana’s time looping either, without spoiling anything in Higurashi the length of the time loops vary and aren’t the same. It can go for many years or not. Funny I think this kind of time travel in the show is closer to the movie Groundhog's Day but instead of just one day it goes for a year lol. Another comparison I’ve seen is Steins Gate but I’ve only seen one episode of that anime so I can’t comment too much on it. 

Point being here is, not all time travel is the same and often isn’t compatible to each other. Nana’s time loops continuing lies solely on being Top Star, if she didn’t become Top Star no time loop will happen. It’s not superpowered base like Homura’s is nor is it like Higurashi’s which is….uh. Let’s say why the loops are happening are much more complicated than either of these shows. So, let’s stop saying Nana is pulling a Homura cause she isn’t (Homura also isn’t the first time traveler in fiction you guys, you can use other comparisons). Don’t mislead people into thinking it works like Madoka Magica’s ok? Ok.

-I feel silly now that I worked out the possible ranks in episode 5 cause as it turns out the ranking board is a lie and doesn’t matter as much as we thought it did! Maya isn’t really in first, she’s in second. Nana is first, Nana is the strongest of all of them. This means that poor Kuro is actually in third place, ouch. If she finds that out she’ll be very unhappy about that.

-Funny, I thought how this show was gonna go was Karen blasting through everyone and then they fight the evil tiara bullshit together but now that this time loop is involved, everything has fucking change. Everything! Nice!

-Interestingly, it appears there is no visual uniform difference between the years. As in first, second, and third years all have the exact same uniform. That’s not super common in high school anime I find, it’s nifty!

-There were some differences in the ending credits this time. In the past several episodes we’ve had a character sing the ending theme Fly Me to the Star. But not here, Nana doesn’t sing fly me to the stars. It’s only the instrumentals and Nana is with Giraffe instead of either by herself or with someone. Another difference was with Hikari’s hair clip, it’s usually a hand (probs Hikari’s) reaching down and touching it. But this episode, Nana is stepping on Hikari’s hair pin. I’m sure that implies nothing bad, oh wait yes it does. Hahaha she’s gonna fucking try and kill her isn’t she? Hikari is fucking screwed. ono

Another difference lies in the background, in the previous credits there’s always items that are related to whoever is singing the song slowly falling in the background. It always includes the Starlight play script but with Nana’s it’s JUST the Starlight play script and nothing else. Yikes. The last difference is at the very end, normally it has the girl(s) who sang the song standing in the spotlight. This time it’s just the frog Starlight script in the spotlight. Both of these things show how obsessed Nana is with this play, it’s consumed her entire life and her spotlight for that matter.

-After Nana wins the duels she doesn’t declare her name when claiming position zero. That’s very very odd considering everyone who’s declared position zero says their name right afterwards. Loss of identity maybe?

-At the end of the Starlight play it rained sand on the stage just like it rained water in episode two on kuromaya stage after they fight. Not sure what this means yet, instead it brings something else to mind.

-This series uses and brings up water a lot! There is several bodies of water on the campus, it’s raining after Karen’s duel with Maya and this reflection happens, it’s raining at the end of the kuromaya fight, the whole damn stage is surrounded by water, Hikari goes to aquariums in episode 4, swans are aquatic birds, we see the stage flooded in the past, and of course there is the goddess Aphrodite’s connection with water. She was born out of the ocean, you could even say she was reborn since she came from a nutsack (myths are fucking weird man). Water has a TON of symbolism behind it, it’s been used symbolically for centuries. It often symbolises birth or rebirth, cleansing yourself, purity, and there's a ton of mythos involving water and many religions practices that involve it. What’s not super known is that water as a symbol was used a lot in early sapphic literature, as were birds.

What this all means is hard to say but I think it does tie into the being reborn theme this show has. It’s a metaphorical rebirthing as we’ve seen it. Karen is reborn when she became a Stage Girl, Junna describes falling in love with theater as a child as being reborn, and Nana also refers to herself being reborn after the Starlight play after party. What being reborn really means in this show is being drastically changed by a life experience. I’m really excited to see this theme continued.

-The Venus de Milo statue makes a frequent appearance again (5 times!) and while I do think it still ties strongly to Maya there is something weird here, it seems like the statue is involved with the play somehow? It’s present at the after party, even being in front of the star tower so one would think it’s involved in the play somehow. But what? What does this statue have to do with this play? Is it cause Venus is also a star? Maybe? It’s hard to say.

-When Nana goes to the underground stage for the first time, it’s old and shitty. And flooded/sinking. Meaning this point is ground zero of when and where the duels started, it supports my idea of the stage being alive. I’ll elaborate on that point in speculation but I’ll say that the stage looking so fucked tells me it’s been a very long time since it’s been used.

--Also during these flashbacks, the Tokyo Tower isn’t in the underground stage at all. So, does this mean Hikari’s presences brought the tower there? It’s an important place for Hikari and Karen so that would make sense, the stage would have no reason to have it unless they are involved. But why? Since episode 8 looks like a focus episode on Hikari maybe we will have a better idea after that.

-Junna notices Nana and Maya talking in the practice room. I think that’s an important thing to note here cause I think Junna will be very important in getting Nana to stop the madness.

-Is the star in the tiara or the tower? Both? Or maybe the star just uses the tiara as a medium of sorts? This shit is mysterious man.

-The frog script Nana has, is it a soul gem/horcrux like thing? A timer? Can it affect reality? Looks pretty worn, I mean it has been through lots of loops. This script makes me go hmmm.

-I’m still shook by the fact Nana has kept all her friends in this gilded cage for 60 years! Nana what the fuck. Now you are probs wondering how anyone outside of the school would not notice that? I think, because Hikari and Karen went into the city, this time loop doesn’t just effect the campus it effects the city. Hell it might even effect more than the city. The whole country? The world? Like literally everywhere being time looped would match up to the lack of freaking out from outsiders. Like Nana, Nana the fuck did you do? Holy shit.

-Something I noticed right away, and got really excited, about is the fact Claire and Flora have to pass through seven gates/goddesses to get to the star. That’s just like Inanna’s myth! She had to pass through seven gates each with a gatekeeper to get into the underworld. Like holy shit that’s really cool that an Inanna has a reference again! Also the stairs were going up right? You could say, it’s a stairway to heaven? Eh? ;D

-The part when Maya and Nana are talking, we pass by all these girls. When it gets to the height of the conversation, suddenly the music stops and all the girls heads snap up and look the same direction. That scared the piss out of me! What the fuck was that?! I can’t figure it out? The best answer I got maybe is it’s something to do with the school or the stage and it didn’t like what Maya was saying? Maybe? Is this like the fighty Greek Chorus in the stage musical? Is that what happens when you get booted out from the auditions? Why did only Nana acknowledge the girls were there via waving? I?? I don’t know but that scene makes me very nervous.

--The part with Nana turning towards the camera at the end was creepy too. The shadows, the red, and the too fluid animation of her turning was all off putting but the real kicker I think is the fact she’s staring directly at the camera. Like is she talking to someone we can’t see or, is she addressing us the audience? Please no Monika I don’t wanna see anyone getting deleted.

-Right after the creepy scene with the girls all fucking pulling an Exorcist, we go to Futaba and Kaoruko talking about something seemingly unrelated. Cutting from something so intense to something so mundane seems like an odd choice right? I was stumped too at first but I figured it out! Futaba and Kaoruko are between two vending machines, one is red and one is blue. At this point in the story we’ve learned that Maya and Nana are foils to each other, I’ll elaborate on the ways they are foils later but the super short version is Maya and Nana have a conflicting way of how to see the future. Maya prefers going forward, not dwelling on the past, and so she sees the future as a good thing. Nana on the other hand is afraid of it and sees the future as something bad taking what she loves away from her. The vending machines represent that split.

When you have a scene set up to be a clear split like this then it usually indicates opposite paths or choices or in this case opposite viewpoints. Also red and blue are very often used to show opposites. This is a crossroads, do we hang on to the past or let the future come? Which direction, or vending machine, should we chose? Or will be chosen really, whoever won that first audition duel would decide what path to take. Unfortunately Nana won, and she chose the past. Now everyone is fucked.

As for why Futaba and Kaoruko were the ones in the center, it has to do with the yin and yang parallel around them we saw in episode six. While those two are in sync despite being different, Maya and Nana's views of the future cannot be in sync or coexist together. A conflict will always come. In the scene after Maya and Nana talk, the sky is purple. A combo of red and blue, or in this case a collide. This foreshadows the duel that takes place on May 25th, it’s a clashing of view points.

-It’s obvious by this point that Giraffe is not a benevolent figure, all his actions are for him and/or anyone he is working with so he can gather starlight and see shiny revues. He doesn't care about stopping Nana, he's just bored and wanted to see what would happen if everything was thrown off balance. Giraffe is the Kyubey of the situation here, the devil in dealing with the devil. All for starlight and seeing brighter revues. This isn't a revolution, it's an experiment. Seeing Giraffe as a benevolent figure is the mistake Nana made, so we the audience shouldn't trust him either. I never trusted this fucking giraffe in the first place so it doesn’t surprise me that he is pulling this shit. But, if he is a Kirin then why? What makes a Kirin turn bad like this? Hm.

-In the Starlight play gears pop up again! Mmm love the gear motif. Also wow this fucking stage is impressive, how much fucking money does this school have?! Lol.

-So the Top Star position grants wishes it seems like? Can you wish for anything or just things related to the theater? If it can cause time travel on a possible world wide scale, then what else can it fucking do? I don’t trust this Top Star wishing, nope.

-The way Giraffe was talking about starlight makes me think that yeah the system does indeed gather and/or feed off of starlight. So, is Giraffe the Starlight Gatherer? The stage itself? The mystery continues.

-During the flashback while the stage is in ruins, we see props backstage that are from previous revues. The stars from Hikari and Junna’s stage, the cat in a baseball outfit from Mahiru’s stage, a lantern from Futaba and Kaoruko’s stage, one of the glasses buildings from Junna’s stage, and Maya’s stairs and pillar and chandelier and big ass bird from her stage (geez Maya, hogging space much?). Claudine’s is there too but its not grouped with the others, it’s right over here! It’s likely not with the other ones cause IT’S A FUCKING HUGE BUILDING. Kuro goes big or goes home. But the odd thing is, the duels haven’t even started yet. So what are these doing here? Have they been, preprepared?

-So we’ve been told that if you get booted from the duels then you lose the most important thing to a Stage Girl, knowing what we know now I really wonder what the fuck that could possibly be? The other girls had to have lost in the other loops for Nana to keep winning Top Star and we don’t see what happens to them at all. Is it a thing? Is it the starlight draining theory I’ve talked about before? I don’t know like, man these loops made everything more complicated lol.

-In the credits, Nana leaning towards Hikari and she’s also right over position zero! Fuckin, that foreshadowing man! I love it!

>So, about Nana, Maya, and Hikari.

There’s so much to talk about regarding these three that they need their own section. They are very deeply involved with this time clusterfuck. And, wow who knew that Nana and Maya would end up as foils to each other? That’s fucking wild.

-Nana

Let’s start with the one who kicked all this shit off. Oh poor Nana, I really do feel for this girl. For starters I don’t think Nana is evil at all, no she’s just a scared lonely girl who’s been preyed upon by the stage. She’s made a huge mistake, making a Faustian deal with forces that she doesn’t understand, and everyone pays the price for it including her. Nana’s backstory must be really fucked up, I mean I don’t think it will go too fucked up but it will be sad as hell I bet. She probably didn’t have any friends before coming to the school and I’m betting she either has dead parents or stage parents.

If she has stage parents then they likely pushed her into being the most perfect Stage Girl, being controlling and overbearing as hell. And they treated her like crap the entire way. Maybe Nana didn’t want to come to this school at first but when she did, oh look she has freedom for the very first time in her life. Nana having these kind of parents would also parallel Maya’s who are famous stage actors, and the two of them reacted differently to the pressure placed on them during their lives. I’ll talk more about their similarities later.

So after Nana came to the school she made friends for the first time, what she did was considered good enough and she got praise and loved by others. Positive attention is something Nana likely never had before so she ended up associating love and happiness with that specific point in her life, and this caused her to grow very attached to that point in time. Nana being so love starved made her crave going back to that time, in her mind that’s the time where she’s loved and appreciated and she can’t even imagine that she can get love and appreciation outside of that specific chunk of time. Hence she clings to it hardcore, and becomes upset when being told she can’t ever go back to that time. So when offered a way to go back she jumped at the chance, not considering the consequences this will bring. After Nana said she didn’t want the power Top Star gives you, Giraffe changes his tactics and says she can choose any stage she wants. Any stage at all. And so, we ended up here.

I totally understand Nana is coming from, it’s hard to leave happy past experiences behind. To never have the same ones ever again. It’s hard to grow up and be thrown into a cold adult world. Life changing is hard, and when you grow up sad and miserable you want to cling to any happiness you can get. I very much understand why Nana keeps this time loop going. That being said however, what she’s done is a horrible thing to do to her friends and it is so incredibly selfish of her to keep it going like this.

Nana has rationalized her time looping as she’s doing it for everyone's sake, to spare them any future pain. But, just cause she thinks that doesn’t mean it’s true. Her friends never asked her to do this and I’m pretty positive they wouldn’t want to be stuck in this time loop, but Nana never asks them or considers that hey just cause you’re afraid of the future doesn’t mean you should take away other people’s choices and make the choices for them! Nana resetting any character development is also a very fucked thing to do, like for example if she did reset it like normal now that means that Mahiru never detached her self worth from Karen. Futaba and Kaoruko’s relationship issues never got resolved. Karen and Junna would never become friends. Any development Maya and Kuro would’ve gotten would be tossed out the window. Nana is taking all growth away from them every time she resets, just cause she doesn’t want anything to change.

It’s cruel, keeping them in this gilded cage and never letting anyone move forward with their life or get over their hang ups. I have a feeling the other girls are going to find out about this, the fallout will be bad. Very bad. However at this point Nana is pretty overpowered with starlight and 60 years of experience, she won’t be easy to beat. The starlight itself I think, while very useful, is a corruptive dangerous thing especially when someone is overloaded with it. Maybe it’s even addictive. Nana and Giraffe appear to both be obsessed with it and this overload of starlight is likely making Nana’s mental state even worse. This is gonna turn messy.

I think Nana can still be saved, redeemed even! I’m pretty positive Junna will be a huge factor in that. Nana obviously has a crush on her, just look at all the pictures she takes of Junna alone. We haven’t seen these two a ton together but enough to know they are close friends with each other. There will be more in future episodes I think, it’s gonna be wild. Help us Jun-Jun! Go go save Banana! We need ya!

Nana is someone who represents the past, she can’t let go and she can’t/doesn’t want to move forward. She’s dragged everyone else into this bullshit because she is so afraid of the future. The future is unknown and scary. The past is easy and comforting, as well as predictable. But it’s stifling, no one can grow and change. It’s a gilded cage, and Nana has trapped everyone including herself in it. She has to let go of the past and move forward understanding the future isn’t hopeless and that she can still get positive attention and love going forward.

-Maya

Oh Maya, oh dear. Amists all this time looping is Maya, it’s unknown if Maya has any memories of previous time loops but regardless if she does or doesn’t it’s fucked for her either way. If she does remember all the loops then she’s been failing to stop this and reliving the same block of time for 60 years, it’s amazing she hasn’t lost her mind! If she only remembers some loops or bits and parts then there's probably this endless feeling of dread and paranoia plus the fact she keeps failing over and over. If she doesn’t recall anything at all then she’s been doing the same fruitless quest for years without realizing that it’s all pointless. Another possible idea is her memory slowly returns during the year then she loses AGAIN and it fades away no matter what she does. Jesus christ how horrifying. 8(

Nana always fights Maya for the Top Star and Maya always loses, mostly cause the cards are stacked against her. Not only does Nana have all that starlight power but she's been fighting for 60 years and remembers doing it. So Maya can’t ever beat her, she’s extremely outmatched. I can only imagine how stressful that would be if she recalls anything, remembering endless failure to break her and her friends out of this hellscape. If Maya does indeed remember, then she is likely aiming for Top Star not to really use it for herself but to stop the madness. If she wins she can break everyone outta the loop, but she keeps losing over and over and she keeps tackling the problem alone. We gonna need everyones for this task Maya!

Maya is someone who always looks to the future, always restless and never fully satisfied where she is in life. As someone who also rarely feels fully satisfied, this feeling is both a blessing and a curse. It gives you a drive for sure but it’s also painful in that nothing you do will ever be good enough. I can tell ya for sure that this feeling 100% comes from having anxiety. Wooo. This kind of drive however, ended up keeping her from making any sort of deal with Giraffe. I think Maya and Nana were the first people contacted and offered the deal, show off starlight and get your stage with whatever you desire. The system aimed to take advantage of the most fucked up of the Stage Girls, but the thing is. Maya has nothing to really gain from a Top Star wish. Any stage the Top Star could grant would not be good enough for her to want to make that wish.

So Kuro was right in episode four, it’s VERY weird that Maya is in these auditions at all. She wouldn’t go back to the past like Nana has, not for any reason. Maya wants to move forward, and she wants everyone else to move forward too. That’s why she pulled Nana aside to talk to her, Maya feels Nana is wasting all her talent and potential. That bothers Maya, a lot. She’s probably even offended by it. Maya greatly respects things like passion, growth, and determination so Nana damping her own growth when she can do so much more just pisses her off and that’s why Maya is so worked up during their conversation. She talks to Nana, and is very blunt about her point, because she isn’t going to stand by and let someone so talented do that to themselves. Hence I think it’s possible Maya first entered the audition duels to stop Nana from doing something foolish. It’s also possible she did it to give others a challenge, someone to defeat, but that still begs the question of what the hell will she do if she gets Top Star? We don’t really have an answer right now cause we are still missing info about Maya, but it’s a question to keep in mind.

Maya’s monologue this episode is about the beauty of choice basically, people choosing a path and doing their damndest to follow it. And even if they can’t get to their original goal and drop away from it, that’s fine because it’s their choice and they are still moving forward with their life. I think Maya really respects people who choose to rise to a challenge and face it head on. That’s one of the reasons why she fell for and respects Claudine, she’s willinging to confront and challenge Maya who is believed to be untouchable and Maya loves that there’s someone who can not only match her like that but keeps pushing to be even better than she was before. She loves a woman who can kick her ass (or tries to). Anyways, Maya’s monologue ties in well with her character. Also the Venus De Milo statues are back again because Maya plays quite a big role in this episode and in general. She’s the one Nana has to beat every time after all.

Y’all might be wondering why I referred to Maya as one of the most fucked up out of the girls, well I did say she likely had a similar childhood to Nana’s so. I can tell you from experience that you don’t get someone like Maya out of a happy childhood. Maya’s parents are famous stage actors so from the moment she was born she had expectations placed on her. Lots of pressure to be as good as they are, a very stressful thing to put on a child. I talked about her possible past in episode five’s write up so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much here. Like Nana she probably didn’t grow up with many, if any, friends and always had the expectations from others hanging over her head all the time. I think it’s possible what made Maya and Nana’s paths split is because there was someone in Maya’s life that positively influenced her and Nana never got that. I dunno who in Maya’s life did that and it could’ve been an event in her life instead, either way this would be the moment she was “reborn” as a true Stage Girl. This is a guess from what I know about Maya and Nana but I think it’s possible.

What Maya and Nana strongly have in common is loneliness. Maya is used to living her life alone at the top, she believes this is the cost of being at the top and that’s that. She’ll accept it and move on, but people are social animals. We need interactions with someone or we go mad from the isolation, so really Maya hasn’t moved on from that. But since Maya always moves forward to the future, she probably hasn’t reflected on that aspect at all so she just tries to keep going. However ignoring your emotional hang ups doesn’t work forever, but Maya isn’t going to ask for any sort of help or talk to someone about it. Maya probably never learned how to do that. Nana doesn’t do it either, she probably doesn’t think it’s important enough to bother anyone by it. Both of these girls got a lot to sort out and the stage can be turned around and used to help instead of harm! That’s what I’m expecting anyways.

Another comparison is their roles they have for the stage and system itself. Maya is a symbol of what the system wants, she’s talented and full of radiance. And while this gives her power, she’s still only a symbol. She can easily be taken down by the system. Nana’s role is an enforcer, she’s the true guard dog of the system. She enforces the status quo and literally prevents change coming into the system. Nana has a ton of power hence she can take down Maya, but Nana is still just a cog in the machine. The system uses her, she isn’t very free from it either.

Maya represents the future, she’s always looking forward and always aiming for progress. But you can’t look away from any ghosts of the past forever. Looking at the past can be painful, while looking at the future is hopeful. It’s going to be hard to watch Maya having to confront herself so to speak but she needs to do that or the past will weight her down and prevent her from moving forward like she wants to.

Quick note: If Maya isn’t aware of the time loops and finds out about them, she’ll be beyond fucking pissed. Like jesus christ heaven help you if a livid Tendou Maya is coming for ya!

-Hikari

Well, Hikari is full of surprises isn’t she? There’s still a lot we don’t know about this girl, but we did learn something huge about her. Hikari being here changes everything, like she fucks the entire loop up! The auditions started two days earlier than they normally do for starters. Hikari being here caused Karen to join the duels which causes more chaos. And at this point, as you can see on the timeline I made, we’ve passed the normal reset date! No wonder Nana is like fuck fuck what the fuck is happening.

We still don’t know why Hikari came here in the first place but my best guess is she was either told or found out that Karen is in danger so she came to save her. It’s likely Giraffe is the one who let her know, he was getting bored after all. He likely chose Hikari because she’d have a motivation to come and stay, the motive would be of course Karen. There’s a theory that Hikari comes from a timeline where Karen died thanks to the auditions so she wished to go to one where she never joined the auditions, and that caused her to crossover and crash Nana’s time loop. Why Hikari is so desperate is because unless she wins Top Star, this is her only shot to save Karen. It’s a pretty plausible theory! Regardless of why, Hikari is here and she’s causing change.

Hikari is the present, she changes both the past by crashing the time loop and therefore changes the future. She’s very much the wild card around here, who knows what else she will change?

Now here we are with these three girls all involved in this time fuckery, Hikari and Maya already conflict with Nana due to her desire to keep everything the same. But what about Hikari and Maya? Would they get along at all? That I find to be quite a mystery. The most interaction we have had is Maya’s reaction to her in episode one, which is this and this if you don’t recall. Knowing what we know now I have a guess actually. It’s a bit out there but, it’s what I got for now. When Maya loses her duel with Nana the curtain falls on her right? We’ve seen at the end of two and six’s audition duels that the curtain doesn’t automatically teleport you outta there, so. Maya could still be behind that curtain, how long she’d be there I dunno but it’s very possible she’s still there just off stage. If that’s the case then Maya could have seen Hikari backstage, maybe even spoke with her. There's enough time for a brief meeting since Giraffe rambles about starlight for a bit before Hikari throws her knife.

So, maybe her expression from Hikari looking at her is surprised and confused because Maya recognizes her. But because of time travel shit, Maya doesn’t know how or why she recognizes her. I imagine that would be very confusing hence why she looks like she’s thinking deeply in the shower, wondering why she recognizes this girl she’s never met before. The comment about Hikari’s heart later I think is just Maya being Maya and answering Kuro wondering if Hikari was rival material. I don’t think she’d tell anyone that she recognizes this stranger for pretty much no reason at all, Maya probably doesn’t want to sound nuts. Like I said, I know this theory is out there but at this point who knows what could happen?

I’m eager to see how this plays out, Karen is actually a wild card too since she’s never joined the auditions until now. But unlike the other three, the lack of awareness of how fucked this situation is prevents her from being too involved at the moment. I hope everyone can make it out of this ok, they deserve happiness!

>Speculation! Here we go! Here we go again! Now here we go again!

-Hikari maybe has fought before has already had something taken from her, that’s why she hasn’t been super successful during her duels. I dunno, throwing it out there cause at this point I’m very ??? a lot about Hikari.

-I think the stage is alive. It’s an eldritch location kind of deal, hence it can bend reality within its domain and shoot Hikari outside in episode three. Giraffe is it’s avatar of sorts, a means of communication. It lives deep under the school, and it’s probably been there a long time. Sleeping or maybe waiting? I think the stage is activated by something, the something I’m thinking of is the Starlight play. It plays songs from the play and has the same exact grey tower with the star inside so it must be closely related to it. When the play is assigned to a class is the time where it awakens. Judging by the state of the stage when Nana first goes there, it’s been a very long time since a class got this play. 

After it awakens, it decides on what girls will be chosen as Stage Girls. It chooses the girls with the most possible release of a lot of starlight, which it feeds off of, and then its studies the chosen girls. It can probably do shit like reading minds and such, hence it creates props for the stage girls. All ready to go. Then the time comes, the play is performed and in May the girls are summoned. And the revue commences! It feeds, it’s pleased. Guess we will find out what happens when it’s not please. O_o

-OK SO, there might be another goddess involved here. This one has less evidence so take it with a grain of salt. I’m thinking Hikari has a goddess association too, Ariadne. How I got to this is from reading about the circle of stars again. So Hikari’s hair decoration on her stage outfit is a circle of stars, Ariadne is strongly associated with these stars. The star crown either was put in the sky when she died or she wears it to make her immortal hence a goddess. Ariadne is known for leading Theseus out of the labyrinth/maze, in a way Hikari is doing something similar. Trying to lead Karen away from danger. Ariadne is the goddess of labyrinths, mazes, paths, fertility, snakes, and passion. Yup, another goddess associated with passion! Speaking of passion, there was an ancient cult that worshiped both Aphrodite and Ariadne, they had a sacred grove. Not a ton of info has been found about this cult but I do think it's interesting that we got the goddess Maya is associated with here. And if two major players have goddesses associated with them, then Nana must have one too.

Hers is harder to pin down right now, but underworld goddesses seem to suit her. Like Persephone, besides being an underworld goddess she is also the goddess of flowers, vegetation and springtime. She’s also associated with a fruit, the pomegranate. Another is Ereshkigal, queen of the underworld and sister to Inanna. She kept Inanna and her husband trapped in her realm until they were bailed out by Inanna’s sister in law. Now these connections are very loose and I might be reaching here so take both Hikari’s and Nana’s with a grain of salt. I’m gonna keep it in mind for the time being.

>Things I picked up on a series rewatch.

-Nana suddenly having an interest in Hikari in episode two became much creepier. Hikari glaring at her in the elevator also makes more sense. Nana cornering her to give her pudding was quite a power move lol. But I also think Nana was trying to befriend Hikari, remember Nana wants positive attention more than anything hence she tries the peaceful way first. I wonder if they talked to each other while dancing? I also still wonder if they dueled like I thought they did in my episode two write up.

-Several of Nana’s lines saying shit like “I’ve never done this before!” look so different now man.

-You can see Nana’s surprised reaction in episode one!

-Nana might be able to teleport? She pops up by Hikari twice so fast in episode two. I don’t know though??

-I get why Giraffe sat with Junna, Nana probably wants her crush to be as comfortable as she can be so she’s like “hey Giraffe pls sit with her”. Or that’s my guess anyways.

-Nana’s and Maya’s brief convo in episode three is quite different now. It can be taken two ways. If Maya doesn’t remember the loops then she’s probably happy Nana is finally doing something with her talent. If she does remember the loops at all she’s probably thinking “Oh this is new. Maybe she won’t pull that time travel shit this time.” *later* “I was wrong.”

-Her talking about the past Starlight play is so much more off putting now. Like dude, isn’t 60 FUCKING TIMES ENOUGH FOR YOU?! JESUS.

There’s a lot more than this most likely, but I forgot to write them down and I don’t have time to go through the episodes any more so this is what I got!

>THIS SHIT IS BANANAS, B-A-N-N-A-N-A-S!

Holy banana nuts, this show is soooo fucking good! Like holy shit it’s better than I even imagined! I’m very much looking forward to episode 8! I fucking, I’m so happy I chose to watch this series. This is fucking amazing holy shit! Spread this show like wildfire! Please! I’m ascending. Yes, oh my god! Bless! Bless this show! \^w^/

See you on the stage for episode 8!

[cyclinglegs]

Don’t forget, Adelaide’s hardest organised ride, the Adelaide Dirty Dozen, is back in September.

This year it’s being sponsored by La Velocita, The following is a grab from their Facebook page.

3500+ metres of climbing over just 130 km awaits you. We’ll brutalise you on 13 of Adelaide’s hardest climbs.

Event organiser Adam Williss has done an amazing job building this event over the last few years. He’s kept it as a proper community event – free and open to anyone. We’re not changing that formula at all.

This ride is about challenge. There is no support. We don’t have any prizes for finishing. There’s no entry fee. It’s you Vs gravity. We’d tell you to ‘have fun’ but we’ve made sure you won’t.

Here’s the course announcement: https://www.lavelocita.cc/la-velocita-rides/adelaide-dirty-dozen-2017

Check out the Strava route: https://www.strava.com/routes/9433917

Here’s the route for hipsters who use RideWithGPS: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/22508773

Schedule:

6.15am – Sign On for a record of all participants/finishers 6.45am – Riders briefing 7.00am – Roll out

The rules:

1. This is an unassisted social ride. You should have your own insurance, helmet and spares. 2. Neither La Velocita, event supporters, volunteers nor organisers accept any responsibility for damage, accidents, or injury that may occur.

Last years ride was epic. Cold rain and wind whipped the riders right from the get go. It was horrible. Thankfully I was recovering from an injury and spent the morning taking photographs, a few of the better ones below.

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Vuelta

2 down, one to go, although lets be honest, no one really cared about the Giro because we couldn’t watch it on Free to Air TV.

So whats this years Vuelta got in store for us.

It starts in France on Saturday, August 19, and finish in the Spanish capital of Madrid three weeks later. It only seems fitting that it starts in France, because the TdF didn’t start in France, and whilst the Giro technically started in Italy, it started in Sardinia, and speaks predominantly Catalan, which is Spanish, although not if you actually come from the Catalan region on the Spanish mainland because they would desperately like to not be Spanish.  Got it!

This is only the third time its started outside Spain.

  Vuelta a España 2017 stages:

1 Sa 19-8 Nîmes (fra) – Nîmes 13.7 km TTT

2 Su 20-8 Nîmes (fra) – Gruissan (fra) 203.4 km flat

3 Mo 21-8 Prades – Andorra la Vella (and) 158.5 km mountains

4 Tu 22-8 Escaldes – Tarragona 198.2 km flat

5 We 23-8 Benicassim – Ermita Santa Lucia 175.7 km summit finish

6 Th 24-8 Villareal – Sagunto 204.4 km hilly

7 Fr 25-8 Llíria – Cuenca 207.0 km flat

8 Sa 26-8 Hellín – Xorret del Catí 199.5 km mountains

9 Su 27-8 Orihuela (Torreviejo) – Cumbre del Sol 174.0 km summit finish

Mo 28-8 rest day

10 Tu 29-8 Caravaca de la Cruz – Alhama de Murcía 164.8 km mountains

11 We 30-8 Lorca – Calar Alto 187.5 km summit finish

12 Th 31-8 Motril – Antequera 160.1 km hilly

13 Fr 1-9 Coín – Tomares 198.4 km flat

14 Sa 2-9 Écija – La Pandera 175,0 km summit finish

15 Su 3-9 Alcalá la Real – Sierra Nevada 129.4 km mountains, summit finish

Mo 4-9 rest day

16 Tu 5-9 Los Arcos – Logroño 40.2 km ITT

17 We 6-9 Villadiego – Los Machucos 180.5 km summit finish

18 Th 7-9 Suances – Santo Toribio de Liébana 169.0 km hilly, summit finish

19 Fr 8-9 Caso (Parque de Redes) – Gijón 149.7 km hilly, flat start

20 Sa 9-9 Corvera – Angliru 117.5 km mountains, summit finish

21 Su 10-9 Arroyomolinos – Madrid 117.6 km flat

Some of the climbs if distinction in this years Vuelta include:

1 – Ermita St Lucia – stage five.   3.5km, 320vm, 9% ave gradient

Only 3.5km, the climb averages more than 10 percent, with three sections ramping up to more than 20 per cent.

2 – Xorret del Cati – stage eight.   3.8km, 448vm, 11% ave gradient

Not quite a summit finish, the Xorret de Cati climbs nearly 400m in around four kilometres with a double digit average gradient, some sections at more than 20%

3 – Cumbre del Sol – stage nine.   7.6km, 354vm, 10% ave gradient

This stage ends with a steep three kilometre climb. Cumbre del Sol has become a Vuelta regular.

4 – Sierra de la Pandera – stage 14.   7.6km, 671vm, 9% ave gradient

The lesser of the two Sierras at the end of the second week, the Sierra de la Pandera is likely to be overshadowed by the following Sierra Nevada.

5 – Sierra Nevada – stage 15.  30.4km, 2435vm, 6% ave gradient

The 7.6km climb averages nine per cent, but hides a two kilometre section midway up that stays steadfastly and 12-14 per cent and will surely be the launching pad for attacks.

6 – Los Machucos – stage 17.   9.4km, 713vm, 7% ave gradient

A highly irregular climb, some sections in the middle hit gradients as high as 31 per cent, with a concrete road surface with strips across it to stop cars slipping down in wet or icy condition, and to make it even harder for the riders.

7 – Alto de l’Angliru – stage 20.   13.2km, 1241m, 9% ave gradient

The Angliru has only been used six times in professional racing, but has already earned a fearsome reputation in the peloton with its 13.2km length and average gradient of nine per cent.

Hidden in that average gradient is the fearsome Cueña les Cabres stretch of the climb, which rears up to more than 20 per cent for long sections before a flat and slightly downhill run to the line

The favourites for this years Vuelta are:

Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Steven Kruijswijk

Followed by:

Alberto Contador, Fabio Aru, Rafal Majka, Miguel Ángel López

Wout Poels, Wilco Kelderman, Adam Yates, Romain Bardet

Simon Yates, Ilnur Zakarin, Bob Jungels, Domenico Pozzovivo, Tejay van Garderen

And finally

Esteban Chaves, Davide Formolo, Rui Costa, Leopold König, Rohan Dennis, Marc Soler

I don’t think Chris Froome can win the Vuelta after his efforts in the Tour de France, my money would be on Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru or Rafal Majka.

Eds note:

I travelled through spain a long long tine ago. We spent a week and a half down south, visited Granada with its famous fortress Alhambra. Overlooking Granada in the distant was the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. I love the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Films, so the Sierra Nevada holds a place of interest to me. I must admit that although I love most of Clints work, his cowboy homage album, containing that particularly unforgettable song Sierrra Nevada, is perhaps a low point in his stellar career.  If you’re interested, check the song out here – https://open.spotify.com/track/5KYWUh4tpOmRf5KvcycgKO

Perhaps the one and only regret from that trip was not detouring up to Sierra Nevada, but there is only so much you can do in a short time.

The Alhumbra with Sierra Nevada behind

_____________________________

Alberto Contador

Alberto Contodor announced that he would retire at the end of this season, so this Vuelta will be his last Grand Tour. Love him or hate him, he certainly lit up the pelaton when he was in the prime of his  career.

Born in Pinto, near Madrid, in 1982, Contador turned professional with ONCE in 2003, having impressed Manolo Saiz as an amateur, but his career was almost ended the following year when he suffered a cerebral cavernoma during the Vuelta a Asturias. Remarkably, he returned to training at the end of that season and announced his return to competition with a stage win at the Tour Down Under.

In 2006, Contador and five of his Astana-Würth teammates were barred from competing at the Tour de France after their names were linked to the Operacion Puerto blood doping inquiry, though Contador was later cleared of charges.

A year later, Contador was back at the Tour de France in the colours of Johan Bruyneel’s Discovery Channel team, ostensibly to ride in support of Levi Leipheimer, yet he quickly outstripped his leader. For much of the race, he seemed destined for second overall, but when Michael Rasmussen was thrown off the Tour after lying about his whereabouts in the build-up, Contador inherited the maillot jaune and carried it to Paris.

In 2008, Contador followed Bruyneel to the revamped Astana and, unable to compete at the Tour, he proceeded to win a Giro-Vuelta double, becoming the youngest rider ever to complete a full set of Grand Tour victories. Lance Armstrong emerged from retirement to join Astana in 2009, but Contador had the sangfroid and the resolve to see off that internal challenge and add a second Tour de France title to his palmares.

Nobody expected it would be his last and, for a time, it wasn’t. Andy Schleck arguably had the legs to beat Contador at the 2010 Tour de France but the Spaniard somehow eked out a win, only for a positive test for Clenbuterol on the second rest day to scrub it from the record books.

News of the positive test broke in September 2010, but it took more than 16 months of investigations, hearings and appeals for Contador to be belatedly sanctioned. He claimed the positive test was the result of contaminated beef and dismissed the hypothesis that it had been caused by a contaminated blood bag. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, meanwhile, suggested a contaminated food supplement, but the end result was the same: a retroactive two-year ban.

There was something of Pedro Delgado’s defiance on the 1988 Tour about Contador in those 16 months. Having swapped Astana for Riis’ Saxo Bank squad for 2010, during the Tour de France, Contador barely missed a beat, and continued to race and win while the UCI and Spanish federation argued over how best to resolve his case. His 2011 Giro d’Italia triumph was perhaps the most dominant of his entire career, even if the title would eventually pass to the late Michele Scarponi.

Cycling News

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Go Pro Hero 5 Session

Who woulda thought.

I entered into a competition on the Orica Scott Facebook site at the end of the first week of the Tour de France.  https://www.facebook.com/GreenEdgeCycling/videos/1535021843216339/

I received notification early in the week that I had won one of the GoPros used by the Orica-Scott team at the TdF.  Woo Hoo.

That makes three competitions I’ve won over the last 6 months.  The first was a lock from local bike shop Bio-Mechanics Cycles & Repairs . The second was a bike and care pack from Pedalit.

The 3rd now being the GoPro. Cool eh.

The Pedalit pack included a degreaser, chamois cream, sunscreen, bike wash and a kit wash detergent. The kit wash liquid, Revival, has had a lot of use in the Legs household. I have gotten myself into the habit of handwashing my good kit in the laundry sink using the revival liquid. I’m not sure if I’m a little strange, buy it has become a little soothing washing my kit by hand – it doesn’t take long, but it’s satisfying knowing that the kit I forked out good money for is not being battered in the washing machine.

I’ve almost run out, so I have taken advantage of a sale they have on line and purchased a few bottles, along with a liquid soap, a couple of doodles and a few other bibs and bobs.

Oh, and the guys at Pedalit have thrown in a few extra bottles of this kit wash to give away to Wednesday Leg readers.

To win one of two giveways, like and share the posting on my Wednesday Legs Facebook page here.

Wednesday-Legs-Face Book 

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Rapha Sale

Its been a long time coming, Rapha has finally been sold. Louis Vuitton passed up on buying Rapha, being purchased by RZC Investments, an investment group headed up by Steuart and Tom Walton, the family out of Bentonville, Arkansas, who own Walmart.

Before you jump on your high horses and wailing about a cut proce business getting involved with a top-end kit manufacturer, bare in mind that Tom is known to have kickstarted the trail building in Bentonville that has made it the hot spot for mountain biking for nearly 1000 miles in every direction, so the cycling passion is in his blood. RZC is reported to have paid $200 million to CEO Simon Mottram and his investors.

Rapha’s revenue for 2016 was around £63m, up 30 percent over the 2015 figurs, and reportedly up 40 percent over this point last year.

This is seen as a terrific buy for RZC.

With the new shareholders and desire to keep growing the profit, it will be interesting to see if the customer service that Rapha provides their clients will remain intact, such as their lifetime guarantee that includes free repair/replacement of crash damaged clothing.

Some are concerned about how the Waltons will manage the business, whether they will move to America where they have a reported reputation for being heavt supporters for deregulation, fights unionisation and pushes back heavily on wage increases for their workers via minimum wage increases.

Interesting times indeed.

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Rider of the Week – Harrison Douglas

How long have you been cycling?

Have always had a bike for as long back as I can remember, including some good highlights of going downhill and not knowing how to stop a bike and turn. Since the age of 12 I started to get more and more serious each year. Currently racing for R.A.C.E VMG Accounting, (Regional Academy of Cycling Excellence) Where I have been given the opportunity to compete is some awesome racing, like Bay Crits and Victorian Road Series.

What got you started in cycling?

Watching the old man come back from rides I suppose created a curiosity into road cycling. Had to save up a year for my first road bike racking leaves at our neighbours, was a Trek 1.1. Any spare time I had during the week would be spent down at the local bike shop and then over time that led to a weekend job. From there I began living and breathing cycling and never looked back.

You’re building up a new business, can you describe what it is and how you came to be involved?

I am the founder and manager of Acium Sports, Distributor and retailer for VeloPac, Piston Racing Wheels, Altum Designs and PONGO London, which is my side project outside of year 12 and work.

I also work casually at local bikeshop when they need an extra set of hands. I came to be involved from networking and building I suppose, from doing sponsorships and social media for a few local teams where I got onto Piston Racing Wheels, omne thing led to another and I became the Australian Contact.

From that base early last year I added a few other brands and opened Acium Sports.

How many bikes do you own and what is your main go to bike?

I only own the one road bike at the moment, I tend to only ever keep one bike as the do it all. It is a Sarto Dinamica custom frame running Shimano Ultegra, thanks to the team at Zoncolan Sports.

What bike do you covet?

Hard one because the Sarto was/is a dream bike and can’t top it off. However, craving a slick TT bike with a disc wheel and tri spoke front wheel for those odd TT races.

How do you store your bikes?

In the Acium Sports office, either in a Pro stand if I have carbon wheels in or on the wall hooks with everyone else’s bikes.

Do you do all your own maintenance or do you use a LBS? If so, which one?

Since being around and working in shops, since I was 12 to get cheaper shop pricing I mainly do all my own work for family and myself but every now and then to source parts or double check something I’ll pop into either Woodend Cycles or The Angry Butcher Bike Shop.

What cycling specific tools do you have in your “bike shed”?

Everything I need to be able to strip and rebuild our bikes plus spares, over the years of working casually on weekends and holidays at bikeshops you build a solid base of tools. Only thing I’m missing that I forget about to buy until I need it, is a good pair of cable cutters.

What is your favourite piece of cycling kit or accessory?

#sockgame, Socks speak all languages and are able to help express what sort of mood or theme you are going for on your ride, plus who doesn’t love a fresh set of PONGO socks?

What do you love about cycling?

Freedom of being out on the road, socialising with good mates .and then trying to tear each other a new one in a few efforts.

What annoys most about cycling?

In a way I would have to say the time you need to spend training if I wanted to see good results for racing. Especially during Year 12 this year, just can’t justify the time on the bike…. Have started to become a weekend warrior.

Other than yourself, who is your favourite cyclist?

Jens Voigt, bloke is a legend off and on the bike and makes pain look like fun.

What are your craziest/fondest cycling memories?

Fondest memory would have to be my first Tour Down Under, (Big Lance Armstrong fan at the time before he got caught doping). Meeting Lance Armstrong and getting him to sign some things and having a chat with him, was star struck.

Have you had any nasty crashes? If so how did the worst occur and what was the consequence?

Touchwood have not had a bad one yet, few narrow escapes and small spills but nothing serious. Worst would have to be was when I did my first junior tour, was up the road with a kid and swapping off, he slowed and I overlapped his wheel and we swung right and took me out. Definitely an eye opener in one of my first races.

What is your favourite post ride coffee/tea spot, and what would you normally buy as a treat?

Red Beard Café in Trentham do a good latte but has to be followed by a jam donut at the Trentham bakery (Always causes controversy in the bunch on which to stop at so may swell have the best of both worlds.)

Do you have a favourite overseas country in mind you’d love to take your bike to?

Ideally like a lot of other cyclists, wouldn’t mind Europe and climbing some of the big bergs over there or really anywhere with a different scenery and good riding company.

What is your favourite local training route?

Out to Trentham down Ashbourne Rd (Always gets competitive for strava segment on Ashbourne  and back then home via Mt Macedon climb. Nice 80-90km loop.

What cycling related thing would you like for your next birthday?

A new few new sets of carbon wheels wouldn’t be too bad…

Is there a local cycling outfit/company/cycling club/cycling group/person that you would like to plug?

Quick plug for Travis at Blackchrome Cycling, could not be more impressed with custom products from them.

Hang on a minute, i recognise that face #simonveitch

Also to Matt at CoachPro BikeFit

What is your non-cycling go-to place when Interstaters come to your town?

Honour Avenue Macedon for the changing leave colours during autumn or definitely the Memorial Cross at the top of Mt. Macedon.

Is there anything else you feel like talking about?

Yeah, quick plug for my business Acium Sports (Cycling retailer and distributor) Use the code ‘FIRSTTIME15‘ to receive 15% off your first order (Excludes Wheels) as a reader of Wednesday Legs.

www.aciumsports.com.au

Looking at the website sees Acium Sports offer socks, Musettes, RidePacs, PhonePacs, wheels, multi tools, a small range of apparel,  and saddles.

  till next time

tight spokes

iPib

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