Entry tags:
a sporting conflict of the nicest kind
January through July is like a dead zone for me. Aside from the Vancouver Stargate convention and MegaCon, nothing interesting happened between New Year's Eve and that magical first week of July, when le Tour de France set out.
We reach Paris later today, and the last three weeks have been a blur of everything else (Deathly Hallows notwithstanding) wedged between hours and hours of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in a little booth commentating on a race that has no business being as riveting as it is.
Explaining the appeal of the Tour just doesn't work, because at the end of the day it is just men jockeying on bikes. But the whole thing is so epic - hauling themselves over the mountains, chasing down the breakaways on the flats, pulling out a win in the bunch sprint in a few strategic seconds, all through the crush of insane fans close enough to nudge their bikes along and artistic farmers who haul out their equipment just to depict a perfectly proportioned bicycle - even Phil and Paul continue to be impressed.
( But it's debatable whether this past week has overshadowed the rest of the race. )
If Contador is clean, his victory shouldn't be cheapened by others who weren't, nor the taint of association. The sport has survived for 104 years - it will neither end today, nor will the accomplishments of those who upheld the sport's ethics be forgotten. Cycling is in no darker a time than baseball or wrestling or whatever sport will be busted tomorrow. However, cycling has done a lot more than any other to ensure that it remains an honorable contest. I for one will watch the conclusion raptly, and impatiently wait another year to hear the theme music that makes summer worth living through.
We reach Paris later today, and the last three weeks have been a blur of everything else (Deathly Hallows notwithstanding) wedged between hours and hours of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in a little booth commentating on a race that has no business being as riveting as it is.
Explaining the appeal of the Tour just doesn't work, because at the end of the day it is just men jockeying on bikes. But the whole thing is so epic - hauling themselves over the mountains, chasing down the breakaways on the flats, pulling out a win in the bunch sprint in a few strategic seconds, all through the crush of insane fans close enough to nudge their bikes along and artistic farmers who haul out their equipment just to depict a perfectly proportioned bicycle - even Phil and Paul continue to be impressed.
( But it's debatable whether this past week has overshadowed the rest of the race. )
If Contador is clean, his victory shouldn't be cheapened by others who weren't, nor the taint of association. The sport has survived for 104 years - it will neither end today, nor will the accomplishments of those who upheld the sport's ethics be forgotten. Cycling is in no darker a time than baseball or wrestling or whatever sport will be busted tomorrow. However, cycling has done a lot more than any other to ensure that it remains an honorable contest. I for one will watch the conclusion raptly, and impatiently wait another year to hear the theme music that makes summer worth living through.