Canadian Olympian Svein Tuft

Cool biographical article about Tuft, who rides for the Canadian Symmetrics team ... all his bike touring (with his dog in a trailer behind) in his late teens, even to Alaska and back; and some of his experiences as a pro rider.

“As humans we’ve gotten so far from what we were supposed to do that we’re always searching for something that makes us real again, that gives us that feeling of doing what we’re meant to do. For me, bike racing is that.”

Books and reading about cycling

A few years ago, I read Michael Barry's book "Inside the Postal Bus" and really enjoyed it. IMO, Barry is an excellent writer - instead of just writing about race or training details, or a few humourous anecdotes, he manages to capture the spirit of a race or of cycling in general with his diary entries and columns for his own site and others (Pedal, Velonews, even the New York Times)- he is even poetic at times. And better yet, he's a Canadian - I'm still disappointed he didn't make it to the Tour de France this year (he's still recovering his form after a serious bout of pneumonia last year, so hopefully next year he'll finally get to the Tour), but I'll be cheering for him in the Olympics next month!

Back in May during the Giro, the book "The Giro d'Italia: Coppi versus Bartali at the 1949 Tour of Italy" was highly recommended at Podium Cafe. I found that our library had one copy in the system, so I put a hold on it and picked it up in early June. The author, Buzzati, was an Italian writer who worked as a journalist on the 1949 Giro, writing daily columns about the race at a time when fans either watched along the side of the road, listened on radio, or read the next day's paper for updates on the race. Again, I found the writing to be quite poetic and captured the spirit inherent in the race ... not just basic details, but stories about a lesser racer who goes on a breakaway so that his mamma will be proud when she watches in the finishing stadium, or about those who come in so far after the maximum time that all the trappings of the race have already been taken down, or about the scenes of post-WW2 Italy they were racing through, or about the epic battle won in the end by Coppi. Again, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to other cycling fans.

The spectators...do they not perceive in the extraordinary abilities of the two men ... the presence of something mysterious, sacred, a kind of grace, the sign of a supernatural authority? And this may explain the immense attraction of sport. This would justify what otherwise would seem absurd: to wit, that reasonable, well-educated people can lose their heads and get upset and scream over a football player or a cyclist. But there are those who will say: But isn't it frightening that the modern world gives vent to its secret charge of mysticism in the terraces of a stadium? Isn't it humiliating? It is difficult to answer, to be sure. It may be, however, that sports fanaticism, with all its extravagance, is a lot less vulgar than it seems at first glance. (p 60)

Does something as crazy and preposterous as the Giro d'Italia by bicycle serve a purpose, then? Of course it does: it's one of the last meccas of the imagination, a stronghold of romanticism, beseiged by the gloomy forces of progress, and it refuses to surrender. (p 185)

The following seems fitting on this second rest day of the 2008 Tour de France, with 2 mountainous days in the Alps to come starting tomorrow (and with Oscar Pereiro's crash over a guardrail down to the road below fresh in their minds still):

Tonight, those peaks, arrogant and threatening, loom over the sleeping racers: visions of horrendous precipices, roads that make the blood run cold, without guardrails, and carved out of solid rock; and a monster follows them as they struggle up the slopes above the abyss, and salvation is up at the top, where there is a passage between the cliffs, where one never arrives. (p 105)

And then there's the Tour. I've just started reading "The Tour de France: A Cultural History" by Christopher S. Thompson, which so far seems quite interesting - since being at the Tour last year I've been somewhat fascinated by how much of a cultural event the Tour is rather than just a sporting one. Particularly when there are positive doping tests coming out and unknowing North American journalists seem to think that the Tour should just be shut down - that's never going to happen because it isn't just about the race, it's so much more than that. Which is essentially what I wrote last year in this article once I came back from France. I'll post more about this book once I've read more than the first chapter ;-).

Tour de France Art

I posted at Podium Cafe about 2 recent art exhibits that we went to see, featuring paintings depicting the 2005 Tour de France. Here are a few photos: us with one of the paintings at the AGA, the photo on Toti's business card, a photo from the original AGA description of the exhibit, and the newspaper clipping of yesterday's article.

Another year, another Tour de France

but we're not there in France this year :-(. Which is too bad, because my favourite rider is one of the favourites to win this year (Cadel Evans), and there's a Canadian in the race for the first time in over 10 years (Ryder Hesjedal of the Garmin-Chipotle team).

As for my own riding, I had major unexpected surgery in March, and really I'm only just now starting to get back on track regarding cycling - no way I'd be riding up Alpe d'Huez anytime soon.

So, instead, I'm always finding articles and bits about cycling and my favourite riders that I want to share, sometimes I do that on various internet cycling forums - but I thought perhaps I'd share various links here as well. We'll see how long I actually keep this up ...

North American Cyclo-crossers in Europe

Since last season, I've been particularly interested to follow the experiences of various North Americans racing cyclo-cross in Europe. I think initially it was that a Belgian friend pointed out how American Jonathan Page was living and training in Europe (rather than racing in the US and only coming to Europe for the World Championships and maybe 1-2 World Cups just prior) that got me intrigued - then I saw some local TV clips and internet articles where I found out that there were some local racers going to Worlds last January and I started reading several of their blogs (thanks Shaun and Spencer).

So, I was concerned to read various articles about Jonathan Page's difficulties this year - he won a silver medal at Worlds after coming back from injury and got signed to a Belgian team, but seemed to be having some disagreements with his team recently. It appeared to culminate with the team claiming he couldn't handle the pressure (and they even sent a doctor to check up on him when he said he was ill and couldn't race), whereas Page claimed team management was putting inappropriate pressure on him and other riders which adversely affected his performance. More recently, they seem to have (temporarily) resolved their differences, in part by shortening his contract to the end of this season (rather than including next season as well).

I've been impressed reading about another American, Jonathan Baker, who is also living in Belgium this season to race cyclocross - I'd noticed his name in some of the results and wondered who this other American in Europe was (the other top American 'cross racers are mostly racing in the US at this point and will only go to Europe after Christmas if at all). An interview at Velonews with Baker showed that he has a admirable attitude, taking a leave of absence from his job as a software engineer and taking his wife and 2 kids with him:

I just wanted to see where I stack up if I give it 100 percent. If that is 40th, whatever. But I think I could get in the top 30 at a World Cup. I'd be pretty happy with that. And obviously I wouldn't be doing it if I weren't having fun. I'm not looking to make a job out of it. But at the same time I'm not just here on vacation. I take it very seriously.

He's also written a diary-style update for Velonews.

And it sounds like several locals are again planning to race in Europe in December-January including Worlds - I'll be reading the results on the internet and probably watching Worlds again on cycling.tv like I did last year (if I manage to get up early enough - so far I haven't managed that for the World Cup races).

FAQ - Tour de France finish line on Champs Elysees

My husband and I had a bit of disagreement before and during our trip - we knew that the Tour finishes on a circuit course on the Champs Elysees in Paris, but weren't sure where exactly the finish line was located. Ed recalled seeing previous podium shots on TV with the Arc de Triomphe in the background and took that to mean that it was located quite close to the Arc, but I wasn't so sure. I'd tried to find more information about the finish on the internet, but couldn't find any sort of map (the official TdF website only had the overall stage map, not anything specific about the finish).

So, on the final Sunday morning of the Tour in July this year, we were up early to scout out where everything was. In the two previous days we could see where they were setting up VIP seating (usually photos of the Obelisk don't include grandstands!) Our hotel was fairly close to the Arc, and we took some photos with our bikes on the Champs Elysees in the closed section between the race course turnaround and the traffic circle at the Arc itself. We'd wanted to try to ride on the course, but couldn't find anywhere to get onto the course as it was very well barricaded - it seemed if you could get on the course, the police didn't really care if you were riding (this was at 9am, long before the caravan or the racers would be coming along) ... but there was really no opening we could see to get onto the actual course.



So, instead we rode along the sidewalk of the Champs until we got close to the park areas where all the VIP seating started and access became a lot more limited. As it turned out, the finish line was where all the grandstands were (and therefore, where the general public without grandstand tickets couldn't get to or see all that well). The closest non-grandstand places to the finish line were already crowded by early in the morning. We took our bikes back to the hotel, and came back to a spot near the intermediate sprint line (right against the barriers) by about 11 am and waited.

That day's L'Equipe newspaper was the most helpful in terms of the actual course route for the circuit finish, so I kept the map and scanned it just in case it can be helpful to anyone else.

Canadian team to the Tour de France?

Probably not for a few more years, but this article in the
Province details how the BC-based Symmetrics cycling team is aiming for the Tour within five years.

"No, we're not ready yet," said Cunningham, who thinks it could be done within five years. "We still have a ways to go, not only from an infrastructure perspective and a sponsorship perspective, but we need the cash. We need more team management and we need to add a few riders. There are other strong Canadian riders and we've talked to them, but it comes down to budget."
Symmetrics started with a $30,000 budget. Last year that budget grew to $800,000 and next year it will be $1 million. By comparison, top teams have budgets in the $15-million range.
Cunningham thinks it would take an annual budge of $5 million to $7 million to get a team into the Tour de France.
He said potential sponsors are intrigued by the idea of an all-Canadian team in the Tour, even though doping scandals have plagued the event in recent years.
"The doping issue is a major issue," Cunningham said. "When you walk into a boardroom full of executives, the first thing they start to talk about is Floyd Landis.
"But we have a very clear mandate. We're truly anti-drug. Kevin and I made an agreement amongst ourselves that if there's any hint of doping, we'd shut the team down and give all the money back to the sponsors. We'd shut it down, and the riders know that."

If they manage this, then it would be a big step from the last few years that I've been following pro cycling, in which there have been no Canadian riders in the Tour de France - we were really hoping to see Mike Barry (T-Mobile) there this summer, but then he came down with pneumonia a month or so before.