As I sit here watching the Tour de France while resting comfortably in my armchair, I find myself ruminating on the risks of the modern professional Cyclist. Even from my perch of steel and cowhide, I find myself recoiling in fear as traffic islands are navigated at speed, shoulders and bumped on wobbly bikes, and the boney elbows of GC contenders are thrown about amongst the meat-covered arm-sausages of the spinteurs.
I hold my breath and pray silently to something I have yet to understand – possibly the ridiculous little chihuahua with a human allergy who sleeps soundly nearby – that the riders run the gauntlet safely. (How can a dog be so little and still be a dog? Does not compute.)
I generally sleep through the first week of the Tour; there are only so many Chateaux and rolling green fields that I can watch as the peloton mechanically reels in the doomed breakaway in the final kilometers. But this year has seen its fair share of excitement, including back-to-back sprint finishes so close that the riders themselves weren’t sure who had won. Not to mention that I love it when the riders are on their knees coming across the line; nothing like a little visible effort to make me feel good about sitting there sipping my espresso while nursing my morning stroopwafel.
Some highlights from this week include the following, in no particular order.
- Peter Sagan’s Stage 2 post-stage interview:
Interviewer: How did you win the stage today?
Sagan: Well, I came around the guy in front and then there were no more guys to come around, so I won.
Interviewer: This is the first time you’ll have worn the Yellow Jersey, how does that feel?
Sagan: Well, I like this jersey I have with the stripes. But yellow is also nice. - Oleg Tinkoff’s finish line dance after Sagan’s same Stage 2 victory. The jovial fellow is a bit of a loose cannon, but what his celebration lacked in tact it made up for in raw rooskie enthusiasm.
- Bryan Coquard’s Stage 4 sprint was the first time I found myself being amazed that a bicycle could survive such savagery; I’ve seen bicycles get driven into garage doors that seemed to be having a more peaceful experience than his was. If he had gone in a straight line, he’d have won by a bike length. “A” for effort. Imagine how fast he’ll go when he upgrades from racing in his brother’s sneakers to real cycling shoes.
- Greg van Avermaet taking a beautiful solo stage win and riding into Yellow with a V minute lead. Then extending it to almost VII minutes over the first mountains of the Tour. I don’t think he’s going to win the Tour, but he’s definitely not reading from the same script everyone else has and people should be raising their eyebrows for sure. It was also very nice to see him still working for his team leader Teejay; it isn’t every day you see the Maillot Jaune working in the team rotation.
- The only thing more bizarre than the time the Orica team bus broke the finish line on Stage 1 of the 2013 Tour was having the ride kite come tumbling down over the peloton in today’s Stage 7. Did anyone else see Oleg lurking nearby with a shiv?*
* Thanks to @pmcqueen for letting me shamelessly steal his joke.
frankThe founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking.
As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it.
Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen.
Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.
View Comments
Nice! I'll add a few.
Dimension Data. For a team that hasn't exactly been given its due respect in the past, who's laughing now?
Cav - for showing that he's still got it in spades when it comes to a pure sprint. And wears a real cap.
Dan McLay. Breakout star of the race so far.
Greg van Avermaet. In yellow and getting in the break and then putting another 90 seconds or so on the main contenders on Stage 7. TJ and Richie must be going "WTF?"
Big Steve Cummings. Style and class all the way. And wears a real cap.
The increasing use of go-pro cameras. The highlights on steephill.tv are so great to watch.
Basically steephill.tv At the end of the day, you can fill your boots on coverage, interviews, highlights. Merckx bless the interwebs.
Bernard Hinault for showing such class in being passed by Cav in Tour stage wins. He was a winner and is French. Now a Manxman and a Merckxman are ahead of him.
Stage 7 and no abandons. Hallelujah!
Brits willing four out of seven stages.
Bertie's cojones in sticking with it. No one could have blamed him if he'd retired on stage 2 or 3. He's never been my favorite rider but I have a whole new respect for him.
And we remembered to pick up a replacement Stroopwafel jar in Valkenburg to replace the one we broke.
The flamme rouge beckons, THEN ATTACKS! Hope Yates is OK. Of all the crazy ways to get hurt on a bicycle.
"Basically steephill.tv At the end of the day, you can fill your boots on coverage, interviews, highlights. Merckx bless the inter webs."
Indeed. And they had a working ITV feed. Their commentators are great - (Boulting and Millar?)
Hmm... I have to try that.
Sagan flicking his elbow to get the camera moto to pull through on Stage 6 was fairly hilarious.
Speaking of Stage 6, the route to Le Lioran was absolutely gorgeous. Watching scenery like that roll by is one of the reasons I love to watch bike racing... and ride my bike.
van Avermaet! What a ride. It was great seeing him mix it up and extend his lead today when a lot of folk seemed
Cummings! Loved his win last year, loved his win this year.
@wiscot
Him finishing that stage last year with the broken leg was a pretty decent effort too.
I like stroopwafels.
@RobSandy
Me too!
And next to stroopwafels, I also really enjoyed the first week. Something to do with GVA and yellow and being third in the VSP standings. It's obvious the second week started, no more yellow, no more third, but i enjoyed it as long as it lasted.
Over to climbing (and descending)!
@wiscot
five out of eight