Le Tour (Bike Race) to la tour (Eiffel Tower)

So the Tour begins tomorrow! Who's excited?! Sadly, I haven't got cable except in my office ... but where my OLN channel is supposed to be, I have close captioned coverage of the press gallery's media studio. Woo-hoo. Or boo hoo rather. So I will be watching live updates at the tour's website. For those of you who don't follow cycling, I hope you give the tour a try this season. I think we're going to see some real honest racing, some real suffering and glory as the sport of cycling continues to weed out the baddies and the clean athletes prevail. I'm of course referring to the unfortunate practice of doping (in fact, I believe last year's winner gets his verdict today ... stay tuned). Doctors claim they aren't helping athletes to cheat -- only to survive. Enthusiasts throw out the idea that maybe there should be a whole genre of "sport" that includes doping -- afterall, it could be considered a technological advantage, just like the bike you ride, or the fabric your jersey is made of. I am a staunch believer in using what god gave ya so I continue to watch for the tell tale signs of clean athletes. You can tell by the pain in their faces and the emotion at the end. If you win a stage in the Tour de France, you should be up there mixing tears with Champagne and kissing the podium girls ... Not smiling politely and accepting a paycheque like its just a job.

SO! Bring on the tears! Bring on the sweat! Ain't July great?!

PS - here's an article from the Star that sums things up for first-time spectators. Good stuff.

Putting mettle to the pedal

94th edition of cycling's most gruelling test begins with a doping cloud over the sport
July 06, 2007 Matthew ChungSports Reporter

The Tour de France starts rolling tomorrow with 189 cyclists sprinting out of the starter's gate for a 7.9-kilomentre prologue in London. The casual viewer could easily be dropped by the peloton of terms – domestique, maillot jaune – faster than a sprinter climbing a mountain in the Alps. They risk missing out on the technology, tactics, teamwork and fortitude behind this grand bike race.

To avoid falling out of the saddle while watching, here are five questions with answers to help get the most out of Tour viewing:

1. There's no Lance Armstrong. Who are these men in short tights?
Two years after Armstrong's retirement, the Tour remains a wide-open contest. Included among this year's favourites is Alexandre Vinokourov from Kazakhstan, a good all-round rider not allowed to race last year because teammates were implicated in the "Operation Puerto" doping case. Andreas Kloden, who finished third last year, is also considered a favourite.

2. Why is one rider wearing a yellow shirt?
The rider with the best overall time wears the coveted maillot jaune (yellow jersey). A rider's overall time is calculated by adding up the time it takes to complete each stage. The 20-stage Tour winner is the rider with the lowest overall time when they cross the line on the Champs Élysées on July 29.
Other important jerseys: Green, worn by the rider who collects the most sprint points that are awarded at the end of each stage and at designated sprint zones; and Polka Dot, worn by the rider who gets the most mountain climbing points awarded over each mountain.

3. What's the difference between the flat stages, time trials and mountainous stages?
On the flat stages the pack of riders, referred to as the peloton, usually manage to stay together, with a few riders trying to break away from the group. These races usually end in a hair-raising dash to the finish line.
In the time trial, each rider sets out on his own, riding futurist-looking bikes and wearing aerodynamic helmets. The time trial is important because it creates significant gaps between riders' times.
The mountain stages are where the Tour is won and lost. Here, champions like Lance Armstrong and Miguel Indurain stamped their authority on the Tour, leaving competitors in their wake. The riders cover 3,569 kilometres overall.

4. Do all the riders have hopes of winning the Tour?
No, each team has a leader and his teammates, called domestiques, who will burn out their legs to set up their team's sprinter or drag themselves through agonizing climbs to assist their leader to the top of a mountain. One unlucky rider has the job of carrying water bottles from the team car to the rest of the team.

5. Aren't these guys all on drugs?
Drug scandals continue to plague the Tour before the 94th edition starts, with disgraced 2006 winner Floyd Landis fighting doping charges and world-class sprinter Alessandro Petacchi missing the race after returning a "non-negative" test for the asthma drug salbutamol during the 21-stage Giro D'Italia. In an attempt to clean up the Tour, the International Cycling Union has made it mandatory for riders to sign a commitment to clean cycling and give a DNA sample.

Have more Tour questions?

Email mchung@thestar.ca