Hello,
If anyone has been a regular on the sports pages of the newspaper they would have wondered what is this hoopla over a bicycle race. I am sure that by now all of us know how important the yellow jersey is!
The cycle race we talk about is the Tour de France and one of the major sporting events of France. Today the race travels through six countries Monaco, France, Spain, Andorra, Switzerland and Italy.
The event made it's debut in 1903 when a young journalist Géo Lefèvre, on L’Auto persuaded his editor, Henri Desgrange, to back his audacious plan of a 471km cycle race from Nantes to Paris. Not to be left behind sixty adventure seekers started the race on July 1 1903 from Montgeron and after six grueling stages, Maurice Garin became the first winner of the Tour de France. It was not surprising that only 21 “routiers”, managed to complete this first epic.
The Tour de France 2009 started Saturday July 4th and will end on Sunday July 26th 2009. The 96th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,500 kilometres. The race has 21 stages which allows for all kinds of racers to exhibit their skills. The race has ten flat stages, 7 mountain stages, 1 medium mountain stage, 2 individual time-trial stages and one team trial stage. The mountain stages were introduced in the race in 1936.
The 2009 Tour de France started with a 15.5 km individual time trial in Monaco (the shortest distance the cyclist race in the competition) and tomorrow (16th July) the racers will cover the longest stage of the flat stage Tonnerre to Vittel covering 211.5 km.
The race actually has several other jerseys and it is interesting to follow the green jersey which belongs to the top Sprinter, the climber jersey which is made up of red and white polka dots for the King of the mountains, The youth jersey which is white, the team jersey which is yellow with white sleeves and the combative jersey which is red with white sleeves. There are 180 participants representing 20 teams.
What brings me to the race
The race becomes magnetic with the return of Lance Armstrong, the seven-time winner from 1999 to 2005. The guy has survived testicular cancer, a tumor that metastasized to his brain and lungs, in 1996.
Born September 18, 1971, he started as a triathlete, winning adult competitions from the age of 13 and became national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990 at 18 and 19, respectively.In 1991, as a bicycle racer he won the U.S. amateur championship. In 1993, Armstrong finished number one in the world, winning 10 one-day events and stage races. He became one of the youngest riders to win the world road race championship, and took his first stage win at the 1993 Tour de France. At the USPRO championship, Armstrong sat up on his bicycle on the final lap, took out a comb, combed his hair and smiled for the cameras.
On October 2, 1996, at age 25, Armstrong was diagnosed with nonseminomatous testicular cancer and the doctor gave him 50% chance of survival after the operation.
Not only did the guy survive the operation but two years later started racing again and created history by taking the Tour de France seven times in a row. In 2008 he continued to dazzle the world with his prowess by impregnating his girlfriend Anna Hansen and becoming the father of Maxwell Edward "Max" Armstrong on June 4, 2009. It was widely believed that Armstrong could no longer father children, after having undergone chemotherapy for testicular cancer and he proved the world wrong once again.
He is not a favorite in Tour de France 2009 but he lies 3rd after stage 10 and you can never write off the miracle man.
Any bets.
Best wishes to Lance Armstrong.
Manoj
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