Wednesday, July 15, 2009

My own private Ventoux

One rite of summer that occupies three precious weeks in July, as Dulcie has unavoidably become nauseatingly familiar with, is the Tour de France, or more simply "Le Tour." All other televisual activities, F1 excluded, become subordinate to the daily couple of hours devoted to a stage on VS (the station formerly known as OLN). So conditioned has she become to watching Le Tour, or in her case more like enduring it, that she expresses surprise when "bicycles" (Le Tour in Dulcie-speak) are not on. "It's a rest day." I might reply patronizingly.

The odd thing about my fascination with this event is that I don't ride a bicycle; I don't even like them; I'm even slightly afraid of being on one. As a student at Oxford I was one of the few without one. A bicycle was central in a long-since-forgotten brush with the long arm of the law. Yet every summer, on that first Saturday in July, I am geared for the prologue (Stage 1). This year it started in Monaco, with the finish using the same piece of harbor front that the F1 cars pound round at nerve-tingling speed. The slightly more sedate pace of the bikers allows the viewer to observe that there actually is a swimming pool on that series of bends. Not that the bike riders are any the less brave than an F1 driver: watch these chaps descend off one of the high peaks down a series of hairpins to get a measure of their cojones on the bike.

There are two things to savor when following Le Tour. One is the complex, fascinating, convoluted, fluid strategy playing off the often opposing ambitions of individuals and the teams they ride for. In general a team has one leader to whom the other team members sacrifice their own personal goals, except on those days when opportunity might present itself. There are Tour super-objectives (winning the Maillot Jaune, the green jersey etc.); and there are daily stage objectives. Only a chosen few have any hope in the first category; but in the second one, history shows that almost anyone can have his day and define a career in the process. The second reason for watching is simply the scenery; all that hyperbole about the beauty of France is annoyingly true: ancient ruins, beautiful churches, beyond-quaint villages, vistas of yellow, jagged peaks and on and on.

So you might be thinking that I'm one of those Johnny-come-lately Lance worshipers. In truth, like John the Baptist, I came before him - not exactly making a way though. For I have been an addict since turning on to watch Indurain (then 5-time winner) crack in the mountains in 1996. A youthful Jan Ullrich finished second that year, and won it the next, the first of many it was thought. That was until a certain cancer survivor arrived on the scene in 1999, with neither fanfare nor expectation. In the prologue that year, Lance rode like a "man on a mission" as Phil Liggett described his awesome display in seizing yellow on his very first day back. Paul Sherwen later gushed "He has come from the gates of death to ride like a Trojan at the head of the Tour de France." Paul should know; he knew him back when. Much more thoroughly justified hyperbole has followed. Whatever might be said of Lance's less-than-amiable personality, his achievements stand alone in the sporting pantheon.

So as I head out for my own modest constitutionals, the images of Le Tour accompany me. The hill up to Thornhill on the west side of the Morton Arboretum (the Arb in Dulcie and Aylwin speak) becomes my own private Mont Ventoux, that terrifying moonscape peak in Provence (toujours Provence n'est ce pas?) that faces the riders on the penultimate stage this year. The Ventoux will make or break the contenders or so it is hoped: the ultimate stage on the penultimate day. Upon that stony slope decades ago Tommy Simpson collapsed and died, his alleged last words being "Get me back on the bloody bike." These chaps are driven. Sometimes too far, as Simpson was one of the early victims of performance enhancing drugs. It's not just a modern problem.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, Le Tour is like cricket on wheels, only with a different playing field every day, and the French countryside as described is like northern England, to a stateside denizen. It's an extreme, perhaps the most so, "endurathon"--maybe that (and maybe also the wheels) is what makes it a "guy" thing?

An eager reader.

Terry said...

Le professeur a ecrit: As a student at Oxford I was one of the few without one. A bicycle was central in a long-since-forgotten* brush with the long arm of the law

*Not by your oldest fans dear boy. (Still raises a snuffle of amusement!) Indeed I was citing it to a retired policeman who was tutoring on a residential school I had the pleasure of directing last weekend)

Vive le sport!

Teri

Aylwin Forbes said...

Mon cheri Teri, tu es tres droll. If the object of your amusement had occurred in this era, you could have posted the link from the Oxford Mail or whatever that rag was. I believe I still have a cutting yellowing in a draw somewhere. What pray was the theme of your "residential school" that should interest retired policeman?

As to the association of Le Tour with cricket, I would offer that these cyclists are a lot ballsier than your average cricketer altho' the latter do play with rather hard ones, which always used to frighten me when I was at the bat.

Terry said...

Allo again. The resi was not police-specific -- he just happened to be a tutor on it. Interesting life -- started work as a trainee chef but didn't like the life, went into the police almost by accident but then specialisec in training (after a spell on the Vice Squad amongst other things!), got made redundant and then walked back into practically the same job as a consultant (which is a familiar scenario when the public services have to cut jobs to save taxpayers money har har). Now doing the odd bit here and there for OU but retired from part time tutoring last year.

I just can't get excited about le Tour. Perhaps I'll grow into it one day. I remember one of my students in Leeds was addicted to it, and would actually make involuntary cycling movements while watching! Mind you I don't like all those smelly noisy cars either (heresy I know...)

Don't fall off,

T