The Tour de France - the most prestigious event in road cycling - is steeped in history from a cultural and sporting perspective. Road routes change year-on-year, providing fantastic visual spectacle for the fans and riders. But recent British success in the form of Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, plus a major rivalry in 2007, encapsulated my interest in the event.
It isn't something that should be visually consumed for five hours a day for three weeks (of course there are a couple of rest days), far from it. That would be on the verge of insanity. The last 20km, generally, even on mountain stages, is the most appropriate part to have your eyes glued to the telly. Tactics galore, as riders jostle for position. It is tactics which what makes sporting competition interesting. Every sports person needs to execute a strategy to win, whether it was made up on the day, or prepared days in advance. The Tour provides such a hybrid of strategies it makes Formula 1 just a basic car race.
Flat stages are not really my cup of tea. Monotonously-paced and very few splits in the peloton (French word for a herd of riders) mean there is usually little to be excited about during the race. Sprint finishes are captivating, but the inevitability of a Cavendish win is always in the horizon knowing his sprinting prowess at the event. The excitement with lead-outs to sprinters lasts five minutes, but in the heat of a mountain stage, probably 30-45 minutes.
In my relatively young age, I was under no illusion how figures such as Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, or Marco Pantani sparkled the Tour. I didn't really get to see how Armstrong was so 'strong' over the rest when he dominated the TdF for some 10 years. I watched my first Tour only in 2007 on Eurosport, partly due to the technical definitions that I would not be bothered to understand as much as its apparent boredom. I remember watching Alberto Contador, an emerging mountain rider with such explosive power due to his rapid bursts of acceleration on steep climbs, and his rivalry with Dane Michael Rasmussen, also a climber I hadn't heard much of. Both were exhausting each other towards every mountain summit finish to the brink of collapse, and them passing through noises of the internationally diverse crowds was something else. I always wondered where they park their cars on a summit finish!
British interest is much more prominent this year, with a nod to subordinate figure to Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, partly due to his recent form Tour de Suisse where he won the overall race. And also Ben Swift, an up-and-coming sprinter, probably unlucky to be in the shadows of the imperious Cavendish.
Tactics have always been an intriguing element to road cycling, with teams set up to support one or even two of its leading riders. They can either contest the headline-making General Classification, where the rider to cycle the Tour in the fastest time will don the Yellow Jersey in Paris. While the best sprinter will wear the Green Jersey, a strategic race where points are accumulated through intermediate sprints, but mostly through sprint finishes. Polkadot jersey is the one who is the best mountain climber in the Tour. In many ways, the best climber can challenge for Yellow, but they never compete in flat or hilltop stages where they are not specialists in.
Most teams are set up to prop their main man up the GC standings, but HTC Highroad, Cavendish's, have built a squad to help him win stages through requiring powerful lead-out men that set a pace near the stage finish (in a flat) to help Cav stay ahead of his rivals metres from the finish. The same principles are used for the mountains, but it is a long-term game for domestiques (or support riders) to set a good pace, and even ground to a halt if the team leader has suffered a mechanical failure, to bring him back to the peloton using as less effort as possible.
The variety of riders add spice and intrigue to what would usually appear to be just a bunch of men cycling long distances. This year will probably see Andy Schleck challenge Contador again like last year, but will also probably create even more buzz through wider media presence and more fan-favourite riders. Come on Wiggins!
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