…and the rest of you are really missing out.
You don’t know it, but you’re missing one of the great sporting events, and great competitions of the year. What, you may ask, is it that you’re missing? Is it the NHL? Nope, but I was wondering if they’re even back from the lockout? Is it tennis, or soccer, or professional bull riding? No, no and no. What you are missing is the Tour de France.
First off, I am not a cyclist, and am not like the soccer nuts who think that soccer HAS to become more popular in the U.S. I really don’t care if cycling becomes more popular, and have no personal stake in it. I haven’t even been watching it for all that long. Ok, now bare with me on this. A few years back, in the early years of Lance Armstong’s dominance, my wife and I were cost cutting, and the cable bill was one of the easy targets, so I only had about 10 channels to pick from, with no ESPN or NESN. But we had OLN (which is now VS), which had the Tour. I started watching, and repeatedly asked questions of a friend of mine who is an amateur cyclist.
What I found was not a race where a bunch of guys roll out on their bikes, and whoever is the fastest wins. What I found was an intricate competition with teams and strategy, and a sport that relies on strength, speed and stamina. I found a sport with a hell of a better drug policy than the MLB, but that’s a different post. So I was intrigued by the chess match of it and by the breakneck speeds at which men were riding up and down mountains. I marveled at the complexities of a race where someone could not win a single stage (the day’s ride), but win the whole race. I learned about how riding in a big enough pack (or peloton) decreases the work that any one rider themselves has to do. And I started to get into it, like I’ve gotten into so many other sports in my life.
A couple of the things I love most in sports are the strategic aspect of competitions, and watching someone who is at the top of their sport take on all comers and seize the moment and become truly great. In watching that Tour, I was able to see both. For strategy, I saw how Armstong’s teammates would surround him in the peloton to make sure that he was able to ride cleanly, how they would lead him up the mountains so he could save his own energy for the highest peaks, how they would chase down breakaway groups, or have one member in them to slow the pace down, and how they would go to the lead of the peloton when needed and set such a fast pace that other teams supporting riders were forced to drop back, leaving Armstrong’s main competitors to face him on their own. Then for sheer greatness I saw Armstrong ride with his rivals and then pull away from them on 15 degree inclines like he was on flat ground. I saw him lap his closest rivals in time trials where everyone rides individually. In a show of ultimate sportsmanship, and great competitiveness, I saw him stop when his closest rival fell on an Alpine slope, and wait for him to get back on his bike and catch up, only to pull away from him and beat him to the top a few miles later. It hooked me in.
And this year, with no clear favorite for the race, with the sport having no dominant star like Lance right now, no one team that has dominated in the past, and a field full of guys that could put it all together and win, it has been a two and a half week free for all thus far. One team (CSC) has taken the reigns as the top team, with three riders (current leader Carlos Sastre, and brothers Frank and Andy Schleck) who have been controlling the pace on many of the stages. One rider on a weaker team (Cadel Evans) sitting in the lead for a good portion of the race, looming now as a potential champ with little support from his team. An American (Christian Vande Velde), in a sport largely devoid of them, stepping into the lead role on his team and faring far better than anyone imagined, and up until the final miles of a brutal climb three days ago having a shot at the title.
And it featured one of the most spectacular single day races I’ve seen in the several years I’ve been watching. On Sunday, in the first day of climbing in the Alps, the main contenders were all bunched together, about 10 of them, climbing up the side of a mountain that people usually are skiing down. For about a half an hour different individuals would try to pull away from the group (an attack), only to have the group pull them back, and the group as a whole would try to drop the weaker members of it. Back and forth it went, each one testing the others, seeing who would break, who would falter, and who would have the legs to best their rivals, and put themselves in the lead, or in position to win the overall race. Attacks came furiously, Evans (at the time the leader) being tested, often by the CSC riders, often by others like Bernhard Kohl or Denis Menchov. Right up to the peak they kept trying, until finally Frank Schleck and Kohl were able to pull away a bit, Schleck taking the overall lead by only a few seconds. It was riveting, and if you love sports, you may have missed something you would have loved.
The good news is, if you want another shot, you’ve got it. Saturday is the final time trial, and it will determine the race. The top four riders (Sastre, Frank Schleck, Kohl and Evans) are all within about a minute and a half of each other, and Evans is the best time trial rider. Any one of the four of them could end up winning the race, and it is all on each of their own shoulders now, no teammates, no help, no mountains, just one ride, 33 miles as fast as they possibly can, to get the best time and win the Tour.
If you want my advice, give it a shot, you just may see something that reels you in. Then, like me, for three weeks a year you have another great sporting event to follow.
Before The Announcers... 