The Tour of Britain
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am a big fan of bicycle racing. And it's not often that a world champion in a sport you follow just happens to be riding a short walk from your house, but so it was today when the Tour of Britain wound up its sixth and final stage in London. The locals are viewing this as a preview of next year's Tour de France Grand Depart and the 2012 Olympic Games, and they delivered a show up in the humble highlands above the city. I went out in my U.S. club colors and with my camera to take in the show.
Highgate was the "king of the mountain" point of the race, the chance for the guys who can ride fast uphill but not necessarily on flat terrain to compete with one another. I've taken the road they used on bicycle a few times myself. It's a 10+ percent grade for roughly a kilometer, and really kind of hurts at the top as the grade really steepens. I knew well enough where the decisive move would be on the hill, and the race (and terrain) did deliver.
The cumulative King of the Mountains competition for the whole race is wrapped up by Andy Schleck, a Luxembourger whose brother Frank distinguished himself at the Tour de France's most epic stage earlier this year. But two were fighting for second--one from a European ProTour squad and one from a team that competes mostly in Great Britain's smaller races. For the latter to beat the former would be like, well, the Iowa Cubs beating the Chicago Cubs.
Now, I don't know for certain that this is what happened today on Highgate West Hill, but based on the way the competition was going, I suspect this is what happened.
Here, Ben Greenwood of England's smallish Recycling.co.uk team jumps ahead of the pack to try to take the maximum points at the top.
And here, ProTour Davitamon Lotto's Bert Roesems slices just inches from me in his chase of Greenwood.
(Note: I don't know what happened at the top, and probably won't for a little while.)
... and the rest.
And it was all over in two minutes.
When people learned we were moving to London, one of the frequent questions people asked me was whether I was going to follow the Tour de France. I'm really not that interested in it--except for maybe the last day in Paris, when the race passes you several times on the Champs Elysees. When I watch on TV, I see the whole of the race, not just the snapshot that passes me after an hour's wait. I'm sure it's fun camping out on a mountainside and partying with Dutch (or German, or French, or Italian, or Spanish) fans at the Tour. I'd just rather watch it on TV. As with football, you get a better picture of the action.
Highgate was the "king of the mountain" point of the race, the chance for the guys who can ride fast uphill but not necessarily on flat terrain to compete with one another. I've taken the road they used on bicycle a few times myself. It's a 10+ percent grade for roughly a kilometer, and really kind of hurts at the top as the grade really steepens. I knew well enough where the decisive move would be on the hill, and the race (and terrain) did deliver.
The cumulative King of the Mountains competition for the whole race is wrapped up by Andy Schleck, a Luxembourger whose brother Frank distinguished himself at the Tour de France's most epic stage earlier this year. But two were fighting for second--one from a European ProTour squad and one from a team that competes mostly in Great Britain's smaller races. For the latter to beat the former would be like, well, the Iowa Cubs beating the Chicago Cubs.
Now, I don't know for certain that this is what happened today on Highgate West Hill, but based on the way the competition was going, I suspect this is what happened.
Here, Ben Greenwood of England's smallish Recycling.co.uk team jumps ahead of the pack to try to take the maximum points at the top.
And here, ProTour Davitamon Lotto's Bert Roesems slices just inches from me in his chase of Greenwood.
(Note: I don't know what happened at the top, and probably won't for a little while.)
... and the rest.
And it was all over in two minutes.
When people learned we were moving to London, one of the frequent questions people asked me was whether I was going to follow the Tour de France. I'm really not that interested in it--except for maybe the last day in Paris, when the race passes you several times on the Champs Elysees. When I watch on TV, I see the whole of the race, not just the snapshot that passes me after an hour's wait. I'm sure it's fun camping out on a mountainside and partying with Dutch (or German, or French, or Italian, or Spanish) fans at the Tour. I'd just rather watch it on TV. As with football, you get a better picture of the action.
posted by Smitty Werbenmanjensen at 4:08 PM
3 Comments:
Happy B-day, Smitty!!!
Oh, that's right! Happy birthday! I was hoping for a special birthday blog!
By the way Smitty, if you haven't been following the Cubs lately, it would not at all be out of the realm of possibility for the Iowa Cubs to beat the Chicago Cubs. Unfortunately, the Cubs have whipped up on our Redbirds this season. Nonetheless, our "Birds" are on their way to yet another division championship...and we measure our success in World Championships, not just in divisional championships.
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