Tour de France 2008

I never thought I would like watching cycling, but this year, I've found myself watching the Tour de France virtually every night. I love seeing the French countryside as I dream of going to France one day. The support from the public is also amazing, with the streets lined from start to finish with supportive people. I have to say, it's also very exciting. Stage 3, from Saint-Malo to Nantes was ultra exciting. A breakaway group of 4 had led bascially from kilometer 1 of the 208 kilometer race. And the commentators kept saying how the main group will probably catch up. But as it got closer and closer to the end, it became apparent that the four breakaway riders would win. As the commentators said, this is a dream for any rider, to be involved in a breakaway and maintain that to win.

Cycling, and especially the tour de france is an extremely strange sport. I don't mean it's strange in terms of what they have to do. In fact, cycling is probably one of the easiest and oldest sports. What I mean is the dynamics that occur in the tour de france. Even though an individual wins the overall race, no individual can win the race. Every single winner in the history of the race has had to rely on their team. And this is what I find so interesting.

In any other individual sports, all competitors enter a race wanting to win. However, in this race, the role of every single rider in a team is to support their number one rider. This means sacrificing themselves and giving protection to their main man and supporting him in any way they can. So you enter a race clearly knowing that you won't win, or have little intention of winning. This race is probably one of the hardest in the world, and to work your body to the extremes to help someone else in an "individual" race is very honourable. I'm sure they get paid well, but it's not easy to ride for a "team" when one man then gets all the glory.

This race also highlights comraderie in sport. Just due to the extreme nature of the sport and how much time the riders spend together, they do develop a mutual respect for each other. They will give their drink to another man who hasn't got one, one teams repair car team will help another teams man who has broken down, the riders won't attack when a rider has fallen etc. It's a uniting experience to undergo something so stressful on your body. I can't even imagine driving my car a few hundred kilometers each day, let alone sit on a tiny uncomfortable seat and peddling my guts out. These athletes are truly gutsy. As to how "clean" they are in terms of drugs, only they will know.