I love this little story by Tim Maloney on CyclingNews.com about Sergei Gonchar:
One of the side-benefits of Gonchar's two [Tour de France time trial] stage wins and stint in the yellow jersey was that he got his name back. A typing error on his passport condemned him to being referred to as "Honchar" for years. The fame that Tour success brings finally allowed him to set the record straight. "Yeah! In the last few years, people got used to calling me Honchar, especially in Italy, but that is not my name," he said.
"So during the Tour De France, when I was team leader for a few stages, it was even more important to get my right name out there. It was the fault of a secretary in the passport office back home in Ukraine and I have had to live with this. But finally I was able to say 'my name is Gonchar, so call me that'. When my passport arrived with the wrong name, there was nothing I could do. That's the way it is and you can't complain. So when I came back to Italy from Ukraine with a passport that had the wrong name, I had to change all of my other documents. Otherwise if you show up at the airport with two different names, it's a mess."
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
It IS Gonchar, NOT Honchar
I love this little story by Tim Maloney on CyclingNews.com about Sergei Gonchar:
One of the side-benefits of Gonchar's two [Tour de France time trial] stage wins and stint in the yellow jersey was that he got his name back. A typing error on his passport condemned him to being referred to as "Honchar" for years. The fame that Tour success brings finally allowed him to set the record straight. "Yeah! In the last few years, people got used to calling me Honchar, especially in Italy, but that is not my name," he said.
"So during the Tour De France, when I was team leader for a few stages, it was even more important to get my right name out there. It was the fault of a secretary in the passport office back home in Ukraine and I have had to live with this. But finally I was able to say 'my name is Gonchar, so call me that'. When my passport arrived with the wrong name, there was nothing I could do. That's the way it is and you can't complain. So when I came back to Italy from Ukraine with a passport that had the wrong name, I had to change all of my other documents. Otherwise if you show up at the airport with two different names, it's a mess."
One of the side-benefits of Gonchar's two [Tour de France time trial] stage wins and stint in the yellow jersey was that he got his name back. A typing error on his passport condemned him to being referred to as "Honchar" for years. The fame that Tour success brings finally allowed him to set the record straight. "Yeah! In the last few years, people got used to calling me Honchar, especially in Italy, but that is not my name," he said.
"So during the Tour De France, when I was team leader for a few stages, it was even more important to get my right name out there. It was the fault of a secretary in the passport office back home in Ukraine and I have had to live with this. But finally I was able to say 'my name is Gonchar, so call me that'. When my passport arrived with the wrong name, there was nothing I could do. That's the way it is and you can't complain. So when I came back to Italy from Ukraine with a passport that had the wrong name, I had to change all of my other documents. Otherwise if you show up at the airport with two different names, it's a mess."
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