ALL QUIET ON THE TOUR
When Lance was riding, the Tour de France dominated the news, out of the sports pages and into the mainstream. But Landis' dope-tainted win last year was a final slap to Tour fans right after the Spanish blood doping scandal. This year, it's hard to find mention of the world-famous race even in sporting news.
Drugs will kill a career, and they will also kill a sport. Bodybuilding was never seriously considered for inclusion in the Olympics, despite the fact that it more than met every required criteria. But it had a connection to steroid use, and that was enough to frighten off Olympic officials. Even though Ahh-nold made the big time, his sport did not.
When it comes to cycling and its biggest event, everyone is now waiting for the other shoe to drop. Any more doping allegations, and the Tour could lose even more fans.
Which is a shame, because this year, it's a really good race. By the July 29th finish, riders will have raced 2,218 miles.
This year's Tour was a first: it started in London. But about a mile and a half from the Canterbury finish of the first stage, there was a pile-up, with cyclists skidding and crashing into each other. The leaders were ahead of the crash of the pack, but it was the end for some riders.
U. S. rider George Hincapie, of the Discovery Channel team, got road rash and several bloody cuts. His teammate, Lithuania's Tomas Vaitkus, shattered his thumb and had to withdraw from the Tour.
Most potential winners don't go for a stage win in the early part of the Tour, which is flat, and is where most of the big crashes happen, as the non-contenders are quickly winnowed out.
The Tour's Monday (7/9) stage was in Belgium, whose riders went gold and silver. Belgium's Gert Steegmans won the stage, followed by countryman Tom Boonen. The two could barely make it to the door of their team bus which was surrounded by hundreds of ecstatic fans.
Steegmans will be wearing the coveted yellow jersey when the Tour arrives in France on Tuesday.
The yellow jersey is so well known that even non-cycling fans are aware that it stands for leader. But how many other jersey colors do you know? There lots of significant other jerseys, some of which are pretty funny.
The green jersey is worn by the leader in the point standings. Riders can rack up points without being the overall leader.
The white jersey goes to the leader in the "young rider" category, which includes only those who were born after January 1, 1980.
The red polka-dot jersey (This is true, watch for it!) signifies the leader of the mountain stages.
Then there is the yellow hat, a cap worn by all riders in the team that is the top ranked team in the standings.
But that's not all. There's also the "Red Number." That marks (and yes, this is also true) the "Fighting Spirit" standings; supposedly for effort and "sportsmanship." But it's still a euphamism for aggression. The most aggressive racer gets the red number; everyone else has the same old white number. It's all a bit tricky, because riders going after the Fighting Spirit number can't let their 'aggression' cross over into unsportsmanlike behavior, or they will be deprived of any number at all.
ADVENTURESPORTSWEEKLY.COM will have an update of the Tour every Monday, along with insider news and gossip.