It has been a great Tour de France. There are few moments watching sport, when you just want to admire the supreme physical effort, and as David Duffield would have as say – ‘Chapeau!’
It was gripping stuff as the diminished peleton hit the lower slopes of the Col de Tourmalet, the domestiques riding themselves into the ground to keep the pace high. Slowly the Km to the top counts down. You knew Schleck would attack – but, when? (well off course, in one of the innumerable ITV4 commercial breaks). But, it didn’t matter – there were the two gladiators, Shleck and Contador fighting it wheel to wheel, shoulder to shoulder on the misty slopes of the Col De Tourmalet; this is the drama of cycling. Two athletes at the peak of their sport, desperately riding away from the rest of the peleton.
It’s easy to sit in your archmair and shout at Schleck – ‘go on attack him’ But, when you’ve had a three weeks of racing, and your hanging on to the edge of your limit, ascending Col de Tourmalet at a terrific pace, next to the greatest cyclists of your generation – that is all easier said than done. But, Schleck kept trying. It didn’t quite break the elastic, but, you knew they had both given everything trying to wrestle the yellow jersey.
Maybe, the other day, Contador should have waited when Shleck’s chain went, but, that seemed forgotten yesterday. Contador did once try to drop Schleck, but, when that failed, he didn’t contest the sprint, and the two gladiators could be seen embracing after finish line.
Some Things the tour riders don’t have to cope with
After watching the Tour de France I really get inspired to go out and ride my bike. The problem is I half expect to be able to replicate the tour on English roads. But, riding in England makes it very difficult to replicate a stage of the Tour. For example, after 1km of the stage starting, you suddenly have to come to an abrupt halt as a double decker bus gets stuck between two inconsiderately parked SUVs on station road. I mean, this isn’t supposed to happen on a tour stage. Perhaps a flying picket by French farmers indignant at the cut in their EU farming subsidies to a mere £100,000 a year, but, not double decker buses and SUVs.
A thing that looks really fun in the tour is being able to fling empty water bottles across the road (I always wonder why a discarded water bottle doesn’t cause a crash) and then after discarding a water bottle a team mate with 17 bottles stuffed down his jersey will come up and give you a spare. Somehow stopping in a petrol station and fumbling around for change makes you lose your rhythm – it just doesn’t have the same elan as chucking a bottle casually into waiting crowds – who suddenly lose all interest in the race and dash for a water bottle worth £2. (I can never understand that, imagine spending £1000 to go and watch the tour, you wait for hours and then when the riders actually come past you ignore the race and scramble to get a cheap plastic water bottle you could have bought at local bike shop for a fraction of cost of going to Tour – Maybe having to buy your own water, would help spruce up the tour rankings a little. It may even give a chance for French to win, as they could benefit from local knowledge. It would be like the good old days, when if your bike broke down you had to fix it yourself, even if meant visiting a local steel forger to make yourself a new frame- those were the good old days – anyway I digress).
Then there is the climbs of England. In France they talk about a climb with a gradient of 8-10% as being really steep. These riders should try climb Fleet moss (20% looking like 25%) – that’s a real climb. These Alpine climbs may go on for quite a long time, but, I reckon they have it easy. They should put a few proper climbs in the tour like Rosedale Chimney or Hardknott pass. The only chance we have of alpine style climb is the bridge over the motorway, the gradient is about right, but, somehow, it doesn’t really count as a mountain pass, no matter how many times we might go over it..
Another thing is riding at the back of a peleton of 200 riders looks pretty easy, some of them seem to be hardly pedalling at all. And if you get tired, you can always feign a little road rash and go back to hold onto medical car for a few KM. And I bet the Italian riders get a little push from the Tifiosi up the Alpine climbs. Riding here, you have to always simulate the lone breakaway, and the only chance you have of a little push, is the sideways push into gutter – courtesy of Mr White Van Driver, the idea of getting pushed up a hill by supportive bystanders in England is a joke.
This year, an interesting stage of the tour was riding over the cobbles of the Ardenne classics. It split the peleton and made the race interesting. But, if they really want to test the riding skills of the rider, I think they should bring back the Tour to Britain and make it go through rush hour traffic in London or on the local Sustrans cycle path. That would really sort out the men from the boys. It may even give an Englishman a chance of winning. - When you watch the Tour, you never see the pros having to leave the road and negotiate a tiny cycle path at 12mph watching out for pedestrians with dogs on a lead. They have it easy.
So there you go a virtual Tour de France on England’s roads is surely much more challenging than riding the real thing. I reckon the best thing to do is just to hang up the bike and resign yourself to spending three hours a day watching it on Eurosport.
Sunday was a good day. First I suffered in the 100 mile race. Then I return home to watch others suffering on a much larger scale. It wasn’t just the usual suspects suffering on the mountain passes (the sprinters like Cavendish) but no less than the global phenomena of Lance Armstrong. Even the greatest champions have their time, the day when they lose that aura of invincibility. I have to say I enjoyed it greatly seeing Armstrong suffer. It’s not a very noble sentiment, but after suffering myself I didn’t feel too guilty.
I watched pretty much all of Armstrong’s seven consecutive Tour de France victories. I could never root for the American, I was always supporting any rival – from the overweight Ullrich to the diminutive Pantani. Fortunately or unfortunately Ive always judged cyclists on their attitude to doping – I’d rather cheer for an eighty year old amateur plodding around a club 10 mile TT than the most successful cheat. To the ITV commentators, slavish in their praise, Armstrong was the greatest of all champions. They can only see the greatest ever cyclist who won seven titles at the world’s most challenging cycle race. But to me, Armstrong will always be the guy who chased down Fillipo Simeoni for turning ‘tailcoat’, the cyclist who celebrated his Tour win with controversial doctor Michael Ferrari e.t.c.
Maybe I’m being unfair, maybe he was just unfortunate to be born in the EPO generation; a time when the number of clean cyclists could be counted on the fingers of one hand. If you look at his main competitors and team mates of those early 2000s, – Ulrich, Basso, Vinokourov, Landis, Tyler Hamilton (and many more) they have all been implicated in doping practises. Armstrong comes out relatively well, (if we ignore testimonies from former team mates and outdated EPO tests from 2001). However, for me what sticks in the mind, is not so much doping, but, to actively persue those who spoke against doping – Christophe Basson, Fililpo Simeoni. That is the really bad thing. It’s one thing to dope, it’s another to try and force out those trying to change the sport. For me the great heroes of cycling are those like Paul Kimmage who are willing to give up everything by ‘spitting in the soup’. They have more courage than those who only think of sweeping problems under the carpet and maintain an illusion that everything is fine.
I’m sure Armstrong has many good qualities, and if I wasn’t a cyclist I’d probably find it much easier to appreciate them. But, I am a cyclist and I really hate the practise of doping which has so blighted the sport, and the lives of those involved. A real champion could have used his position to move the sport in the right direction, not hang around with doctors whose main reputation was for being an expert in EPO.
But, when all is said and done, you do have to have spare at least some admiration for anyone who come back to ride and suffer in the Tour at the age of 39. Now, he’s been beaten he will at least probably become more popular, at least in Britain and France where we never really warm to someone until they display frailty and the ability to be a good loser.
Recently, I wrote a post – tips to improve cycling fitness – but, really I should add another one – disable Eurosport so you don’t spend all summer watching the Tour in the vain hope this will teach you all the pro tactics necessary to effectively ride a 25 mile time trial up a British dual carriageway.
Yes, It’s that time of the year when we can enjoy stunning scenery, legendary commentating, and hours and hours of the top pro cyclists winding their way through the street furniture of France and northern Europe. You just never know what the tour will throw up – will it be EPO, will it be testosterone, will it be blood boasting hormones – or will it just be an honest, clean race, with the best man winning in the mountains?
It’s a strange spectator sport the Tour de France. It’s rarely on the edge of your seat stuff, though at the same time oddly addictive. You can’t help but feel a little guilty when the most exciting event of the day is a big bunch crash because some dog strayed into the massed ranks of the peloton.
It all looks pretty impressive, especially the size of the crowds in Belgium; though I am most impressed by the way the cyclists just get up after a crash and nurse their broken collar bone through several Alpine passes. I know if it was me, at the first sign of any blood, I would be laying in the gutter feinting and waiting for the passing Ambulance van. I certainly wouldn’t be riding the next day after a heavy crash – let alone racing. One thing you can’t doubt is how much the Tour de France means to the riders. I’ve seen more grown men cry in the Tour de France (winning a stage, retiring through injury, failing a dope test e.t.c) than anywhere else.
If sportsman were paid on commitment, sacrifice and hardship, procyclists would be getting 100 times more than the most famous premiership strikers – players who are ‘too tired after playing 2 games of 90 minutes every week’. A 90 minute kick around – that’s what the tour riders do on their off day! (And the modern pro cyclist has it easy compared to the really hard tours of the pre-war era, In those black and white / pre deraileur gear days it was- let’s see who is last man standing after stages of 500km with only a bottle of champagne and a case of barbiturates to keep you going.
Talking of sacrifice, I was reading an interview with Bradley Wiggins pre-tour. He was explaining how he was getting ready to dip to his optimal race weight of 73 kilos – that fine line between losing weight and making his body anorexically light and open to infection. Bradley was explaining 2 kilos was worth 2 to 3 minutes on a mountain day. – At least, now I know why Jan Ullrich was known to have wasted his talent for turning up to the Tour 10 kilos overweight because he’d been stuffing his face with hamburgers and pies. But, just imagine if Wayne Rooney or the Brazilian Ronaldo needed to get his weight within 1 kilo of the optimal power to weight ratio?
For most of the day, the most exciting thing is watching the time gap to the break – will they stay away won’t they? You’d like to think that there is always a good chance, but, you know ex-pro Sean Kelly will soon snuff out any hopeful optimism with his dose of almost depressingly unflappable professional realism.
Anyway, if you get bored of the racing you can always just enjoy the commentary. In the good old days, David Duffield would lax lyrical about the best champagne, verses from the bible, competing in 24 hour time trials – just about anything apart from what was happening (which was mostly nothing anyway). The racing seemed to be incidental, but it was entertaining in a strange kind of way. These days, there is a worrying trend to interview director sportifs with their interminable platitudes about ‘needing to try and stay out of trouble, it’s a new era for cycling, it’s a hard race the Tour de France.’ The only thing that surprises me is when something unusual happens, like someone attacks, the commentary may be so focused on the local history of an old church that the action goes unnoticed. And why don’t they show us highlights of the breaks forming at the start of the race?
‘It’s a hard race the tour de France’ – well that’s one thing that certainly can’t be denied.
Prediction for Winner 2011
Bradley Wiggins – why not – he’s British and is we know the British never settle for second place…
Despite breaks for the two world wars the Tour de France has been held every year since 1903. It is not the oldest cycling race. But, it is the oldest and most prestigious stage race. All the great names of professional cycling can be found in the list of Tour de France winners. 5 Cyclists have the privilege of winning the Tour 5, or more times.
Jaques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernaud Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong (7 times)
I enjoyed following this years Tour. Congratulations to Carlos Sastre. There is quite a good article here at the Guardian. ‘Mr Clean leads way in race to redemption‘
When it comes to cycling, you expect to see low standards of journalism. One thinks of Matthew Paris’ tirade against cyclists. But, this article in the Houstan Chronicle has to rank as one of the feeblest articles ever written. I wonder whether newspaper editors actually tell their journalists to write purposefully rubbish articles in the hope they may get a bit of adverse publicity?
No Doping = No Drama
The journalist says he has been watching the 2008 Tour de France and finds it completely boring, but, maybe he has been watching an old edition on DVD by mistake. This year, 2008 has been an exciting race. Several riders have remained in contention throughout the 3 week long race, the lead has changed several times. Perhaps one or two longer time trial stages and the result would have been different.
“Just let them all Take Dope”
If all riders take dope, how will that make the race more attractive? Supposing all riders take dope, the average speed of the race may increase from 40 to say 42Kmph, but, a higher average speeds doesn’t change whether the race is exciting. Most spectators wouldn’t notice the difference. It will only give an unfair advantage to those athletes whose bodies respond better to doping.
Report on Cycling Not Doping
As a cycling enthusiast, I want to see the reports about the cycling, not about doping scandals. The real drama unfolds on the slopes of Alpe d’Huez not in the testing laboratories. If people think the best thing about sport is drug busts, they would be better off watching police dramas.
Many of those caught taking EPO like David Millar, Richard Virenque et al. never actually failed a drugs test. They were simply found with the EPO on them. Others like Bjanne Riis have since admitted to taking EPO, even though they never failed a drugs test But, with 3 failed EPO test in the Tour already, it seems that testing for micro use of EPO has improved.
The case of Riccardo Riccò is interesting. According the Saunier Duval website…
“In spite of his superb performance (Riccardo Ricco), it wasn´t easy for him to make his pro cycling debut because several blood tests revealed his hematocrit levels exceeded the accepted ones. Further exhaustive tests by the UCI confirmed Riccò´s hematocrit level was normally high.”
Riccardo Ricci at Saunier Duval. Maybe the ‘abnormally high Hematocrit levels weren’t so ‘natural’ after all
Also he used the same doctor / trainer as Marco Pantani. Pantani, had a hematocrit level of upto 60%, which is frankly ridiculous and suggested abuse of EPO.
I always feel that you can tell alot by the trainers that cyclists use. If you really wanted to be a new generation clean rider, you wouldn’t goto see a doctor with a history of dealing with athletes who take dope.
photo from 1990 Tour with Indurain, Lemond and Delgrado before ascent of Luz Aridien
Since I no longer subscribe to Eurosport, I can’t watch the Tour on the TV. I have been looking around for the best highlight programme offered on the Internet. These are some of the places where you can watch video highlights. (If you know of any other good sources, I would be grateful if you add in the comment)
Video highlights at Cycling news (videos quite short about 5 mins
Cycling Fans – Has a variety of options though I couldn’t get them to work
ITV internet - 1 hour programme only for UK citizens
Cycling TV - Free short video highlights premium channel for those willing to pay
As mentioned, I have spent several summers glued to the Tour on tele. One of the real attractions was listening to the fascinating commentary of David Duffield. He really could talk and his passion for cycling was self evident. It was this passion that made you forgive many of his eccentricities.
I’ll never forget the time when the race was flying up Mont Ventoux and David found time to some how recite Psalm 21 as the race passed the Simpson memorial. Only David could have carried it off with such dignity and passion.
David also had a great interest in the culinary and cultural aspects of France and he would often go off on detours about these whilst the race was in progress. On some stages, for several hours, nothing would happen then at the moment someone attacked, poor old David would probably still be talking about the local wines of the regions and how he enjoyed a very nice bottle of Beaujolais the previous evening. These are some of his classic quotes.
David Duffield Quotes
“I am sitting here with my chin on the counter, my mouth open like a great big whale scooping up plankton. I am gobsmacked!”
“Look down the valley…if you’ve got vertigo, sort of…don’t look down the valley.”
“Laurent Fignon just got bombed by a baguette!”
“As the french say, there’s nothing so long as a day without bread, and Laurent Fignon just got some but there’s nothing in it!”
If we had a yo-yo championship of the day, Riis would get the award.
