Roberto's Stance on the Tour De France

As I write this the final stage of the 2023 Tour de France is about to start. It looks like Jonas Vingegaard, the Danish rider on the Netherlands based Jumbo-Visma team, is all but assured to win.

The final stage in Paris, 2022 Tour de France

I’ve been happy to reconnect with the TDF after letting it drop off my radar for the last 7 years. Like a lot of people, I got fed up with the sport after the Lance Armstrong / US Postal doping scandals - not just Lance but Tyler Hamilton, Jonathan Vaughters, Floyd Landis and the rest of the cheaters (you owe me $60, Floyd, for my donation to your BS “Floyd Fairness Fund”). Don’t worry, I’m not going to rehash all the old, disgusting news about Lance and the USPS team.

Whenever I ride my bike down east 5th street here in Austin and pass the LIVESTRONG mural on the former headquarters building, I want to paint over the “V” so it says “LIE STRONG”.

The mural at the Livestrong Foundation, East 5th Street, Austin. I think this has been covered up now.

I often channel Letter-man when I’m angry and want petty revenge. (Fun fact: did you guys know that Joan Rivers and Gene Wilder did the voices for that cartoon?!)

The Adventures of Letterman

I looked over some of the route info for the last few years of the TDF and was happy to see that Stage 13 of the 2021 Tour de France passed right by our new home-town, Montpellier. When that happens again I plan to be on the side of the road cheering the riders.

Map of Stage 13, 2021 TDF. Montpellier is just below the red flag showing the location of a category 4 climb. We’ll be there next time it passes this close!

I started following professional bike racing in the 90’s when I was riding a lot (and racing a little) in New York City. I got interested in racing because there was a public velodrome in Queens and a bunch of my friends who were cyclists and bike messengers raced there. As you’d expect for someone who rides a lot but doesn’t actually have a structured training regimen, I was a completely forgettable racer. I won my very first race at the Kissena velodrome and then never even placed in the top three of another race.

My first race, which I won. That’s me in the yellow jersey and silver helmet, leading the pack as we come out of turn 4 at the Kissena Velodrome. I won this race and then never won another! You can’t tell in the picture but this was also the first time I had shaved my legs, a habit I quickly dropped.

Despite my undistinguished racing record, biking in NYC opened the door to a lot of fun for me, from building my first fixie out of an old Japanese frame, to buying my first road bike, starting to bike commute daily, doing the 5 Boro Bike Tour, my first century (100 mile ride), taking a solo bike tour down the west coast, riding my first alley-cat street race (it was technically the “alley-kitten” - an easy intro to unsanctioned street racing, at one checkpoint I had the choice of a shot of vodka or 15 pushups, I chose the vodka), my first time cycling in France, buying a cargo bike (see pics at end of post), and riding through forests and rice paddies in Borneo, Indonesia. I love bikes – cycling changed my life - and I love that the French are so enamored of cycling.

Self portrait 2007 on a bike tour outside Paris - near Compiègne, I think. The bike I’m riding in this picture is the one that now lives permanently in France.

Carolyn and I recommend a great documentary series: Tour de France: Unchained which covers eight teams competing in the 2022 TDF. The episodes are less than an hour long, and it’s a fantastic introduction to many of the current top riders. It will leave you with a basic understanding of the sport, including race structure, team tactics, the different rider specialties (climbers, sprinters, domestiques, GC contenders), and how much work goes into training to compete at this level.

It was fun to answer Carolyn’s questions about some of the more confusing aspects of the race. The series covers the basics well without being overly simplistic, for instance a “peloton” isn’t just an exercise bike for one percenters, it’s the name for the large cluster of cyclists racing as a group; a “domestique” isn’t a butler or chamber maid. It’s the rider who works to support the other team members. The green jersey goes to the best sprinter, the red polka dot jersey to the best climber, the white jersey goes to the best young rider, and of course the yellow maillot jaune to the rider with the best cumulative time.

There’s a great substack about the TDF, Beyond the Peloton written by Spencer Martin.

Interestingly, today (23 July 2023) is also the start of Le Tour Femmes, the women’s Tour de France. Embarrassingly, this race was not on my radar until last week; I didn’t know about it! Carolyn told me about a documentary, Uphill Climb, which tells the story of the women who organized and competed in the first women’s TDF races from 1984-89, following the same route as the men.

People thought the women wouldn’t even be able to finish the race. (They should have been more worried about that Peugeot team car finishing the race). If this was a dude riding up that mountain in the maillot jaune, the spectators would be waving flags in their faces and screaming encouragement.

I plan to follow the Le Tour Femmes this year and will also watch the documentary about the earlier iteration of the race. I’ll report back later on Le Tour Femmes. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with these pictures of me and Woody on the cargo bike.

Roberto and Woody, adventure-bound!

Sweaty summer ride with the Wood-man!

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time),

Carolyn & Roberto

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