Vive Le Tour!
Attaque!
Any normal month, I like to eschew all things French; having met quite a few Frenchmen in my travels, I can without hesitation say that the stereotype is not, as most tend to be, far off the mark. In fact, I am reading a voluminous book at the moment titled An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, which does very little to mitigate my preconception about French equivocation and self-aggrandizing silliness… One word: Vichy.
Sacré bleu! C'est Juillet!
Lance riding into the Champs Elysees in 2004. (source:trek.jp)
All my prejudices notwithstanding, it is July. This means that for the fifth year running I will spend my evenings glued to the boob tube, watching the Tour de France with as-yet untempered fascination. In my nascent fanhood, I’ve spent some time delving into the history of the Tour, and as far as athleticism, the human spirit and tradition go, it really is second to none.
The thing that makes my ritual so bizarre is this: I never did more than the average kid’s amount of bike riding when I was young — I never even owned a 10-speed, but for some reason, I am anually transfixed by the constitution and raw willpower displayed by these guys in lycra. No shit, it is a mystery even to me.
This year’s tour is shaping up great; there are some awesome looking stages with climbs that make last year's L’Alpe d’Huez look like a speedbump. The gang’s all here: Basso, Ullrich, Hincapie, Voeckler, and of course, Lance. A lot of the gambling houses in London and Vegas are giving it to Team Discovery and Lance already, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be a close one — a nailbiter all the way to Paris.
David Zabriskie finishes +1:26 following a nasty fall. Until his mishap, Team CSC lead Team Discovery at every split in the stage. (source:upi)
Of course, I can rank my biases as any fan might:
Sentimental: Lance Armstrong (Take that, frenchy!), Jan Ullrich. He's a mensch, though apparently he likes to rave a lot in the off season – the talking heads don't give him much more time before he retires unfulfilled. Team: Formerly USPS, now Discovery Channel. Countrymen: George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis.
I was really rooting for that Zabriskie fellow, though today’s crash within 2k of the line was really one of those stunning moments that illustrates just how unforgiving the competition can be, and how much skill it requires to do what these guys do. Late word is that he broke a couple of ribs and may not be able to continue, which is a shame. I saw his post-stage interview with the OLN guy yesterday, and for some reason, I don’t think its the last I’ll see of him in the maillot jaune.
Not to give a free plug to a channel that is whorish enough already, but the great TdF coverage by the Outdoor Life Network airs live at 8:30am every race day, with an in-depth replay and extended coverage at 8:30pm every night.
Be careful, though; it hooked me in one short month. I fear that five years hence I’ll be the guy with the cigar and beercan helmet, running alongside the peloton, waving the stars and stripes. ◊
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