Tour de France 2010

The Toughest 3 weeks for a professional Cyclist begins… Come July & all the attention of the sporting world turns to France, where the World’s biggest Annual Sports event kicks off in the first week itself. This three week long cycling event is perhaps the toughest human endurance sport and the success stories that come out of this is what the legends are made of. Yes, am describing Tour de France. The world’s premium annual sporting event and its here for the 97th time – with the kick off to start from Rotterdam, in Netherlands. This edition of the tour already promises to be one of the toughest tours ever with lost of sub plots. But the main story as in any winning movie is the central theme – who will wear the crown after 21 days on the road? Will it be the defending champion Alberto Contador of Astana Team? Can one of the Schleck brother’s outwit him? Will it be redemption time for Cadel Evans after 2 second finishes? Will Ivan Basso make it a grand double after his win in the Giro de Italia? Can Bradley Wiggins be able to put a British flag on the podium? How long can Fabian Cancellara hold on to the Yellow Jersey after the Prolouge? Can Robert Gesink spring a surprise on all and grab a podium position? Or will it be Lance Armstrong’s eight title – an almost impossible feat for anyone other than him?

To give a brief about this years edition of the tour – in the first three days the race after starting in Rotterdam moves through Netherlands & Belgium before entering France to finish Stage 3. From then on it spends a few stages in the Alps & in the last stretch there will be hectic action for 4 days in the Pyrenees, before the race returns to Champs-Élysées in Paris 22 days later. One interesting Stage will be Stage 3 – where there is going to be a section of racing done on cobbled stones. This 77km stretch will see around 13.5 km of cobbled stones is according to many an expert a stretch where some of the leading racers will be caught short. Another interesting Stage to watch out for will be Stage 17 which features a mountain top finish on the dangerous Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees. A major sub plot which will attract lots of attention will be on who will be the fastest finisher in this tour. With Mark Cavendish of HTC Columbia staking his claim on that with 10 stage wins in the last 2 years, it will be an interesting battle to follow as Cavendish in his last race at the Tour of Suisse crashed & took with him 2 others, for which he was penalized by the race organizers. With Thor Hurshod, Tyler Farrer, Robbie Mcewen, Gerald Ciolek…et al all vying for this spot & the Green jersey – it will be indeed worth watching this race develop specially the bunch sprints.

As the defending Champ – Contador is putting up a brave face with his team, but much remains to be seen on their performance on the roads of France, for the entire team which helped him win the Yellow jersey last time around is with Team Radioshack. Just before the race while talking to the media Contador said “Realistically though, it is more likely that I will lose than win. I stay calm and look at all the circumstances and all the obstacles that must be overcome. Everyone will exploit a moment of weakness.” Though, this writer feels that he will face problems from his own team mate Alexandre Vinokourov, who coming back from doping suspension will surely go all out for personal glory.

Team Radioshack with Lance Armstrong is vying to be one of the strongest team assembled at this team. With Armstrong already tweeting –”And yes, this will be final Tour de France. It’s been a great ride. Looking forward to 3 great weeks,” “Doh, sorry, meant “my” final Tour”, the battle lines are clearly drawn. Professional cycling and allegations of doping & drugs have been bed fellows for a long time. This time UCI, the world body controlling professional cycling, has clearly detailed the process that it will follow and has tied up with WADA – who in turn will be sending their independent observers for all tests being done. With Floyd Landis (former Armstrong teammate & disgraced Tour de France winner) coming out with a new set of allegations (its almost become a ritual for him to open up his bag of dirty secrets just 2-3 days before a major race!!), there will be some media hype about the past. But hopefully the attention will remain on the race itself. On the fresh allegations – Armstrong dismissed it all as rubbish & issued this statement “Landis’ credibility is like a carton of sour milk: once you take the first sip, you don’t have to drink the rest to know it has all gone bad. For years, sensational stories – based on the allegations of ax-grinders — have surfaced on the eve of the Tour for publicity reasons, and this article is simply no different.” Thus this tour rolls out tomorrow – under the dark clouds of doping. But I feel that the action on the road will be great and in the coming 23 days – I will try & take you all through the spectacular action that these 198 supremely fit cyclists will put in action. Watch this space for all the action & drama of this years Tour de France… Au Revoir! This is a guest post by Mr.Q, a professional quizmaster and an ardent Tour de France fan who is reporting his 2nd full tour. You can reach him at mrquizmaster@gmail.com