Tour de France

Today is the beginning of the 96th Tour de France – the most famous and grueling bicycle race in the world. This race lasts for 23 days and stretches over 2100 miles through six nations, climbing up and down Pyrenees and Alps mountain roads as well as over flats. You would be hard pressed to get through the month of July without seeing news clips or reading something about this race in the newspaper. People line the race routes each day. Some of the most incredible images to me are of the spectators running from the curbs, seemingly in front of the racers, to wave signs and flags. If I were a racer I would surely swerve and fall but the Tour riders just barrel on. The Tour, like all sports over the past 10 or 20 years, has been marred by the use of drug enhanced performance. The attraction of any sport is to see natural talent in action, to witness the awesome endurance of a well-trained body. To those who favor using any means possible, including drugs whether safe or with unknown long-term consequences, to increase stamina, endurance and balance, I say “form your own leagues and tours.” I want to see baseball, basketball, boxing and bicycling by athletes who don’t need more than an aspirin or Aleve for their normal aches and pains. If they suffer injuries that require more potent stuff, they should be benched until the drugs have run their course. The Tour de France officials this year are taking greater measures to eliminate the cheaters but it seems many will still take the chance that they will not be caught for many years (blood and urine samples will be held for 8 years and new tests devised within that time span that detect illegal drugs can remove any titles won this year). I predict that this will be the basis for years of contentious and negative publicity and will not really restore public confidence in the sport. The other major news about the Tour is that Lance Armstrong, after winning seven Tour de France races and then retiring in 2005, is back in the race. Expect to hear a lot of speculation about why he is doing well (or not). I don’t profess to understand the intricacies of the Tour but it is always fun to watch and marvel at the powers of those who participate. Last July I spent a week biking up and down the hills around the Finger Lakes in central New York State. It took every ounce of my will power to finish each day in the saddle (and one day I didn’t - the rain got to me and I finished in the sag wagon). One thing the Bonton Roulet gave me was even more empathy for the riders of the Tour de France.