This 5-hour stage provided about 10 minutes worth of drama. A couple of minutes in the middle when the speedsters contested the left-over points for the intermediate sprint–won by Cavendish, Goss, Renshaw and Sagan. And the final minutes with the crash, the last-minute capture of the escape group, and Greipel’s sprint victory over Goss, Haedo and Cavendish.
It is stages like these last two that highlight the importance of having entertaining TV personalities to carry the three-hour broadcast. Bob Roll really earns his keep. My favorite recent Bobke-ism was in Tuesday’s broadcast. They asked him to explain the cost of fielding a team for the Tour de France. He explained that the annual team budgets can range up to $20 million. Then, when asked for the cost per day for a team in the Tour de France, he did a quick calculation and, without missing a beat, said with a smile, "It would be about 3 or 4 trillion dollars." I know, it’s not nearly as funny in writing, but I can’t post a link because that video clip has not yet appeared on YouTube.
In an earlier post, I talked about the chess of cycling. There was a bit of chess going on today. (Mind you, watching chess has not captivated TV audiences since Bobby Fischer in 1972.) The escapees today, as in every breakaway, held onto a very slim hope that they could maintain their separation from the peleton clear until the end, thus winning the ultimate glory of a stage win. But they had to be sly. If they got too far ahead, the peleton would panic and chase them down. If they rode too slowly, they would also be captured. Back in the peleton, the chess-masters were saying "not too fast too soon." They wanted to catch the escapees before the end, so that their sprinters could contest the stage win. But they did not want to catch them too early, because then some other opportunist(s) with fresher legs would launch a late attack and steal the stage win from the sprinters. In this stage, the escapees were trying to lull the peleton into thinking they were exhausted, while preserving enough reserve energy to hold on for the victory. Meanwhile, the sprint teams in the peleton were calculating the pace they would need to catch the breakaway within the last 5 Km or so. The peleton almost miscalculated. The escapees put in a last-minute kick that looked like it might succeed. Alas, they were caught with just 600 meters to go, and the sprinters swept past them. OK, so it is like watching chess. Still, it added an extra layer of drama in the final minutes of the stage.
On a less dramatic note, I have been cogitating on a sensitive topic. It is not usually shown on the TV broadcasts, and only discretely mentioned in the print media. When it is mentioned, it is euphemistically referred to as the "call of Nature." [Should I re-post the picture of Manneken-Pis?] I realize the races are 5 hours long, and Nature might realistically be expected to call within that time span. Indeed, whenever I take a 5-hour car ride, I generally plan to stop in the middle for gas and snacks, and the "call of Nature." In each stage of the Tour, there is a section in the middle of the stage designated as the "feed zone." Makes sense. Corresponds approximately to my "rest stop" in the middle of a 5-hour road trip. But what puzzles me is why these bikers take their "Nature stop" after only the first 30 minutes of each stage? Reminds me of little kids! No matter how much we parents insist and help our little ones with their "duties" before we get in the car, they inevitably "need to go" within the first half-hour! I guess these cyclists really are still just little boys.
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Cute post!
ReplyDeleteI got a few days behind on Le Tour because I was with Nathan at scout camp, so I didn't want to visit your post. Now that I am current, I am back!
ReplyDeleteI remember an interview from a previous tour when one of the American riders was commenting on the effect of caffeine on the peleton. He said that when you see the teammates of the top riders pounding coffee before the stage begins, you know it is going to be a painful day. Perhaps all that coffee is ready to come out 1/2 an hour into the race.