Former Rás yellow jersey is star of social media at Rio Olympics

Dan Craven is always up for the craic and never takes himself too seriously. He was his country's sole rider in the men's road race at the Olympics on Saturday and marked the day by live tweeting from the event, kinda... Here he is getting to know the locals on a pre-race training ride.

 

By Brian Canty

Dan Craven is one of the more eccentric characters in the professional peloton and he lives up to that quirky reputation everywhere he goes.

His likeable manner and bubbly personality has won him legions of followers and when he donned the Namibian colours as their sole representative in the men’s road race at the Olympics yesterday his fans weren’t restricted to inside the country’s borders.

Craven, a former Rás yellow jersey wearer after winning the opening stage in 2010, knew he had no chance of winning the race outright.

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But he was hell-bent on getting up the road, as his aggressive early pace-setting suggested.

Craven was active in the early part of the race and did his utmost to get in the breakaway.

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And his Twitter feed went into meltdown because he gave his phone to his other half prior to the race and she kept his 10,800 followers updated with hilarious ‘mid-race’ messages as if her man were typing.

“The cobbles are indeed brutal. Saw a bike get bounced off a car yesterday - they're that bad. Hope the Turkish rider is ok” read one tweet.

“Oh my legs. Mid peloton now over the climb. Is it beer o'clock yet?” read another.

And not long before he “popped” ‘he’ tweeted “Well this is very stressful.”.

Of course, it wasn’t Craven doing the tweeting, but his other half who has a cracking sense of humour.

 

Here is a selection of some of 'his' best tweets...

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