Tour de France: "Death comes with a big hammer"
Second stage in the Pyrenees today of Le Tour 2007, and another day of long, steep climbs. The tour first went up in the Pyrenees in 1910 with the mountain pass of Tourmalet on stage 10, 2114 meters high, as one of the major challenges for the cyclists. The tour organizers waited along the route in anticipation to see who, if anyone, could handle the 326 km long stage with several severe climbs. The climb of Tourmalet was after all rated as "hors catégorie" (beyond category) by tour sponsor and initiator, the magazine L'auto. The categorization of mountain roads was published by the magazine to inform motorists how difficult and steep they were, on a scale from 1 to 4 with 1 being the hardest. A category 1 climb was only to be attempted with the most powerful cars. "Hors catégorie" meant that motorists should not even try...
When the french participant Octave Lapize spotted the organizers beside the road he uttered the now famous "Vous êtes des assassins!" ("You are murderers!"). These words came from the man who was regarded as the greatest climbing cyclist ever. Lapize however survived "the attempt to take his life" not only to win the stage, but claimed the overall victory of the tour of 1910 back in Paris as well.
Lapize receiving the kiss of victoryThe rating of the climbs in the tour still stands, but are not for motorists anymore. Both engines and road surfaces have improved considerably since then...
"Death comes with big hammer" was said yesterday by a Eurosport commentator when rider Cadel Evans, third in the overall classification, failed to keep up with the race leader Michael Rasmussen on the "hors catégorie"-climb of Plateau de Beille, the second of the day.
/O.K.
(Listening to while posting: John Paul Jones - Tidal)
12 comments:
In the photo, the kiss of victory looks nearly like the kiss of death - he seems like he can't stand up. Or are the flowers weighing him down?
I never knew about the categories before, very interesting. I wonder what Mount Washington would have been back then and today?
Kanske blomstren är järnek? :)
Now THAT is a smart comment by O.K. no English-speaking person will get. He suggested the flowers are hollies, which are called 'iron oaks' in Swedish, so they would weigh the poor guy down.
From today's New York Times:
"Like a Phoenix, the Energizer bunny and the Little Engine That Could all rolled into one, Alexander Vinokourov will not accept defeat.
"One day after his hopes for a Tour de France victory crumbled over two steep climbs in the Pyrenees, Vinokourov attacked from the opening bell on Monday, then broke away on the last of five climbs to win the 15th stage of the Tour de France."
Vinokourov entered this years tour as one of the favorites for the overall victory. In stage 5 he crashed hard resulting in 15 stitches in each knee, and has really struggled to stay in the race until the time trial last saturday when he smashed the competition. The next day he lost about half an hour, and lost any chance to win overall. But yesterday he kicked butt again!
There you have a die-hard. Bruce Willis, eat you heart out.
Poor guy - 15 stitches in each knee?!
Yes, but he doesn't seem prone to self-pity...
Maybe he has some Finnish blood in him? They are known for things like that! :P
But now the media is accusing Vinokourov for doping! Look at www.dn.se. I also found out he is from Kazakstan - lots of mountains there to train among!
The neverending story... But some extra finnish blood apparently works! Until you are caught that is.
I don't have any illusions, just look at a list of the cyclists who finished on podium in the big 3 tours (TdF, Giro, Vuelta) the last 20 years and compare it with a list of caught or confessed dopers. Doping _is_ rampant in professional cycling.
And now an Italian got caught, being doped with testosterone! Back to 1910... det var battre forr!
And now a Danish is out for lying about his training and maybe being all doped up too! I never cared about Tour de France and now I am reading about it in NY Times- it is all your fault, O.K.! :)
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