Tour de France 2007

I love the Tour de France.

I love waking up at 5:30 in the morning for three weeks in July to watch handsome young men bicycle around France. Or, as Alyson puts it “hot guys on bikes”. See for yourself at http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/LIVE/us/1600/images.html

I love the hard work, determination, heart and courage that it takes for those young men to race in the Tour de France.

I love watching those guys who are there to help the team champions. They get water from the team car. They ride in front to set the pace going up the mountains. They lead out the sprinters at the stage finishes. Their job is to help someone else win.

And yeah, I especially love watching the winners as they battle it out to win in those fast sprint finishes at the end of 125 miles on the road. Or the guy who makes the fastest time in the time trials. Or the guy who pushes past everyone one else as they all race up the mountain side. I love watching the winner pump his fists in the air as he crosses the finish line.

I love the daily drama.

Will there be a crash today? They ride inches away from the guy in front, in order to draft off him and use less energy. So if one guy goes down, a whole lot of guys go down, and the injuries can be horrendous.

Who will win today’s stage? Will a small group break away from the “peloton” to try to gain precious minutes? Will they work together to go even faster, or will each guy ride for himself so they’re slow enough that the peloton catches them - sometimes within sight of the finish line.

I love the way these guys fight to stay in the race, against all odds. Like Alexandre Vinokourov. He was a favorite to win at the start, but he crashed in an early stage and ended up with over 30 stitches in his knees and elbow. You could see the blood on his bandages as he rode. He couldn’t keep up with the other contenders, but he was trying. Last Saturday’s time trial, he rode like the wind, and finished over a minute ahead of everyone else. Got up to ninth place overall. Maybe he had a chance! The next day in the mountains, he fell apart and lost 30 minutes. I felt bad for him. But the next day, he came back on another mountain stage. He rode away from everyone else and finished first. He still wasn’t going to win the race, but he was giving it all he had. Heart and courage.

But then we found out that after the time trial he tested positive for blood doping - getting a transfusion of someone else’s blood. No wonder he did so great. Probably did the same thing for that mountain stage he won.

I felt cheated. As one of the commentators on Versus TV said, I felt “silly”. For believing in heart and courage when it was just a big cheat.

When I started writing this blog entry a couple of days ago, I was going to talk about my next hero - Michael Rasmussen, who was the overall leader. I was going to talk about how no one expected him to keep the yellow jersey when he got it over a week ago, but he did. How no one expected him to do well in the time trial, but he did. How he won a mountain stage too. It took heart and courage to keep the yellow jersey.

But yesterday afternoon, Rasmussen’s team kicked him out of the race. No positive doping test, but some very credible problems that indicate maybe he was on drugs, or blood doping or something too.

I still love the Tour de France. I’m glad they kicked those guys out. I hope the guys who are left are clean. I still think it takes heart and courage and years of training and dedication to finish the Tour de France. I’m going to keep waking up at 5:30 in the morning for 3 weeks in July. And not just because they’re hot guys on bikes. But because they all have heart and courage. Well at least most of them do.

What does this have to do with writing? 189 riders started the Tour. That’s 189 stories. 189 guys with a goal to finish the race. To help their team captain win a sprint, or a mountain stage. Maybe a goal to win a stage himself, or a jersey. Or get on the podium in third or second place. Or to get the yellow jersey.

Some stories are tragic, when someone crashes and has to leave the tour due to injuries.
Some stories are stupid, like Vinokourov thinking he could get away with cheating. Not possible with the testing they do these days.

Some stories are sad, like Vinokourov‘s teammates who were all forced to leave the race because of what one man did.

There are still 141 riders left. That’s 141 great stories.

Roxy