While the dark cloud of doping has hung (rightly) over the Tour de France in recent history, the Tour continues to amaze me. Perhaps I employ a suspension of disbelief, perhaps I'm an optimist, perhaps I don't care about doping, or perhaps - and worst of all - I condone it. Maybe all the riders dope, maybe none of them do. Do I wish they didn't? Of course. But am I a realist that the technology of performance enhancement will always be ahead of the technology to ferret it out? Absolutely. I wish I could take the high road, boycott the tour until it was somehow clear that all athletes were "clean". Or maybe it would just be better to do as Rick Reilly once wrote (in an article I'd link to here if I could find it on the web) and just allow them all to dope. But, neither of those scenarios will likely ever happen. So instead I chose to admire the Tour for what it was intended to be - a heroic feat of athleticism and competition played out over three grueling weeks over some of the toughest terrain around. The sheer length of the Tour is impressive. Three weeks! The Olympics don't even last that long (and Olympic athletes would never dream of competing every day for that period of time!). The terrain is surreal - including astounding climbs (some of which are so steep they're considered "beyond category") and heart-pounding descents. The terrain of this year's tour was so dramatic and difficult that some teams and riders claimed Tour organizers had begun to choose the most dangerous route rather than simply a challenging one. The commercials on Versus seemed to back that up as they promoted Tour coverage by highlighting crashes from previous stages. And yes, the crashes did draw me in. They were amazing, dramatic and thrilling. In one day on the 9th stage we watched as a Tour favorite was sent careening down an embankment, emerging with a broken thighbone. Two other riders were thrown off the road by a car and into a barbed wire fence, one of whom rode the rest of the stage covered in bloody bandages. But the drama extended beyond the crashes to a Frenchman who led the tour for 9 days to the cheers of his countrymen and a Yellow Jersey winner that was decided on the final stage in an epic time trial. It was a tour that started with no clear favorite and finished with three riders - two of whom were brothers - at the top of their game.
And during the tour I couldn't help but channel that energy on my own rides. I spent many more days then usual doing early rides on Red Rocket (my road bike and Specialized sister of Blue Beauty). In part this was due to the incredible DC heat, which made riding home uncomfortable at best and dangerous at worst, but in part it was out of some desire to be a part of the Tour in my own small way. My frequent location for weekday morning rides is Hains Point, a great loop of East Potomac park just slightly under 4mi long. It's a great place to sneak in a 20mi ride before the start of the work day without annoyances of red lights or dangers of cars and trucks. It also provides a boost of energy from the fellow riders on the route. Some are significantly faster than my 20mph speed but I also get to pass a good amount of riders as well. The other day I even passed a rider with two police escorts. I still haven't been able to figure out who it was. Rarely though, do I see another female rider. And that, dear readers, is your teaser for my next post...
