Horseracing I may be half qualified to write about having followed it since I was four or five. Cycling however I know nothing about. My first memory of seeing the Tour de France (TdF) was in a guesthouse in Killarney, killing time before going to the races with my parents as a kid. The Killarney racing festival always coincided with the Tour. Eurosport was always one of the few stations you’d get in a B&B or hotel. It did strike me then as it does now what awesome athletes these men are. I think I was taken by the camera work, scenery, fanfare at the roadside. Especially the people and props acting as a giant bike or words of encouragement cut into the tall crops along the route. Lance Armstrong was recognisable, as too was the unmistakeable voice of Sean Kelly. I dipped in and out. Since then I have completely lost touch with the sport. I’ve read the odd doping scandal and watched sports news cover the record breaking period of Armstrong and the equally consistent cheating stories which have tarnished the sport.
A quiet day in work on Wednesday allowed me to delve into the sport once again. Stage 5 across Brittany. One of the shortest stages the brilliant James Richardson informed me. Only 164km! I give out about it in the car. It’s Dublin to Belfast to give it some context. There are plenty of climbs but none stiff enough to deter the specialist sprinters, whom the panel predict will hang on during the stage and be the main protagonists at the end. They were proved right. The stage though did not go completely to script. For one, there were more crashes than the Greek stock exchange. That included Contador (Champion and favourite),Olympian Bradley Wiggins, a cyclist taking down by a motorcyclist (since sacked) and several more which added up to about ten incidents in one short stage. The pace was cruel, the wind blew a gale and sprinters were certainly being tested to the limit.
A couple of breakaway groups kept things interesting and moving along and the last two mavericks left standing were Voekler and Roy. The French men from around 30km to go maintained a minute or so lead till the final ten km were it became 30 seconds. They worked incredibly hard, much harder than the peloton with no advantage of slipstreaming or teamwork. As Roy cried enough with 3km to go, Voekler heart-warmingly made another burst and opened up a gap between him and his rivals until 1500m out. His dynamism made you cheer for him but to no avail. It was inevitable. Like something out of a David Attenborough documentary. The pack closing in until the inevitable kill of the sole prey. The commentators predicted it in
fairness.
Cavendish or the Manxman as he is know is the world’s best sprinter from the Isle of Man. His performance on Wednesday was nothing short of miraculous and I don’t blame the Eurosport team for not thinking it was him, he came from another parish. He didn’t have the luxury of a ‘train’ of riders to set up a sprint finish for him on a plate. They were spent. They had done their best but the gruelling stage had taken its toll. Cavendish himself admits he thought he was beat. But he hung on in and cycled cleverly in the final stages, on the wheel of the main protagonists taking a lead and a slipstream until he made a final push, a couple of hundred metres from the line to swoop late on Gilbert. Cavendish afterwards admitted that was ‘proper hard’. His legs were ‘going, going, going’ he explained red faced, absolutely exhausted from his efforts. He is a confident, some would say cocky man. Even admitting that his gauge went into the red is something for him. He was immensely proud to win though in a stage he thought was set up to handicap a sprinting specialist team like his.
Mark Cavendish is an incredible sportsman. He will not feature in the mountains but he is the best sprinter on the Tour and has the ability to cycle relatively tough undulating stages and still produce a devastating finish where it matters, more times than not. Rory McIlroy will most likely win BBC Sports Personality this year at this stage but if this man is not in the top 3 it’s a disgrace. He will win at least two or three more stages on the Tour and will try to make history by winning the final stage into Paris for the third year in a row. He is a rocket in the saddle and his endurance isn’t half bad either.
I encourage anyone who reads this to watch the Tour. The 98th TdF will continue until the 24th of July. Its 21 stages covers over 2050 miles or 3,430 km . They are awesome athletes and the tactics are intriguing also. I would compare it best to test cricket. If you’re lucky enough to have the day or afternoon off it is an absolute pleasure to join Eurosport from start to finish. The introduction from James Richardson and panel is informative, witty and build the excitement nicely for the stage ahead. The commentary team are also good. An outsider can slip right into the coverage and gain a good understanding of what’s going on quite quickly. Anecdotes, analysis, predictions, interaction with audience and good commentary, makes the three or four hour stages go quite quickly and makes for compulsive viewing. The peloton, train, echelons are easily understood and a work of art. See brilliant and simple explanations from the Guardian online from the link below. The Captain, Lieutenant, Sprinter, Climber, Prologue specialist and the Domestiques make up the team of nine riders, your 4-4-2 if you like. All fascinating.
The riders are an interesting bunch as well. The outspoken Cavendish is a livewire who is liable to say or do anything, Contador is the champion who is trying to defend his much suspected reputation, the Schleck brothers, Cadel Evans (winner of stage 4) is like some haggard rockstar who has seen and done it all before, Wiggins another hugely talented Brit who rides for team Sky (Not a good week for Rupert, but it must have been nice distraction to hear his team won stage 6) and our very own Nicolas Roche. In Roche Ireland can be proud. He is top cyclist and may reach top ten in the Tour if not this year, next. His daily piece in the Irish Independent is a must for sport’s fans. It’s very honest and gives a great insight to the TdF.
Cavendish is a sportsman at the top of his game. He is also a loose cannon playboy type that fellow blogger Seamus McDaid pointed out we lacked in sport at the moment. England should embrace him. Lord knows they embrace much worse. Tune in and see him for yourself. The highlights shows in the evening if you can’t make it live. It is an incredible sport, although dogged by controversy, not helped by current champion Contador who has obviously not played by the rules in the past. Even stigma attached, it is still possible to be consumed by the Tour. I think it is a sport that could be great again if it gets a couple years of negative free press. If it were considered ‘clean’ again. I would have loved to have been old enough for Kelly and Roche. Hopefully Ireland produces a Tour winner in my lifetime, it could be Nicolas Roche.
I enjoyed the cycling so much I can’t see why the public don’t leave it on in their sitting rooms each day the way Wimbledon takes over for two weeks each summer. It’s that level of compelling entertainment. Enjoy.
Peter has searched for Even money for Mark Cavendish to win a ‘flat’ or ‘sprinters’ stage so far this Tour to no avail. If you’re stuck for an accum builder today (Friday) in your bet, stick him in at 4/7, he’ll win and it will be great viewing.
The Guardian link above is a must for anyone who wants to learn a little of cycling and the Tour. Its a brilliant guide, simple yet so informative.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Peter
PS Cavendish you legend - http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2011/jul/08/tour-de-france-2011-tourdefrance