My sisters will be glad to know that I've watched stage 1 and 2 of the Tour de France this year. (But not the prologue.) I find it interesting that I haven't actually seen them do any riding in France yet, but I'm sure they'll get to that soon. Stage 2 was a good one, though I ended up a bit disappointed. For those of you who don't watch professional cycling (it's on OLN, if you've been looking for it) let me explain how it works.
The riders set off on 150km or so long ride. Sometimes it's flat, sometimes it's hilly, but it doesn't really matter. (Unless it's a time trial, but we're ignoring that case.) The riders all like to ride in one great big pack called the peloton. ("peloton" is French for "ball" or "group" which is an interesting description of 180 cyclists trying to keep as close together as possible. Anyway, after about 10 or 20 km a small group of riders will take off and try to ride away and beat the whole group. It's usually 3 or 5 or 7 riders or something like that. (They seem to have a predisposition to choose odd primes.) This small group, called the "breakaway", will get 5 or maybe 10 minutes out in front of the rest of the group. And the peloton doesn't care. And for the next 3 hours, they will continue to not care. Those riders in the break away make their brave dash out on their own, and the 180 other riders they've left behind barely seem to notice.
But here's the important part. As a spectator, you might start to get excited to see something interesting where a few riders leave all the others in the dust. Don't worry, they won't make it. Because every time, like clock work, with about 10km left in the race, they get caught. Every time. For about 130km the breakaway manages to stay in front of the main group, but it never lasts. And stage 2 was no different. Every time I get excited that they might pull it off, and they never do.
Oh, and if you ever do see someone manage to hold on, you have to make sure to tune in the next day, too. That's when you get to hear about him failing the steroid test.
2 comments:
If you still can't find the Tour de France, it's because OLN is now Versus. If it's July, and you don't see the Tour on, just wait until the bull riding is over. That's the only other thing Versus shows.
Well, that and the NHL playoffs.
Right, I forgot about the name change.
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