Published: July 16, 2008 07:08 pm            

DeKAY: Take a tip from Tour

“ ... the fact is I wouldn’t’ have won even a single Tour de France without the lesson of illness. What it teaches is this: Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever.”

— Lance Armstrong, 7-time consecutive winner of the Tour de France

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It’s July and my mid-summer passion is in full swing. It is the one month of 12 that I am grateful to pay my over-priced and under-delivered cable bill. It is the month of what I believe is the toughest, most athletic sporting event on the planet — the Tour de France professional bicycle race.

During this grueling three week event, 178 of the best cyclists in the world will ride the Tour. These athletes will ride up mountains 6,900 plus feet above sea level. During the time trials, they will sustain speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour, over a 49-mile course. They will sweep down mountain descents at 60 miles per hour, on tires no thicker than your finger. The Tour is a daily drama of human suffering, triumph and comedy — all played out on a world stage, in the elements; your only protection is your training and determination to finish the race.

The most famous rider of the Tour in recent years, and for many, the best cyclist to ever ride the Tour is American Lance Armstrong, the only seven-time winner. After taking two years off after a diagnosis of testicular cancer, Armstrong returned to the Tour to win seven straight times from 1999 to 2005, retiring at the age of 34.

This year, in the 2008 Tour there are only four Americans riding on the two American-sponsored teams of Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle. Americans have produced 10 of the last 22 tour wins.

The four Americans this year are George Hincapie, a 35-year-old veteran, and former team mate of Lance Armstrong, Danny Pate, Will Frischkorn and Garmin-Chipotle star, Christian Vande Velde, sometimes called ‘VdeV’, a nicknamed acquired this year. Vande Velde is, as of this writing, third in the overall standings, 35 seconds off the pace set by the current leader, Cadel Evans.

Many of my more macho friends have contended that cycling is not a real man’s sport. Perhaps it’s the pastel colored Lycra shorts, the high-impact plastic helmets, or maybe it’s the freshly shaved legs of the bikers that give the illusion of a lack of manliness. Not so, oh ye of little faith! As a former avid, but amateur bike rider, I have only glimpsed the pain that must be endured by these noble men of the road.

In the three weeks it will take to complete the 2,241 miles of the Tour de France, each rider will burn nearly 124,000 calories or 5,900 calories per day. They can ride 20 kph (kilometers per hour) up the side of a mountain, and come down that mountain at speeds exceeding 60 miles per hour on tires so thin, that at those speeds, only a fraction of an inch of tread is on the pavement. They hurl themselves and their bikes down mountain passes without guard rails, relying only on their skill and training for protection. That in my book takes courage uncommon in most sporting events.

My longest ride (some time ago) was the Bardstown Ride, organized and sponsored by the Louisville Bicycle Club. It was a tough, serpentine, uphill 65-mile bike ride from Bluegrass Industrial Park in Louisville, to Bardstown Kentucky.

The pre-mapped route was a beautiful and hilly country ride, primarily on two-lane roads. I began my ride in Louisville at 7 a.m., arriving seven hours later at my destination, a high school gym in Bardstown, where I would spend the night. There were about 200 of us and we all walked into town, had dinner and then went back to the gym and to our waiting sleeping bags to catch a few well deserved zzzz’s. The next morning we poured out of sleeping bags, stiff, and sore, to the smell of hot coffee and a steaming spaghetti breakfast. The theory is that the complex carbs in the spaghetti give you lasting energy on the road. The return trip to the Bluegrass Industrial Park was via a shorter, more downhill, 50-mile route. I can still remember the pain in my hands, wrists and knees, and the pungent smell of the asphalt which burned hot under the 96 degree heat. I had traveled 115 miles in two days. I was in bed the entire next day!

The Tour is not for sissies. It is a grueling, three week, marathon of pain and sweat. Men asked their bodies to endure oxygen depravation, and dehydration in the mountain stages, world class fatigue of time trials, and dizzying descents off mountain tops where the support motor cyclists have a hard time navigating and staying upright. The 2,241 miles of the tour form the trail of tears and triumph that is the mother of all bike tours.

Now that gas is four dollars plus a gallon, and bike lanes are showing up on many roads in America, isn’t it time we took a hint from these gallant men in Lycra? They have resting heart rates of 35 to 50 beats per minute, and some of the best VO2 max levels (blood oxygenation), of any athlete of any sport. Have you ever seen an overweight professional cyclist? They are thin because an average person of 130 pounds riding at 12 miles per hour can burn approximately 10 calories a minute! That means in one hour you can burn 600 calories! Grab your family and your bikes, and head out on the road.

If you have nothing to do tonight, set the cable box on Versus (channel 549 at 8 p.m.), and catch a stage of the greatest bike race and the best athletes in the world — the men of the Tour de France!

Thoughts from the Hungry Side of Daybreak are written by Peggy DeKay, a business and freelance writer. She can be reached at DKcommunications@insightbb.com.

        

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