Blood Sport!
Not my sport, but one I've participated in - cycling. I have to confess that I'm an addict of OLN's coverage of the Tour de France. Having ridden, I know how hard it is to move fast on a bike...and the fastest I could go was about 40 km/h, a pace that the riders in the tour can do for an hour or so, and they can go about 1/3 faster for short distances.
I caught the finish and saw Alejandro Valverde crash out of the race with a broken collar bone. He wasn't alone in being taken out of the race due to crashes, earlier in the day, Erik Dekker and Fred Rodriguez also crashed out. Yesterday, Danilo DiLuca didn't start due to illness, he was running a fever. Understand that getting eliminated from the Tour is the equivalent of being taken out of a marathon at mile 3 after months of training.
Today's stage was stage 3, although it was the fourth day of racing. The race opened on Saturday with a short time trial (individuals racing against the clock) designated as the prologue. The Tour lasts 3 weeks, plus the weekends and usually includes two rest days. During much of the race, the racers are riding for 3-5 hours a day. Since biking doesn't beat you up the way running does, doing it for that long is possible.
Today's stage was won by Matthias Kessler, who rides for T-Mobile. He'd made a similar attempt to "steal" the stage yesterday, but was caught about 50 meters from the finish by the sprinters in the field. Today, the tactic worked. The overall lead, the famous yellow jersey, was taken over today by Tom Boonen, a Belgian sprinter with the Quick Step team. Australian Michael Rodgers, who rides for the T-Mobile team is in second, 1 second back. American George Hincapie, who rides for Discovery, and one of Lance Armstrong's key lieutenants for many years is in third, five seconds in back of the leader.
My message here is that along with being superb athletes, bike racers are always at risk of crashing, and a serious crash can end a season, career or even a life. It's that level of focus that is needed to be a great racer, and I made this post to point out how remarkable Lance Armstrong's 7 wins are...that's 7 years of three weeks racing without serious illness and without a serious crash.
I caught the finish and saw Alejandro Valverde crash out of the race with a broken collar bone. He wasn't alone in being taken out of the race due to crashes, earlier in the day, Erik Dekker and Fred Rodriguez also crashed out. Yesterday, Danilo DiLuca didn't start due to illness, he was running a fever. Understand that getting eliminated from the Tour is the equivalent of being taken out of a marathon at mile 3 after months of training.
Today's stage was stage 3, although it was the fourth day of racing. The race opened on Saturday with a short time trial (individuals racing against the clock) designated as the prologue. The Tour lasts 3 weeks, plus the weekends and usually includes two rest days. During much of the race, the racers are riding for 3-5 hours a day. Since biking doesn't beat you up the way running does, doing it for that long is possible.
Today's stage was won by Matthias Kessler, who rides for T-Mobile. He'd made a similar attempt to "steal" the stage yesterday, but was caught about 50 meters from the finish by the sprinters in the field. Today, the tactic worked. The overall lead, the famous yellow jersey, was taken over today by Tom Boonen, a Belgian sprinter with the Quick Step team. Australian Michael Rodgers, who rides for the T-Mobile team is in second, 1 second back. American George Hincapie, who rides for Discovery, and one of Lance Armstrong's key lieutenants for many years is in third, five seconds in back of the leader.
My message here is that along with being superb athletes, bike racers are always at risk of crashing, and a serious crash can end a season, career or even a life. It's that level of focus that is needed to be a great racer, and I made this post to point out how remarkable Lance Armstrong's 7 wins are...that's 7 years of three weeks racing without serious illness and without a serious crash.
posted by Scooter at 5:15 PM
2 Comments:
Come on Scooter, saying a pro cyclist can only average 40K per hour for one hour is like saying a pro marathoner is only able to run 2:20. Give these guys even more credit, the average speed for the whole tour will be over 40K an hour, which is pretty amazing.
My first 40K time trial had me across the line in under an hour, back when I was a lowly Cat 5. The risks of crashing and the hours involved in training became too much when our daughter turned one. I raced before her first birthday party, put the bike down at the finish, and haven't trained a day on it since. Still miss it though, especially in July!
Mike,
You're right, my numbers are low, I was sloppy in checking my math. Thanks for the correction.
Wayne
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