The Tour de France is a circus. It never ceases to amaze me how unusual it is, as a sporting event. We often hear that sports is such a great leveler, that it reduces the struggles of life to a basic level. How it makes complicated things simple. There is winning and there is not winning. There is person against person, or nation against nation. Sports is a morality play, a didactic experience that is easy to understand.
But not so for the Tour de France. Everything is different here. Of course there is winning and not winning. In fact, there is a winner everyday. But sometimes, here, not winning is winning (save your energy; let another rider waste his, etc.). Sometimes here winning is losing (Lit all your matches; played outside the team goals, etc.). Sometimes here it is nation against nation, but it is also team sponsor against team sponsor and also person against person. Look at LeTour website, for example, they describe every rider by name, by national heritage and then by team, in small gray scale font. But if two countrymen on different teams try to help each other, they will be penalized. It is a schizophrenic event that has layers upon layers of competitions for prizes, prestige and jobs. It is very French.
In addition, the event attracts more than its fair share of crazies. We have all grown to know and love Didi Senft, for example, even though the notion of a middle aged guy in red tights and wearing devil horns while brandishing a trident is, honestly, a bit odd. (As an aside, I find Didi’s recent turn to branding for hire to be very American and, well, a little disappointing). But I suspect even Didi would shy away from some of the nuts out there. Have you seen the broad-shouldered swarthy guy dressed in a women’s one piece red bathing suit and wearing a long blonde wig who runs alongside the riders each day? Who does that? What is he trying to say? Only his wig-dresser knows for sure, I suppose.
Today’s stage was not supposed to be as hard as yesterday or tomorrow’s stage. And yet it saw no fewer than five abandons garnished with the specter of Roman Bardet puking on his bike. Nice. Phil and Paul speculated that this day was too much coming after yesterday’s hard pull to the top. Because I can’t comprehend riding even one of the stages, let alone one every day for three weeks, I cant say if this is likely true or not. But I guess they might know.
In the end, the lead yellow jersey was escorted to the line by faithful team members (although both Porte and Thomas fell to the side as the tempo quickened) and the other “contenders.” Froome finished together with Teejay and Contador and several others all at once. There was no real movement on the contenders board. Unless, that is, you still consider Nibali a contender (as TV does because they keep listing him as one even). Nibali paced the yellow jersey group up and over the Tourmalet but then shot out the back on the final Cat 3 climb. They should probably put a photo of Nibali’s legs on a milk carton somewhere, because they have definitely gone missing.
The day belonged to Rafal Majka. A Polish guy who has a couple of rides like this in him in every tour. His ride was impressive, He looked compact and smooth on the bike and never seemed to be in risk of cracking or being caught. Chapeaux to Majka!
Majka’s normal job is to protect and pace Contador up the big climbs. Given Contador’s not so good day yesterday (described as his worst day ever on a bike) I was a little surprised they let Majka go up the road when the Plateau De Beille looms tomorrow. I wonder if it means that Contador has sort of given up so they are releasing Majka (who won polka dots last year, remember) to try to capture his own glory. Hard to say, but If I was Contador I might prefer Majka keep something in the tank for tomorrow.
And what was with Valverde pipping the group on the line? Just to get that second or two? I guess it moved him two seconds closer to the podium. But still….
After a rather promising year last year, the French have once again dropped off the TdF map. Best placed right now is Gallopin in seventh, about 4.5 minutes back from Froome. On the other hand, the Lanterne Rouge is shaping up to be a battle between riders from the Empire. The current holder is Matthews, an Aussie, but he is being threatened by Dowsett, a Brit. They are separated by less than a minute! Tomorrow’s hard day in the Pyrenees will make it tough to keep that lead without going outside of the time limit.
I note that tomorrow also sees the return of Lance Armstrong to France during the tour. He is participating in a charity ride that will see him ride the courses for stage 13 and 14 the day before the tour gets to them. He thinks everything will be fine whereas the UCI has implied that some irate frenchies might grab him and beat him up. As if. Even so, LA’s decision to ride in this event is a bit suspect, in my mind. But I can see his desire to get on with his life. And at this point the sport is filled with people who were cheating at the same time and in the same way LA cheated, so why is he being singled out for more approbation? Probably because he was such a jerk at the time and because he won. Best to be an almost but not quite cheat (Virenque, I’m talking to you!) rather than a wipe the floor with them cheat. I guess.
Tomorrow is mostly about the mountains (a cat 2 followed by two cat 1s and then finishing with an HC summit finish) but it also has an intermediate sprint early on where points will be awarded. Greipel will surely try to take the green jersey back from Sagan. But thereafter the stage is turned over to the goats. On to the Plateau de Beille!
But not so for the Tour de France. Everything is different here. Of course there is winning and not winning. In fact, there is a winner everyday. But sometimes, here, not winning is winning (save your energy; let another rider waste his, etc.). Sometimes here winning is losing (Lit all your matches; played outside the team goals, etc.). Sometimes here it is nation against nation, but it is also team sponsor against team sponsor and also person against person. Look at LeTour website, for example, they describe every rider by name, by national heritage and then by team, in small gray scale font. But if two countrymen on different teams try to help each other, they will be penalized. It is a schizophrenic event that has layers upon layers of competitions for prizes, prestige and jobs. It is very French.
In addition, the event attracts more than its fair share of crazies. We have all grown to know and love Didi Senft, for example, even though the notion of a middle aged guy in red tights and wearing devil horns while brandishing a trident is, honestly, a bit odd. (As an aside, I find Didi’s recent turn to branding for hire to be very American and, well, a little disappointing). But I suspect even Didi would shy away from some of the nuts out there. Have you seen the broad-shouldered swarthy guy dressed in a women’s one piece red bathing suit and wearing a long blonde wig who runs alongside the riders each day? Who does that? What is he trying to say? Only his wig-dresser knows for sure, I suppose.
Today’s stage was not supposed to be as hard as yesterday or tomorrow’s stage. And yet it saw no fewer than five abandons garnished with the specter of Roman Bardet puking on his bike. Nice. Phil and Paul speculated that this day was too much coming after yesterday’s hard pull to the top. Because I can’t comprehend riding even one of the stages, let alone one every day for three weeks, I cant say if this is likely true or not. But I guess they might know.
In the end, the lead yellow jersey was escorted to the line by faithful team members (although both Porte and Thomas fell to the side as the tempo quickened) and the other “contenders.” Froome finished together with Teejay and Contador and several others all at once. There was no real movement on the contenders board. Unless, that is, you still consider Nibali a contender (as TV does because they keep listing him as one even). Nibali paced the yellow jersey group up and over the Tourmalet but then shot out the back on the final Cat 3 climb. They should probably put a photo of Nibali’s legs on a milk carton somewhere, because they have definitely gone missing.
The day belonged to Rafal Majka. A Polish guy who has a couple of rides like this in him in every tour. His ride was impressive, He looked compact and smooth on the bike and never seemed to be in risk of cracking or being caught. Chapeaux to Majka!
Majka’s normal job is to protect and pace Contador up the big climbs. Given Contador’s not so good day yesterday (described as his worst day ever on a bike) I was a little surprised they let Majka go up the road when the Plateau De Beille looms tomorrow. I wonder if it means that Contador has sort of given up so they are releasing Majka (who won polka dots last year, remember) to try to capture his own glory. Hard to say, but If I was Contador I might prefer Majka keep something in the tank for tomorrow.
And what was with Valverde pipping the group on the line? Just to get that second or two? I guess it moved him two seconds closer to the podium. But still….
After a rather promising year last year, the French have once again dropped off the TdF map. Best placed right now is Gallopin in seventh, about 4.5 minutes back from Froome. On the other hand, the Lanterne Rouge is shaping up to be a battle between riders from the Empire. The current holder is Matthews, an Aussie, but he is being threatened by Dowsett, a Brit. They are separated by less than a minute! Tomorrow’s hard day in the Pyrenees will make it tough to keep that lead without going outside of the time limit.
I note that tomorrow also sees the return of Lance Armstrong to France during the tour. He is participating in a charity ride that will see him ride the courses for stage 13 and 14 the day before the tour gets to them. He thinks everything will be fine whereas the UCI has implied that some irate frenchies might grab him and beat him up. As if. Even so, LA’s decision to ride in this event is a bit suspect, in my mind. But I can see his desire to get on with his life. And at this point the sport is filled with people who were cheating at the same time and in the same way LA cheated, so why is he being singled out for more approbation? Probably because he was such a jerk at the time and because he won. Best to be an almost but not quite cheat (Virenque, I’m talking to you!) rather than a wipe the floor with them cheat. I guess.
Tomorrow is mostly about the mountains (a cat 2 followed by two cat 1s and then finishing with an HC summit finish) but it also has an intermediate sprint early on where points will be awarded. Greipel will surely try to take the green jersey back from Sagan. But thereafter the stage is turned over to the goats. On to the Plateau de Beille!
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