Thread: Tour de France

I am watching the Tour de France for awhile but have conflicted feelings about it. I am one of the many viewers of the Tour who got hooked when Lance Armstrong was in the saddle. I've been on and off bicycles my entire life but was never a fan and through the Armstrong years began to look at the history of the Tour and road racing in general. I think todays riders of the Tour today are terrific athletes, but I can't watch without feeling the loss of the drug wins and the riders of the past who were tough workmen on the bikes, without wireless communication, without carbon fiber, without power meters, wind tunnels, etc....early ones without gears. It was all grit, steel, muscles and will. Maybe I'm just getting old.
It reminds me of my father telling me in the late 50's when he was disgusted with boxing, saying it was 'fixed.' Then he would launch into his admiration of Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis. You getting to old for the Tour?

I feel much the same. I do enjoy the spectacle of the mountain stages and will limit my attention to the final week. As for the spate of inpropieties, athletes will always find a way to cheat,keeping it in check is the goal. In actuality , Le Tour has about as much in common with your average cyclist as does your average motorist with Formula 1, although the technology in both sports does have trickle down benefits. It would be fun to see the peleton on single speed Schwinns,or unicycles for a time trial stage.

I enjoyed watching the Tour roll through the Netherlands. Now that they have left, so has my interest.

Generally the 'spectacle' of the Tour is just about as important to me as the Tour. I don't like the manic fans or exhibitionists...but the landscape and the historical monuments...nice. Sadly not much time is devoted to the historical backdrop or the magnificent beauty of the landscape, but it is a bike race. I've seen some exciting racing this year but the most astounding clip was from a past Tour. I think this was the first time I have heard the name Lance Armstrong since he was taken down. He was on the same route and I think it was in a time that predated or was sandwiched in between his Yellow Jerseys in Paris. Speaking of LA. I watched a documentary about him last week. It took away the very last bit, a pinch, of any respect I had for him. Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story

Since 99% of the win is a matter of how hard and fast you can pedal for how long, I think that today there is just as much doping as there used to be. Only now they are more sophisticated and smart about it; smart enough to not cross the line so blatantly.