Thursday, July 24, 2008

How do they do it?

Today the pro's made a mockery of my feeble attempt to ride a mountain stage of the tour.  They climbed more than I did  as they started from the bottom of the Galibier and they rode an extra 70 km, but they still managed to cover the course more than 2 hours faster than my ride yesterday.

What I did learn yesterday is that even the pros suffer on these stages like yesterday's .  I was at the finish line again and there were some people in a world of hurt as they approached the line.

Equally surprising was how good some of the non-GC contenders looked as they rolled through 20 minutes or so after the winner.

I managed to get on the right side of the barriers again and watched the big screen from the 25m mark. 

46 minutes after the winners crossed the line Jimmy Casper finished in tears - a suffering mess of humanity just 2 minutes after the cut off time after almost 7 hours of racing.  After the race we picked up our laundry - we wondered why there was a polka dot jersey on the counter and much excitement in the store when we finally saw who was ahead of us in the queue....

A most unsatisfying meal for dinner - as by the time we were organised most of the restaurants were packed.  In bed by around 11:00.

2 comments:

shaggy said...

Hey coolie, Good to see you following the "chin up, push forward" rule prior to being photographed!

Susie W said...

Richard Virenque - I am impressed!! I was probably