(Un)Sporting Spoilers
I was casually reading Mac Net Journal yesterday (always an interesting read), when my eyes fell upon an entry containing the result of the day’s Tour de France stage, which I hadn’t yet seen. Eeek. I tried to tear my eyes away, but my brain had already digested the newsâit’s a shame it doesn’t work so efficiently when I’m reading academic papers. It also made me wish my brain had an ‘Undo’ button. Anyway, the Stage was a really exciting one, and made me realize what a unique sport cycling is.
If you haven’t yet seen Stage 15 and want to, don’t under any circumstances click the ‘More…’ button below.
I’m not going to rehash the whole race, as you can read a detailed report here, but I just wanted to mention a couple of things that struck me. It’s one of the oddities of the Tour that the person leading on the road is not necessarily the most important: they are only winning a stage, not the whole Tour. So, Lance Armstrong (the current leader of the Tour) was most concerned about Jan Ullrich, who was only 15 seconds behind him in the overall standings. If Jan crossed the line more than 15 seconds ahead of Lance, he would have taken the Yellow Jersey from him. So Lance was pinned to Jan’s wheelâso far, so uneventful. Then Lance got a bit too close to a spectator on a bend, someone’s bag handles got caught on his handlebars, and he went down. What do you think happened next? Jan honks on the pedals and takes the opportunity to get a good lead? Well, no. Cycling is the oddest mixture of ruthlessness and chivalry. The rider’s moral code dictates that the field should wait for riders who are down; indeed, Lance did the same for Jan in 2001 when he went down in a really nasty crash (though Lance didn’t wait for Joseba Beloki when he had a horrible crash and fractured his femur on Stage 9). Lance came pounding backâno doubt stoked up by adrenalineâand made an attack, coming in with a 52 second lead over Jan Ullrich. When interviewed about it afterwards, Jan seemed admirably phlegmatic about the whole affair. He thought that it was the right thing to do, and admitted that he just couldn’t keep up in the end.
It isn’t all gallantry on the Tour. In previous years, riders have head-butted one another in sprints, thrown water bottles, and of course there was the drug scandal a few years ago. In the distant past, a rider was even disqualified for letting the train take the strain on a stage!
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Also - have I missed a day? I thought yesterday (i.e. the 22nd) was a rest day?
by Lyle @ 23/07/2003 9:07 am • Permalink •
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here's something that's been bugging me since you first mentioned the tour de france:
i'm quite sure that i saw a stage of the tdf when i was younger -- except i can't quite reconcile the part where i am convinced i saw it in england. one of my friends reckons the tour came via england once -- possibly something to do with the channel tunnel opening. is this right or have i got my memories all muddled up?----- Yes, the TDF did come to the UK - it has done a couple of times, definitely in '94, and I'm sure it visited before that too.
On a complete tangent, bsag, I've had to change the URL for d4d⢠- it's now http://www.dummies-for-destruction.co.uk/random.html - the joys of litigious Americans. sigh
by Lyle @ 23/07/2003 9:08 am • Permalink •
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Yeah, they've been swines - however, it's all gone very odd, as the old site is now intermittently back. Might have blamed Wiley's prematurely. Blush
But the new site is still going live - just hopefully it'll mean I don't have to do it as a mad panic now. Yay. Thanks for changing the links though.
by Lyle @ 23/07/2003 11:07 am • Permalink •
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Gah! Lyle beat me to it -- I remember seeing a couple of Tours here too, though I couldn't be precise about the year. And Lyle, yes 22nd was a rest day, but my post was written on the 22nd and refers to the previous day's stage. I think that's right, though I'm not quite sure what day it is at the moment
by bsag @ 23/07/2003 11:07 am • Permalink •
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Ooops, I forgot to add that I've update my blogroll entry to your new URL, Lyle. You've really had at bad time with those [resists urge to swear] naughty people, haven't you? They redefine the concept of petty.
by bsag @ 23/07/2003 11:07 am • Permalink •
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hurrah, i'm not going mad after all! it must have been sometime before '94 that i saw it, i'm sure i was a lot younger than 18 [ooh, revealing my age now
].
by dvd @ 23/07/2003 11:07 am • Permalink •
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