#eric.fics

So the one (or two) retcons are that Carlos was sort of implied to be teammates with Charles and Pierre, just not appearing in the fic cause you know. Cycling teams contain 20 - 30 riders, especially the better ones, a good cyclist missing out on a Grand Tour is wild but there was the strong implication in the fic that it was because of Vuelta, which is a three week race in Spain. Add in that this is happening in 2024 where the Olympics are a thing and yeah, you got a solid reason for Carlos missing out.

Except this did not really work for what I am plotting for Cycling AU 2, so I am creating a new team just for him. And Oscar. And Lando. And probably other guys I cannot remember from the top of my head because yes, what is this is not McLaren, cycling edition. McLaren even sponsored a cycling team for a year in 2020, behold, the Pro Cycling Stats page of Bahrain - McLaren (idk why I'm linking it beyond the fact that I keep losing it over the idea of McLaren sponsoring a team and needing proof lol).

Actually, let me just add a picture of my list of who is in what team, without team names tho, too lazy to think of how the teams would be named

Of course, this is non exhaustive, this is just the guys who are canonically in a team together, either as established by no rules or retconned/established in the unnamed not a sequel fic. Fernando and Lance have question marks cause I dont particularly like separating teammates/guys who exist in my head together, but heres the thing.

Idk how I feel about Fernando and Lewis being teammates in present day, I don't like having George on that team as well cause he's been established as a points classification contender which makes everything awkward with Lewis and Fernando being GC contenders to even KoM competitors (and before anyone comes for me, I hope yall know that my choices for who falls into which classification are largely based on vibes. And no GC is not above any other classifications, look at Mark Cavendish's racing record, and then remember that he is considered one of the most successful cyclists ever- and he is a sprinter. Sorry for the rant)

Anyway, rant aside, yes, in theory points classification contenders (sprinters) and GC contenders can be on the same team, however the only example I can think of is VLaB and Wout van Aert at Vuelta this year, but I dont even think it was the primary goal of theirs. Then again, I cannot bring myself to care about VLaB so who knows. And yes, it is just fanfiction, but look. I am weird about realism. Will write about two straight athletes having gay sex any day of the week, but some hand wavy team building? Not on my watch.

So yes. There is that, but as previously stated, I dont wanna separate teammates and, second of all, I was funny at one point in Cycling AU 2 and now I sort of have to have Fernando be on the team. Or well, I don't, it can be Lewis, but Lewis does not fit the vibes of Vuelta to me, and also Fernando is just a much better... antagonist is not the correct term but close enough, when the fic is set in Spain and the two main guys are Oscar and Carlos because consider; Fernando was 100% Carlos' childhood hero in this AU.

So anyways yes, this end of the worldbuilding I have been frying my brain over for the past week ish. Otherwise the teams are pretty easy to construct; Alpine and most of Ferrari together, realistically at least Ollie is there as well, its the quintessential cycling team, there is not necessarily such thing as a historical team in cycling because these teams have very little identity beyond their sponsors, but this is the closest you can get to it. Probably one word title sponsor that bankrolls everything and has been there for years. A very fancy team, posh, Italian, dont you dare try and take Giro away from them they bite. Also Giro is like... the only race they have fancy alternative kits for, they have barely changed their kit design for years, someone take the fill bucket tool in red away from them.

(Giro is a three week race in Italy in April/May. Also I suppose they would have to have alt kits for Vuelta so maybe begrudgingly they do that as well but yk. Begrudgingly)

Team B aka not-McLaren but actually quite possibly yes, McLaren, has more the new kid on the block fresh vibes, good, Lando is a very much a rising star etc etc, but they are also still finding their footing. Oscar is a plucky young mountain domestique mentored by the decently successful former Australian cyclist Mark, Carlos is... well... okay I have no idea what senior is doing in this AU, I think just for funsies we should keep him as a rally driver, but Carlos junior has still as many catholic suffering and vague daddy issues as irl Carlos has. Dont tell me he does not. Maybe not the conventional type but he sure has issues cause of his parents success.

Actually re Carlos, yes senior is still a successful rally driver like he is irl and maybe junior did not initially go into cycling, he just sort of... fell into it. Like he was doing it just to keep in shape and next thing he knew he was getting picked up as if he was a pro and at thet point he imprinted on Fernando and now 10 - 15 years later he has so many issues because of it. Oh Carlos, you fool).

Also also, re Oscar, he is still desperately trying to find is footing in this sport. He is doing good, all things considered, but then there is Lando, George, so many other riders only slightly older than him and already considered generational talents, meanwhile he is lucky if he is a super domestique (domestiques are the riders helping the leader aka the specialiest guy do whatever he needs to do. Super domestique is like the leader and the one who holds out until the very end). He did just switch to a better team that might give him actual options in the future to be a GC contender/leader at some point, so maybe. And yes, Mark is his mentor cause I said so. Mark too in this AU has won a lot, but the white whale of a Tour win has escaped him. Something something Seb is a menace no matter the universe or something idk.

ANYWAY.

I'm not saying the Merc (and Aston) guys might as well be Sky/Ineos but I am saying I've been going so youre basically the same team to Sky/Ineos and Merc since I understood the concept of Merc F1 team so make of that what you will. But yes, close enough. Less floppy then Skyneos irl, but still a team that very quickly became good, dominated for a hot sec, and now is still a force to contend with even when they are no longer dominating. So I suppose two aging formerly successful riders and a non GC classification young guy is realistic.

(Also yes, if they were cyclists both Fernando and probably Lewis too would be retired or at least nowhere near competing at the top, cyclists retire way earlier than F1 drivers do. However, I don't care. I pick and choose where I stick to realism. Go fight my brain, its a very strange place)

Finally team D aka totally not Red Bull... well... you might as well be the Red Bull team in cycling as well. Just like. Switch the guys but keep the results and stuff, yes I am nerfing rbr because Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe are sorta shite but rbr lives and dies by its car. And they have no car here. Or anything siilar. Also I just don't like Max I'm sorry. I will occasionally throw in a Yuki mention cause hes the only guy in that camp I care about. Get him out of there.

As for the other teams that I have not mentioned here, Haas guys are probably hanging out somewhere near Ferrari team or on their own, so do the Sauber guys tho maybe Gabriel is in the McLaren team or something, since he used to be a McLaren junior and idk, him in Sauber still feels fake to me if you ask me.

Williams is the real question here. For redacted reason they need to be a separate team I think, or at least the outlines of them need to be separate. Possibly they are the only relevant team that is not World Tour (ie the highest level) but rather a Pro Tour (the second highest). Practically what that means is that they compete the less prestigious races and they have to be invited to the fancy ones through a wildcard. So they are probably a team that was once World Tour, got sorta fucked up, disappeared for a while and now is back as a Pro Tour team trying to get back to the WT heights.

Anyway Alex hangs out there after a very unceremonious exit from Red Bull at the end of 2020, accompanied by all the usual suspects. Latifi, Logan, more that I am forgetting. They are, especially in recent years, considered one of the better Pro Tour teams and one of the main candidates for a wildcard entry in the fancier races especially. Alex in general is probably seen as one of the better sprinters out there and definitely is one of the main draws of the team. Probably every season there are rumors that he is in talks with a World Tour team but nothing has ever happened so far.

Talking of the Sauber guys tho, I'm like... tempted to make Valtteri not a road cyclist but make him commit to the gravel bit fully. Or just made him a road cyclist who does cyclocross in the winter like Wout van Aert or Mathieu van der Poel do irl. So many options tbh. Just like irl tho, he definitely has too much beef with the UCI (for those not in the know, sometime in late 2023 UCI aka the FIA of cycling made a post promoting womens gravel cycling and pointed out his gf Tiffany as someone to look out for and he rightfully pointed out that there is no place to watch womens gravel cycling. Go Valtteri go, womens cycling is quite frankly in hell)

First of all, context on Shooting at the Sun, the book, in the universe I'm playing around in here because it matters to me.

The way I imagine it is that it is a sort of film noir detective novella from the 1950s, set in a (then) contemporary Monaco. I'm not really familiar with European literature of that time but I would imagine that the themes prevalent then were similar to the ones prevalent in American literature, that is (iirc) not fitting in. So I would imagine the novella is thematically somewhere there. And really that isnt important, the important part is that it has two protagonists, a pair of detectives, who arrive in Monaco to investigate a fire. The plot and everything is largely irrelevant, what is important though is that the two detectives have a lot of sexual tension between then, though nothing explicit romantic or sexual ever happens on screen, though it is largely understood that the tension is intentional.

There was a movie adaptation of the novella released a few years after it came out which came out to middling reviews, though since then it has become a sort of a cult classic amongst movie fans.

Present day, Toto Wolff is a well established director of the more arthouse end of the spectrum movies, and he announces a new adaptation of the novella and thats where the gewis bit actually starts. Well a loose adaptation, loose enough that some points are more important than others.

Okay lore out of the way actual gewis yapping now:

Lewis is cast almost immediately and it makes sense. He is a regular collaborator of Toto, he fits the role to a T, and he is also working on it in terms of production (asdfg forgot the term for it lol). He is also a well respected actor who has done his fair share of roles in popular franchises and successful one off movies, both within and outside of the UK. He is a shoe in for the role of the older and more experienced detective no questions asked.

George meanwhile, is a bit of a disaster, as George always tends to be. He is UKs newest theatre darling but this is his will be his first time acting in a movie and the only reason he even took that role is because Alex practically shoved him into it. Cause you see, he grew up admiring Lewis but somehow ended up as a theatre actor on accident. And well, this is a possibility to co-star with his childhood idol, but he has read the script and Alexander I cannot co-star in this with Lewis he is literally my gay awakening. Alexander. ALEXANDER.

Alex, by the way, is Georges childhood buddy just like irl, and is also a stage actor, slightly less successful than George but still a well established guy. And in the spirit of being Alex he is also a little shit and is the one who pushes George into taking the role. Payback for spending his teenage years watching George deny he is into Lewis or something.

Initially, the filming is sorta shit. Both George and Lewis do their best but it just is not working, George thinks he is not doing his best, he would almost say he is getting stage fright if he was not trained out of stage fright years ago, but maybe being so starstruck by Lewis is doing things to him still. He is doing his best but his best is not enough and he is ready to pull out of the movie for an actual film actor to fill his role.

The thing is, Lewis is the guy that suggested for George to take the other leading role and even tho Toto did not object, Lewis really, really wants George to succeed. This is where I start loosing the plot however the point is, plot happens and gewis do get close, and George looses some of his starstruck stage fright and actually the scenes start sounding good. Sure he still lives in fear of the latter scenes of the movie where the tension is really high but the first part at least is nice, fun even, he would go so far as to call Lewis a genuine friend.

Alex, for the record, is having a field day with Georges fumbling. In the background in between filming days George is still absolutely loosing it, even after getting close with Lewis. Probably because of getting close with Lewis. Professional actor but cannot act for shit in his personal life, he is not fooling anyone that his crush on Lewis is still not very much a thing and Alex can and will be seated here with his popcorn. He is already threatening to sneak himself into the premiere just so he can see George absolutely fumble it in a movie. Affectionate, of course.

The lost plot continues but somehow or something they get to the more tension filled scenes, struggle, and solve the struggle by fucking. How? Idk man, like I said, here the plot is lost beyond vibes and gewis dancing around each other. Oh yeah at some point the tension is actually real and then it is also real but less tense and more… anticipatory? Idk how to say it lol.