WHEN it comes to bicycle races, nothing gets bigger than the Tour de France bicycle race. Spread over a distance of more than three-thousand kilometres and spanning no less than twenty days, the Tour de France cycle race has become the benchmark in cycling mania.
Forget the Olympics, this is the competition that all the leading cyclists in the world want to compete in. And if that isn’t enough, the hundred and fifty odd cyclists who compete in the race put every ounce of muscle power into their pedal, to win the coveted yellow jersey.
Held in the summer season, Tour de France travels through some of the most beautiful scenery that Europe has to offer, as can be seen through the event’s live coverage on cable television. Or as some of us prefer to follow the events, on the World Wide Web. Winding through the streets of not only France, but also at times travelling through Belgium, Spain, Germany as well as Switzerland, the race’s breathtaking encounters on European streets is mesmerizing. As can be followed on Yahoo’s coverage of the Tour at http://sports.yahoo.com/sc. The web site’s special treatment of the race includes interactive guide and charts that include the stages, standings and all-time winners. Other links include Teams, Race favourites and Winners by country. Of course there are always News and Photos to keep you in touch with the leader of the race.
The first Tour was organized in 1903 when Henri Desgranges, a French journalist and cyclist managed to put together a race that was 2,400km long. Since, the race has been held, other than the inter-War intervals from 1915 through to 1918 and from 1940 through to 1946, every year. And such is the safety record of the race that only three cyclists have died taking part in it. But you wouldn’t know anything about it if you were to access the Tour’s official site at http://www.letour.fr/indexus.html. Probably the most disappointing of links, I couldn’t make head or tail of the whole address. Sure there was a link in English as well, as was there in seven other languages. But once you click on any of the links, other than popping and opening in another window and showing a few numbers and standings, it’s got nothing for the regular person. There are live reports of all that is happening on the field, but other than that, it’s not more than a whole big waste of our good precious Internet time.
In fact if you want to get a better understanding of the whole competition then try dropping in Bicycling Magazine’s coverage of Tour de France at http://www.tourdefrancenews.com/tourdefrance. It contains stage maps, daily columns, photos, history, team info and rider stats. There’s even an interesting article here that casts shadow on the race favourite, America’s Lance Armstrong’s ability to perform so well. And of course a more world renowned site is the BBC that is providing information thorough its Sports Cycling link at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/default.stm. Click here and find out how the Tour can be won and lost during its mountainous stage, much before the end of the race all together. And if it’s the audio and the video files that the BBC offers of the race, that you want to follow, then you better be in control of some good Internet connection.
Another good source, albeit a non-English one, is the web site of the French, Le Monde newspaper. Detailed coverage of the race in the French language can be found here at http://www.lemonde.fr/web/sequence/0,2-3248,1-0,0.html. This is also a good address for those who are learning French and want to brush up on their foreign lingua.
Over the years most of the winners of the Tour have been European. These cycling greats include France’s very own Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, Belgian Eddy Merckx, and Spanish cyclist Miguel Indurain. Each has the unique distinction of having won five Tour de France. In fact Indurain won it five years straight! But this year, his record and that of all the others is under threat by the American Lance Armstrong. Having won for the last five years, Armstrong is yet again tipped to win this year’s Tour as well. And if he does so, he will become the first rider ever to win the Tour six times. So why don’t you learn more about the man and visit his official site at http://www.lancearmstrong.com/.
There’s the biography, news and events. As well as news to the Lance Armstrong Foundation that provides information and tools to people battling cancer. For not many of us know that Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996 and not only did he overcome this adversity, he has in the course become the best cyclist in the world.
Staying at the subject of records, did you know that the closest ever Tour de France took place in 1989? If not and interested in knowing more about the Tour’s facts, log onto the Guinness World Records at http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/index/records.asp?id=74&pg=1. There are the Tour’s records as well as other records that cyclists have established over the years.
Following three weeks of gruelling cycling through the most amazing landscape in the world, the Tour de France ends with a final run along the famous Parisian avenue of Champs-Elysies. The winning cyclist, with the lowest total time is presented with the yellow jersey and declared the winner. Sad though, no Pakistani has ever been able to come even close to that yellow jersey!
WHEN it comes to bicycle races, nothing gets bigger than the Tour de France bicycle race. Spread over a distance of more than three-thousand kilometres and spanning no less than twenty days, the Tour de France cycle race has become the benchmark in cycling mania.
