Chris Froome by M.Cound
British Tour de France winners are like the proverbial bus. You wait 105 years for one, then two turn up all at once. Froome will definitely have his chance in future years – he’s a very exciting rider, but this is Wiggins’ year and deservedly so.
It’s hard work being a tour rider, they race over 3,000Km up a string of huge mountain passes. Day in day out, they have to put up with innumerable crashes, physical pain, saddle sores, tiredness, fatigue. Anyone whose ridden a hilly 100 mile ride, will know how tough it would be to do that for 21 consecutive days at average speeds of around 25mph.
Despite the tremendous achievement of the riders, sports fan have a habit of being hard to please. Once your in the limelight it’s hard to do everything right. It’s easy to become quite critical of the riders - being too slow, too fast, not attacking enough, offering encouragement to your team leader, following team orders, not following team orders, getting dropped, speaking your mind, being too boring i.e. – being human.
Even if you do achieve the remarkable, it is perhaps human nature, to look on the negative side.
“Yes, you may have won 4 major tours this year and performed incredibly well in this tour throughout the three weeks, but don’t you think it’s undervalued because you’re not racing Eddy Merckx when he was at his peak? (Wiggins questioned about missing riders)
The funny thing is at the Olympics, there will be some competitors from developing nations admitted without qualifying times. They will finish miles behind the rest of the competitors, but we will love them for being plucky losers (a la Eddy the Eagle Edwards). But, show that you are one of the best two riders in the world, and be prepared for the inevitable brickbrats, questions, complaints and the armchair fan who would know much better.
It seems the hardest thing about winning the tour is dealing with speculation and questions from fans and journalists after the race. Except it isn’t the hardest thing. The hardest thing is training pretty continually for 5-6 hours a day for 360 days a year for over 10 years.
So, I say chapeau to all the riders, whether first, last, second or first.
At the end of the day, when the fat lady does start singing, I hope the top 3 gain a real sense of satisfaction from knowing they deserve to be there and also they gave great inspiration to a fledgling wannabe down here in Oxford.
And just remind me, is that really two British riders on the podium?
Image top: Chris Froome by Michelle Cound, source Wiki Commons
I think cycling fans generally do appreciate the efforts of the pros, regardless of the final result. I think it’s one of the sport’s great attributes.
The lead-outs and domestiques aren’t ignored by fans and those riders who seem to specialise in long, doomed efforts in the break seem most popular of all.
I guess it’s partly down to most of us being cyclists ourselves and therefore having a decent comprehension of the pain and strain involved. It’s almost like there ARE points for effort.
Here, here. Go on Wiggo, blast ‘em away with a TT to remember.