In many ways, the Tour de France is a war of attrition. It's not just the weak who don't make it through the entire 21 days...among the fallen already are David Zabriskie and Jens Voigt, wearers of the yellow jersey. Zabriskie abandoned, suffering from injuries in his crashes; Voigt, riding with a fever, finished stage 11 outside of the time zone and was thus eliminated. Tom Boonen was in the green jersey of the top sprinter, but a knee injury kept him from starting yesterday. Manuel Beltran, one of Lance Armstrong's mountain men, hit his head in a crash and was advised by the race doctor to proceed to the hospital.
Even Phil Liggett sounds like he ought to be home sipping tea, poor man.
I've heard Lance referred to as Superman. I think that applies to anyone who can finish the Tour.
The longest ride I've ever done was about 83 miles. That was in 1997, a miserable muggy day in North Carolina. (Eight years later, I still regret that I didn't push through to the century, though I think the friend with whom I was riding would have cut my brake cables if I'd tried to get back on the bike at the rest stop where I quit.) And maybe I've been in more pain that I was that day, but I'm not sure when. I think that is why I am in such awe of the pros: I know how it felt to ride a fraction of what they do, so I assume their suffering increases by the same factors as the mileage and the grades, but they keep going.
Posted by Nic at July 15, 2005 06:41 AM | TrackBack