Blasphemy & Contradictions

I am not generally one for the Grand Tours. There, I said it, bicycle racing blasphemy.

With Le Grand Boucle starting in Brest tomorrow (or maybe it was riding on dirt roads and past the local lavender farm today), it got me thinking. It isn’t that I don’t appreciate stage races, or am not a fan at all (I religiously watched the Giro, the Dauphine and the Tour de Suisse on cycling.tv this spring), but I’ve always held the Classics in higher esteem. My trip to Le Tour last year was one of the highlights of my life, and I truly believe that all cycling fans need to make the pilgrimage to witness the spectacle.

I believe it was the Indurain years that tarnished Le Tour for me. Odd to say, especially considering all of the scandals that have occurred since he retired. But it was the style of racing and the specialization that did it.

Despite his immense talent, I frankly found Indurain’s tour wins boring and predictable. Not that they were void of all action, but he essentially followed wheels and then dominated the time trials for 5 sequential years. Not too exciting. With Cadel Evans considered this year’s front runner for Le Maillot Jaune, I hope he breaks away (pun intended) from his reputation, and continues the attacks he showcased in races earlier this season.

But getting back to my original point, the classics are never boring. Their simplicity leads to action and the parcours invite drama. Bergs, Rain, Pave, Mud, Wind, and a different cast of characters battling it out each race, just appeals to me more. The classics are like 1 round boxing matches; there is no room to hide, and like in video games if you die today, you can live again to fight tomorrow.

But this said, this year’s tour fascinates me more than most, based largely upon the war between the ASO and the UCI; I just can’t wait to see how it all turns out. I may be one of the few, but I side with the ASO on this one. While most describe the battle as one of doping, I see it as more of a battle of who decides the participants in invitational events; the race organizers (who put their livelihood on the line) or the governing body (who want to sell a concept that just doesn’t work). The Pro Tour isn’t working, and if the ASO believes that a few Continental Teams will appeal more to their audience than a Pro Tour team, then so be it.

Which brings me back (again) to the classics. This season saw plenty of aggression from Continental Teams, which often put their bigger budgeted Pro Tour brethren on the defensive. The give it all, we’ve got nothing to lose attitude just lends itself to great racing. So let’s hope that Agritubel, Barloworld, and Slipstream (Garmin) keep the trend up, and thrive rather than survive. I’d like to see them give the ASO a return on their investment. Vive Le Tour!

Prologue

I am new to the blogosphere; I’ve only recently began reading any, and I’ve never had any sort of private web presence. De facto, effective immediately, this all changes.

Starting when I was a junior racer, I dreamt of riding in all of the major/classic races. I never suffered from delusion of grandeur; I knew I didn’t have the talent to be a pro, but hoped I‘d develop into a decent enough competitor to take part in the amateur versions.

A summer racing in Belgium and Germany effectively put an end to that dream. But I learned a lot, put the experience to good use back home, and returned a year later to successfully compete (despite once again being out of my league) in some races on the short, steep, indoor winter tracks of Germany.

Then life (work, injuries, life in general) interfered, and I drifted away from racing and riding all together. After more than a few years off the bike, I missed it, so I returned to two wheels, though I am much slower than I could ever imagine; my hard/fast rides today are frequently at the same pace as my easy days during my racing years…

It was a pleasant surprise to learn that my teenage dream was not dead; I could participate in all of the classic races albeit in a different form. Welcome to the world of Cyclosportifs, mass participation events that are cycling’s equivalent of running’s marathon. Where those in a select group are capable of winning, and everyone else is out for the challenge or personal best. These events frequently take place on the same roads as the monuments of cycling, often the day before or after the pros tackle the course.

In the fall of 2006 I decided on a unique way of celebrating my upcoming 40^th birthday, by committing to participate in the 2007 L’Etape du Tour, well in advance of knowing what the course was. Upon the official announcement, my fear was that I would also be celebrating my last birthday… But I trained hard, and exceeded my expectations, and I was hooked.

The Cyclosportif experience was a blast; in many ways I enjoyed it even more than my racing heyday. I immediately developed an appetite for more, and have set upon achieving my goal of long ago. Life again interfered this year, interrupting my plan, but the dream lives on. This blog will highlight my quest. Welcome to La Vie Sportif.