You heard it in the subject and you’re hearing it again. My man, it is still the Tour de France.
WHAT HITS
I read two drab books in a row and saw some terrible paintings. This hits because it was a good reminder you can make bad stuff and everyone stays alive. Then, I read two great things by Ted Chiang. The first was his collection of short stories called Exhalation: Stories. The stories explore humankind's place in the universe, free will, bioethics, and the uses of robotic forms of A.I. Wow, it got me. He has a BS in computer science from Brown and had been a technical writer for decades. The second great thing I read was an article by Chiang from over a year ago, Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? I barely worked a year in tech and wrote an essay on what I witnessed. It was too emotional so I put it away. What Chiang wrote is infinitely better.
A DRIP on the TDF
For the last 14 days, I awaken, make coffee, watch the TDF, work, eat jalapeño kettle chips, and fall asleep. I do this every day and it is enough. I have felt multiple feelings, sure. For a few days, I was sickeningly depressed. For many, I was fine. For a few days I was sickeningly at peace. I’ve met some people. I spilled a liter of water at the gym and done three to four other things for the very first time. A lot of things could be solved within me if the TDF was 365 days of the year, proving that despite my own ocean there is one constant. It isn’t. I will have to start meditating again once it stops to prove to myself the ocean thing. That will suck. The TDF is so much better than meditating. Here are some highlights from this year’s TDF in no particular order. The final highlight is in audio form and does contain spoilers if you’re not caught up.
Biniam Girmay made his TDF debut in 2023 and came in third in a sprint stage. Now, he is kicking ass. He hails from Eritrea and rides for Intermarché-Wanty. He had a historic Stage 3 win, becoming the first African to win a TDF stage. It was also the first TDF stage win for Intermarché-Wanty. He’s gone on to win two more stages and has the green jersey. Sprint stages are chaos in the last 5 kilometers and the sprinter is reliant on their team for a lead out that allows them to save their legs for the sprint. Girmay’s team is so fun to watch from the aerial view. They’re know just how to protect his position and push him him through the peloton at the right time. This is a clip after Stage 3 of his team greeting him that made me cry! A big thing I like about the tour is it feels like I see these dudes express hyper pure emotion and love for one another that I don’t often see in other sport. I don’t know if it’s because of exhaustion or the history the TDF carries for them or something culturally that doesn’t reverberate through the US. Maybe it’s just the high frequency of these emotional responses day after day that get me. Or the fact that my entire feed is TDF videos. Maybe I just need to watch more sport. Anyway, I’m excited to watch Girmay go. He’s only 24. Here is the Intermarché-Wanty coach car reacting to the news that Girmay won Stage 3. It is the best coach car reaction from the tour so far.
The TDF is a beast. I’m catching up on Stage 13 as I write this and three riders have dropped from the tour during this stage alone. About 25 riders have dropped due to illness, crashes, or not making time. This isn’t unique, just brutal to see. Primoz Roglic who was favored for the GC podium this year had two nasty crashes in two days and dropped. Fabio Jakobsen dropped. These two dudes in particular have had the worst luck with the TDF in the last few years and are extremely strong riders. The Tour de Austria is also occurring right now and last week 25-year old André Drege died after falling during a mountain descent. I love this sport but hate the risk. As riders become increasingly exhausted, dangerous parts of the stage become hard to watch. 80 year old Phil Ligget is an English commentator who has been the voice of the TDF for over 50 years. Ligget and Bob Roll call these races with such love and fear for the riders. They can, and will, talk for six hours straight but go silent on high-risk descents.
Mark Cavendish took his record breaking 35th TDF stage win in Stage 5. He’s 39 which is old in professional cycling years. He’s stayed in it just to break this record. His last Stage win was in 2021. The team he was on didn’t put him in the TDF in 2022 (lame). Last year was supposed to be his final year but he crashed and had to drop. He’s the dad of the peloton and to see him win fair and square in Stage 5 ripped. I could show you the celebration but this clip is better. His coach frequently says, “bippity boppity boo,” on the radio as encouragement to Cavendish and here he explains why. A stage is such a long mind-game and it’s so interesting when riders give insight into how they take it on.
If you’re like, “Cat, I’d like to get into cycling but I don’t understand it,” you should watch Stage 9. This Stage introduced gravel to the race. I don’t know how many sections of gravel but they just kept coming towards the end. It was gnarly. Everybody was aggressive. Some days of the TDF are sort of boring. The peloton is tired and sticks together the entire time with a few that breakaway at the end if it’s a sprint finish. Stage 9 was crazy from the get. This is a good one to watch because the fight for the stage win and the fight between the general classification riders was totally separate and both were pushing hard. I believe the riders finished 25 minutes before the predicted time. 8 riders broke away and worked together for the majority of the race. Just seeing a breakaway work together is sick. They got in two lines and rotated through who was in the front like a washing machine. It was pretty. In the general classification fight, Pogacar was attacking non-stop. We should all be proud of Matteo Jorgenson who hails from Boise, Idaho. He is busting ass this tour as Jonas Vingegaard’s key helper and for many of the races is the last domestique standing for Jonas. There was a point in this race where Pogacar attacked on the gravel, Matteo stayed on his wheel and turned around but it was just this huge dirt cloud, and then Jonas busted through the dirt and caught up. The whole stage was an action movie. Anthony Turgis won it. He was in the 8 person breakaway. He’s 30 which means he may be nearing the end of his career. He’s won some professional races outside of this stage but the last was in 2019. His win is everything that is awesome about the TDF. Here he is after the finish. It’s my favorite pic from the Tour so far. I will likely use the word awesome so much in this post it will stop meaning anything.
Here is an update on the duel with an emphasis on Stage 11. I call Jonas “my boy” far too much. I do not know this man. I am so proud of him. He’s coming back from mental and physical disaster and, wow, it has been really inspiring for me to see. I also call Pogacar annoying. He is not. He’s 25 and a really good dude.
Here is the beautiful, moving interview that made me cry! (Every day I cry.)
Here is the toast. :’ )
I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of why I love the TDF. It’s not embarrassing but it is to a degree, to be so into something that you can’t stop talking about it. Surely, everything cannot come back to grief but once again this feels like a piece of it. I have always been ambitious and optimistic but these attitudes have been tough to rediscover since it happened. I wasn’t expecting to have to overcome cynicism and anger and selfishness. I thought I’d just get the good parts of grief where you understand the depth of love, damn. It’s been challenging to want to get to know this new self with new new rough spots. Then along came hope via 175 riders zooming through the mountains an ocean away. I thought I’d lost it but I didn’t. It was just in lyrca. Weird choice, hope. But I’ll take it.
I’m going to go next year. My coworker Steve and his partner are going to join me if their elderly dog dies in time. My boss also watches the Tour which is convenient. My Mom and I have started watching it together every morning. My cousin texted me a picture of her and her siblings watching the series and it felt like I had won something. I had to kill some time for a crowd and asked if anyone was watching the Tour. Nobody was but some guy had seen a cyclist fly off his bike into fresh cement in Boulder. He said the cyclist was fine and the print he left in the sidewalk is awesome.
See you in two weeks when the Tour will not be going on : ( But the Olympics will : )