Le Tour Withdrawals
Posted on | July 29, 2008 |
I had settled into a nice routine during the Tour. Watch until I had to go to work. Ignore the Internet all day so as to remain ignorant of the result.* After work and after my ride, settle in to watch the TiVoed action. Fast forward through what I’d already seen. Stop on the interviews. Cheer for the Garmin-Chipotle boys.
It was a good routine. And now two days out, I still have acute withdrawal symptoms. So to assuage the withdrawal, here’s a list of Tour de France moments that have stuck with me.
- Will Frischkorn in the break on Stage 3 (in which he finished 2nd). I may have been leaping around my apartment yelling, cheering, and willing him to the finish. It was awesome.
- In the last 5k of Stage 9, Ricardo Ricco riding away from everyone like they weren’t moving. At the time I watched incredulously. A couple stages later he was thrown out for doping, but in that moment, without knowledge of his stupid, doping ways, it was an amazing thing to watch.
- Marcus Burghardt is a bad@$$ (yes, this guy). How many times did he lead out Cavendish — going all out, head tipped to the side, cranking out the speed, stringing out the peloton behind? He was always there. It was nice that he got to pick up a stage win as well.
- Danny Pate’s post-Stage 15 interview. A tough mix of immediate post-race raw emotion — fatigue, disappointment, and attempt at perspective. To me his result was impressive, but for an elite cyclist, it can’t be easy to try to be happy with 3rd when 1st was so close.
- That one dude who actually put the food wrapper back in his pocket. I like to think the left behind water bottles get picked up by spectators. But all of those wrappers that get tossed about? Egads. Can someone tell me that they have a team of cleaners for that? Anyway, so yes, I appreciated when I saw what I believe was the only shot caught of a rider safely storing his wrapper in his jersey pocket. Thanks Juan Jose Oroz. (And BobkeStrut.com for helping me put a name with the action since I had forgotten it.)
What now? I’ve attempted to pick back up my usual NPR morning routine. But, I don’t know, the Marketplace Morning Report with Scott Jagow just isn’t as entertaining as Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen attempting to talk around a passing shot of a nature break.
* It’s not easy for a web geek who is a web developer by trade to avoid the Interweb.
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3 Responses to “Le Tour Withdrawals”
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July 31st, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
I’m suffering from major tour withdrawl too… I also REALLY miss Liggett/Sherwen talk about fly-overs or shots of the countryside. I’m always amazed at the fantastic job they do when they have no idea what French TV is going to give them until it’s already on their monitors.
The moment that stuck with me was when John-Lee Augustyn went over the top of of the Cimme de la Bonette-Restefond in the lead, only to literally fall off the mountain in the descent. Watching him carefully climb up back onto the road while we were told his bike was still falling miles away was simply amazing. It’ll be a long long time before I forget that image.
July 31st, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
Ooh, that’s a good one too, Eddie. I do wonder where Augustyn’s bike ended up or if anyone attempted to recover it.
August 2nd, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
I keep thinking about some guy out walking his dog and finding a $10,000 Bianchi. I’d be willing to bet that they sent someone out after it, though.