Somewhere on the roads of our country is a person riding a bike he knows does not belong to him and wearing a football jersey that is patently not for him.
Somewhere on a road in this sometimes unfair land is a thieving piece of trash riding a 2008 Team Barloworld Bianchi that has "E Gasparotto" on the top tube and wearing a Bafana shirt with the name "McCallum" licked across its shoulders.
Just under three weeks ago those two items belonged to me.
It's been lonely in the saddle since my bike died, and watching the Tour de France these past few days has made me aware that I loved that Bianchi as much as a man can legally love an inanimate beast of carbon fibre, rubber and aluminium.
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It had once been the steed of Enrico Gasparotto when he rode for Barloworld in 2008. Gasparotto, now with Lampre, was the Italian national champion in 2005 and a wearer of the maglia rosa, the leader's pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia, in 2007.
He crossed the line first as his then team Liquigas won the team time trial, and earned the right to be pretty in pink.
I got home on a Monday afternoon to find what I suspect was a bunch of kids had scaled my wall, banged open a door and nicked the bike, the jersey, a bang-up old laptop and, horror upon horrors, my replica, long-sleeved Liverpool jersey from the 2007 season.
The Bafana shirt was a gift from adidas, and I can only suspect the person who is wearing it must think "McCallum" is the surname of Benni McCallum, the latest sensation from Cape Town.
It's the Bianchi I miss the most, although the theft demonstrated to me how tight and kind the cycling community is.
When it was stolen I sent out an alert on Twitter and Facebook, and immediately had responses from many saying they'd watch out for it.
Doug Ryder, MTN professional cycling squad boss, offered me the loan of a team bike for the year, as did the team's mechanic and good mate Gary Blem.
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