Foregone Conclusions

Wherein Our Heroine's Readers will be Glad to Know that this is the Last Tour Entry. Promise.

So, all of you who are not bike-racing fans will be glad to know the Tour is over. Armstrong swung safely over the line back a bit from the frantic jockeying for first place in the last stage, but as he was already more than six minutes ahead of his nearest rival in the overall standings, he won handily.

Yawn.

I'm not crazy about foregone conclusions in sport. I'm even less crazy about the fact that the commentators basically threw in the towel days ago and have been calling Armstrong the winner since the time trial up L'Alpe D'Huez. In a race where more than one spectacular crash has caused major riders to drop out, they still blithely ignored the forces of Chance. In my experience, when I do that is when Chance tends to bite me in tender bits not best talked about on a family blog. But Armstrong (and the Tour commentators) seem to be immune from such a harsh fate.

Well, good for him - he's got his record sixth straight win, and certain other folks can latch onto his victory to make themselves feel superior about America. I'm looking forward to some non-Lance international cycling in the near future, so here's some other random cycling stuff, just to get it out of my system:

- On to the Olympics - Hamilton is apparently in, despite his injuries. The Marblehead Peloton will surely be excited... (Warning - the last link contains awfully cute pictures of kids and dogs.)

- Additional notes regarding my post on the time trial: in addition to the international goodwill that was visible on the mountain, there was also some unpardonable behavior that was not visible on TV. And there was some very visible stupid behavior as well - some fans apparently confuse a cycling event with the running of the bulls in Barcelona, dashing along with, and sometimes in front of, their favorite cyclists. Though I am normally a nonviolent Heroine, I cheered to see Andreas Klöden (who ended up coming in second in the overall Tour standings), reach out and sock a flag-waving German who was sprinting alongside him in an already fan-choked route. Too much booze and too few brains can lead to dangerous behavior. I'm sure if the idiot had actually caused Klöden to fall, he would be less popular in Germany than that hapless guy in Chicago who caught the fly ball...

Posted: Monday - July 26, 2004 at 08:38 AM | |