El Diablo Le Tour de France devil is said to appear on the toughest part of the toughest climb of each of the Tour’s stages.
Le Tour de France has never really excited me as a sporting spectacle. I find it inordinately difficult to follow the tactics of a pair of cyclists in the velodrome during the Olympics, let alone the actions of 180 competitors over 3,500km. But with just about every body in and out of cycling circles talking up Cadel’s chances it didn’t take long for me to catch the bug.
And it seems I wasn’t the only one to jump on the bandwagon. SBS had a big jump in the primetime share of Australian audiences over the last couple of weeks. SBS deserves a lot of credit for their coverage. When the commentary cut out due to a technical glitch, I might as well have been watching paint dry but as soon as the glitch was fixed the commentators turned a couple of guys eating cake on bikes into an amazing and exciting feat of endurance.
Moments of lull were interspersed with shots of the French countryside. Spectacular mountain ranges with ancient chateaus dotting the peaks, it was a sight any tourist minister would be proud of. The landscape wasn’t the only thing colourful on Le Tour, with 15 million people standing on the shoulders of the route it can be easy to be lost in the crowd. From Devils to Elvis impersonators, if it didn’t make sense it was on the Tour.
Within a few days viewing I became a fully fledged Tour junky, staying up to all hours of the night watching every kilometre of the race. I was lucky that one of the few finishes I did stay awake for was on the first alpine stage. Australian Simon Gerrans surprised everyone when he was first to cross the line at Prato Nevoso. Having been in the lead pack for 168km, on the final turn he left his competitors for dead.
When you talk about battling through the pain barrier for your team, you don’t go much further than John Sattler playing with a broken jaw during the 1970 rugby league grand final. Stuart O’Grady’s control of the peloton could be up there with such super human efforts. While his determination to help his team CSC Saxobank take the yellow jersey off Cadel could be seen as treasonous to most Australian’s, he must be congratulated. When CSC needed to lead the pack O’Grady stepped up to the mark, sometimes leading the tour for 60, 70 and even up to 80 kilometres a day. The feat will give him no yellow jersey, no points or prizes and could jeopardise his chances for winning in his last Olympics in less than two weeks time.
While O’Grady failed to make headlines, Cadel Evans made them all. Headbutting cameras, slapping reporters and threatening journalists who might step on his dog. The drama continued on the track, crashing in the ninth stage, he thought his tour was over. On the 10th stage he had secured the leaders yellow jersey with only a one second lead. With every stage he held onto the jersey, more and more people were tuning in to see if he would win. By the end of the tour he had introduced a whole new generation to the greatest cycling race in the world. With the mass of hysteria surrounding Evans, the bizarre press conferences start to make sense. I’m sure I would be cranky too if I just got off a bike after 200km of pedalling flat out.
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