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Tour de France 2011 – Stage 21

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‘Cuddles’ may be the epithet given to Cadel Evans by the international community, but it certainly does not seem to describe a 35 year old winner (oldest since the war) of arguably the most gruelling sporting event in the world. Evans described yesterday as the culmination of “20 years of hard work,” and nothing could be nearer to the truth.

His struggles started at birth, as he was born 34 days past the due date, with a broken nose. Then at the tender age of eight he got kicked in the head by his mother’s horse. It left him in coma for a week as doctors struggled to pull fragments of the skull from his brain. Evans displayed his resilience even at such young age, surprising everyone by returning to school within a month of the accident.

Now after endless hours of toil and 8 broken collar bones later he stands tallest in his sport, at the winner’s podium of the  Tour de France 2011.  I admit it might not sound as impressive as Armstrong’s seven victories, but it does not make the Australian’s achievement any less either. To understand that, look beyond the glitz of the Champs-Élysées, at the two painful second places, the crashes, travelling and multiple surgeries and you might start to get the point.

The last stage though was never a challenge for him or any other rider, except Mark Cavendish and José Joaquín Rojas. The duo were separated by a mere 15 points in the green jersey classification, with Rojas the clear outsider here. Cav in the form he is and the incredible HTC-Express to steam him towards the finish, it would have to a mistake from the Manxman and not a powerful sprint that would win the Movistart rider his first jersey.

This year the route was shortened as the organisers realised there is only so long a procession can entice spectators. For most of the last stage in the Tour the atmosphere is amiable with riders holding arms, sipping champagne and joking around. I think the pic below best encapsulates the casual nature of the 21st day of any Tour de France:

Evan’s team BMC had the honour of leading the Tour into Paris and a traditional ride up the world’s most famous boulevard. Thereafter followed six laps down the Louvre, up Rue de Rivoli and around Place de la Concarde, turning these impressive landmarks into a battleground. Team Sky instigated two breakaways through Juan Antonia Flecha and Ben Swift, but they were eventually gobbled up by the peloton.

In a nutshell the HTC lead out men launched Cav to perfection YET again, who then easily held off a hard charging Basson Hagen to claim his fifth victory this year and an impressive third consecutive win at the Champs-Élysées. Cavendish also becomes the first British rider to win the green jersey on Le Tour and has raised his overall stage win tally to 20 from just 5 appearances!

Then it was time for the ceremonies for the awardees, against one of the best backdrop imaginable – Le Arc de Triomphe. Apart from the four jersey winners, Jérémy Roy was declared the super combative rider for this year and Garmin-Cervélo won the overall team honours.

This is a brutal event – more so this year considering the spate of crashes which led to only 167 riders making it to the finish line in Paris compared to the 198 that started at Passage du Gois. This fact has never slipped on the organisers and hence every finisher in the Tour gets a medal and the lifelong right to be known as géant de la route.

Most experts – and all French fans – have tacitly voted Team Europcar as the soul of the 98th Tour de France. Indeed a team that was without a main sponsor and had to undergo a strict cost cutting regime has performed beyond dreams. Ten days in yellow for Voeckler, stage win on the iconic Alpe d’Huez and the white jersey for the best young rider for Pierre Rolland is an impressive record, which beats some of the big name teams.

The great Lance Armstrong himself called Rolland a “rockstar” for his untiring efforts in supporting Veoeckler to stay in the lead - and praise does not come much higher than that. Europcar have laid their hands on a goldmine as the PR and digital attention they received would have far outstripped their investment. The car rental company acknowledged the fantastic work done by the team in this touching and beautiful advert in Sunday’s L’Equipe.

But the story of this Tour for me has to be Johnny Hoogerland. The rider who cartwheeled into a barbed wire fence on stage 9, rode for twelve days through mountains and rain with more than 30 stitches and multiple lacerations. That he managed to finish is commendable enough, but the fact he made it 74th overall is pure legendary! I am out of words here, maybe the organisers should have felicitated him with a special award or something.

Pain and suffering are a sad but inseparable part of cycling in general, and the Tour in particular. This episode saw big names like Bradley Wiggins and Alexandre Vinokourov succumb to horrific injuries. Thank god they have made out of it relatively unscathed. It pains everyone if in today’s age an athlete is lost to the world participating in a sporting event – like the young and  talented Wouter Weylandt sadly did on the Giro this year. Hopefully we shall never have to see such a black day ever again.

It’s a sad feeling every year once the Tour finishes, and now starts a long 11 month wait. These riders ofcourse don’t rest and most would be setting their eyes on the London Olympics before the next Tour. Andy Schleck has yet to meet his destiny, and I strongly belive it is only a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ he will win the Tour. For now, I bow to Cadel Evans who has proved he can not only fight, but also win against the best. In fact I salute all 198 participants who had the courage to start in the first place.

Each of the 98 Tours till date have stories of their own, stories of pain, stories of glory, stories of courage, but above all stories the likes of Armstrong have narrated. The message I take out of them is we do not know our own limits, and we never shall till we challenge ourselves. So if you have been reading this space, you do not need to cycle 3400kms across France to prove anything, go out run a marathon, ride a race, swim in a triathlon, do anything, cause (again as Armstrong says) ‘it will make you feel alive, and that should be a good enough reason to do just about anything.’ So till next year then :)

Jersey holders:                                                                 General Classification:

Maillot Jaune –  Cadel Evans                                             Cadel Evans – 86h 12’ 22”           Maillot Vert –  Mark Cavendish                                        Andy Schleck – 86h 13’ 56”         Maillot à Pois Rouges –  Samuel Sánchez                       Frank Schleck – 86h 14’ 52”         Maillot Blanc –  Pierre Rolland

ps: I’ll leave you with probably the best image of this year’s Tour (well atleast for the boys) ;)

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Tour de France 2011 – Stage 20

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Tears were in abundance in the eyes of Cadel Evans after his monumental performance in yesterday’s individual time trial. For the records Saturday’s dash against the clock was the penultimate stage this year, however it was the last opportunity to fight for overall supremacy. Final stage of the Tour is always a procession, time for the peloton to soak in the atmosphere and for a sprinter to shine.

Evans hit the road today aiming to turn around the 57 seconds deficit to Andy Schleck, and by the time he was done riding he had minutes in hand, comfortable to do a “Bolt moment” approaching the finish if he wished to. Ofcourse show-boating is not in the nature of the Australian who is often criticized for his introvert nature, but the emotions started flowing soon after Andy had finished his run.

Schleck Jr’s time might not have told the entire story, because he did give it his all. Maybe that audacious break on stage 18, followed by the toil a day later did have something to do with his relative lack of pace today. Such was the attack of Cadel Evans however, that mid way through it was clear that Andy was now racing for second.

He finished and collapsed in the arms of elder brother Frank, after all it cannot be easy to take in a third consecutive “second” place finish in Le Tour. In his own words, Andy had admitted of Friday “I’ve never come this close to winning the Tour.” Evans ensured it would not be a case of so near, yet so far, cause his lead is a very respectable 1min 34sec.

Despite his scorching pace, Evans was second on the day, HTC’s Tony Martin winning the stage in an incredible time of 55′ 33″ (avg speed of 45.9km/h).  Not all that surprising considering the German had won the Critérium du Dauphiné last month on this very route in an comparable time of 55′ 28″. Pre-stage favourite Fabian Cancellara’s run was spoilt by a wet route following early showers (which dried by the time later riders had a go) and he could only finish eighth on the day.

Team Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen seemed to be on his way to earn his third, and Norway’s fifth victory of the Tour, until loose handlebars forced him to change his bike after the third time check, wiping his hopes of a competitive time. Philippe Gilbert too hit mechanical woes in his attempt, though the Belgian was never going to match the top times.

Probably the most aggressive rider on the day – apart from Evans – was Alberto Contador. The defending champion knew before starting that his two-year reign was over, but went for broke nevertheless. Fuelled by pride, he matched Martin’s splits in all time checks and finished third on the stage leapfrogging to fifth overall, a place ahead of compatriot Samuel Sánchez.

His tenacity though could not overhaul that enigma Thomas Voeckler. The man who stayed in yellow for the longest period this year had struggled in the past two days, and yesterday was no different. But as he has done all through the Tour’s three weeks (and maybe his career), he kept suffering and pushing to save his fourth place in the standings, a result surpassing all expectations.

Compatriot and team-mate Pierre Rolland also managed to hold on to the maillot blanc with an impressive performance to ensuring there would be French presence on the podium in Paris. His gutsy ride could not earn a place in the top ten (he finished eleventh overall), but the man from Gien has marked himself as a future prospect if nurtured well. Who knows, a couple of Tours later we might see Voeckler guiding him to yellow, and what a turn around that would be.

Talking of turn arounds, Evans is only the fifth man since World War II to overturn a deficit in the final time trial. Today he will have the honour of becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France, the most impressive addition to his already long list of firsts for a cyclist from down under. He termed his performance today as ‘the ride of his life’ and it would go a long way in silencing his critics who often point to his lack of aggression.

In his moment of triumph Evans had one name to thank above everyone, his Italian mentor, the late Aldo Sassi. “Aldo said to me last year, ‘now that you’ve won the worlds (road race) you’ve made yourself a complete rider. You can win a Grand Tour, and hopefully it will be the Tour de France. For him today, to see me now, it would be quite something.” said Evans, adding, “We went through both good and bad. I had some bad moments in the last 10 years, but this makes the good moments even better.”

As for the Schlecks, they made history too, being the first brothers to finish together on the podium. It might be scant consolation – at least for Andy – but a proud moment for the family nonetheless. He has trained in wind tunnels in San Diego, taken special stretching exercises to improve his aerodynamic efficiency, but all that has failed to improve him in a dash against the clock.

History has taught us that to be the overall winner in the Tour de France, you have to be an overall cyclist. There is no doubt Andy is a champion climber, maybe comparable only to Contador, but if only he could time trial, he would have won the Tour. The bitter truth is that he can’t – and so he hasn’t.

There is nothing much to preview for the final stage of Le Tour. It’s a flat 95km ride to Paris in which all riders will congratulate the maillot jaune, as they enjoy sipping champagne on the road. Later Evans’ team BMC will have the honour to lead the peloton to the Champs-Élysées, and action will resume for a brief six laps of a circuit around the famous landmarks of the city.

The green jersey classification is still mathematically open, though barring a disaster Cavendish should sail through. However there is the matter of the stage finish, and every sprinter worth his salt would love to win in the shadow of the iconic Arc de Triomphe. For the leaders of the Tour it won’t matter. It will be a case of waiting for the finish for one, while the other will yet again be thinking what if…. So till tomorrow then…

Jersey holders:                                                           General Classification:              Maillot Jaune –  Cadel Evans                                       Cadel Evans – 83h 45’ 20” Maillot Vert –  Mark Cavendish                                                Andy Schleck – 83h 46’ 54”        Maillot à Pois Rouges –  Samuel Sánchez                  Frank Schleck – 83h 47’ 50”       Maillot Blanc –  Pierre Rolland

Paris – part 2

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Hi all, so its time for Paris part 2. Sorry I had to post it the next day of the part 1, but just forgot (blame it on no net in Amsterdam). Anyways so here goes…..

Now Paris cannot be done in the 4 days I kept for it, so this is in no way an exhaustive description. Its just my experiecce and a few things I elarned from other fellowtravellers. As I wrote before, if you visit Paris, be prepared to walk a lot. A real lot. Now I’ll list down what I felt was the best and worst of Paris.

The best has to be Sacre Coure and Notre Dame. So amazing infact that I went at these places all days. Both cathedrals are huge and while Notre Dame has always been hailed as one of the masterpieces of Gothic architecture, it instantly makes you feel insignificant. The two tall spires with haunting gargoyles leave one speechless and in awe. Inside there is a loud silence and thousands of candles burn filling it with an everlasting aroma. Acutually all this is jibberish till you see it. Sacre Coure is as big, and sits atop the highest point in the city sparkling like a tall sentinel in a white robe (Gandalf maybe). It gives a bird’s eye view of Paris and is the city’s performing arts headquarters. On the giant steps in the evening there is always a large crowd with multiple artists perorming (music / shows / skills). There is nrver a dull moment and I found it the best way to spend the evening. Chateaux Versailles is just too big for words and could easily devour a day if not more.

The most disappointing though have to be the Eiffel tower and Mona Lisa. Eiffel tower is totally unlike Paris. A modern metal goliath in coplete oddity with the beatiful medival architecture. No wonder the French wanted it demoilished in the early 20th century. But its there, and famous, why I wonder. And the Mona Lisa, let me explain. The procedure to see Mona Lisa:

Enter Louvre, dutifully get lost.
Try to find where you are with the delp of thousands of equally miserable tourists and after walkling for hours you find the way, which evidently was just a left turn away from where you intitally started from.
Reach the room containing exhibit number 4189, aka Mona Lisa and find…….nothing.
TO see the Mona Lisa first you’ve to fight with 152 blood thirsty tourists and after having bitten half of your flesh off, you’re earn the privelage to see it from million miles away. Oh and no, they do not provide you with binacolours.
Now don’t start thinking of a photograph, because for that there is round two with the tourist, and in any case I wonder if you’ve the right camera for it. Cause apart form the distance is hte fact that the painting itself is quite tiny.
So be sensible, go to the nearest souvenir shop, buy a huge Mona Lisa poster, and click a pic. Believe me you’ll see much more detail and no one will come to know aout it.

A little about the Louvre. I wonder if even half the Parisians have seen it completely. From my rough estimate it would require a full month of 8hr days to see couple of the wings. Its massive and evidently there are still half a million exhibits pleading for a small space of display. The pyramids were made to get some sanity in to the place, cause its made up of three palaces and the entry to them was real complicated before the central entry through the pyramids. First monday of every month its free, but hte lines then are so long that if you turn up at 9am, you only get to enter 5 min before closing time. Evidently the pyramids was the idea of a French minister who wanted to give a gift to his Egyptian girlfriend :P (every Parisian will tell you that).

Ok so when you visit Paris, do walk both in the day and night, cause its totally a different city. The beautiful medival city in the morning turns into some kind of a twinkling carnival city in the night. Not for nothing do they call it hte city of blinding lights. The brasseries actually do come their own only during hte night. However a word of caution. In the summers, the sun only sets down after 9pm, so if you do intend to walk in the night, be prepared to stay out till late.

For teh creatures of the night, the party scene in Paris is very big. Pubs open in the evenings and clubs by about 11pm and go on till about 6am. A word of caution though. Do not roam about in central Paris with your drink in hand (that also includes Red Bull cans), lest you want to get awkwardly close to the gendermarie (trust me there are better ways than this to do that). The Parisians love to party and music is mostly pop and hip hop. Rock is famous but not in the night clubs, only in pubs. There seem to be a lot of Irish pub showing football and I was fortunate to catch a bit of it alongwith a Guiness, which is hte best beer I’ve had in life. Its nothing like normal beer, its quite thick as they put in some Irish cfream into it.

Well so when you go to Paris there is a free tour. Its actually a tour conducted by university students on a tips only basis. Amount of the tip is upto you, but the norm is between 5-10 euros. They walk you around central Paris in about 3-4 hours (witha a break) showing you all hte major sights topped of with little titbits and anecdoted. Being students they are really friendly and the tour is extremely casual with lots of joking in between and the route can be cutomised according to the group’s demands. This should be done on the first day as it’ll give you a fair idea about the layout of the city and what to see. Also the guides give tons of tips for all sorts of interests and soak up all your questions. Being in the younger age group, they can direct you to all the must see as well as happening places / events. And then its a great way to meet like minded travellers and maybe join up with someone for a few short trips.

So that’s Paris in real short. Next post would be the most interesting one, certainly worth a loud laugh (keep guessing). So till then keep having fun and keep commenting :)

Paris – part 1

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Bonjour!

So finally, how much ever I dreaded doing this, I’ve sit down to get over with it. Why would I dread writing a blog? Well to describe Paris would be impossible for anyone, let alone in this kind of limited space and ofcourse not in my capability. The city surpasses any description that you’ve read in Lonely Planet or seen on documentaries or movies. Its just the beauty that knocks you over, and makes you feel this cannot be earth. No wonder the (belligerent) Germans wanted to destroy it, the
(jealous) British ridiculed it and the (hopeless) Americans tried to copy it. Thank god all of them failed. Now I won’t embaress my self, or do injustice with Paris by describing its monuments, however I will write a few quiry things about the city and some important notes for the visitor. Actually I’ll do this in two parts, first the quirky things and then a little bit about what to see etc. So here goes…

Now why such high praise for Paris. Everything about it is like a fairy tale. The monuments, patesseries, dressing sense of people, public facilities, everything. The best part though is that walking in Paris is an absolute treat. Infact I’ve walked in excess of 60Kms in 4 days, and that’s when I din’t do anything much of the Louvre. My legs are hurting badly, but you never feel it while walking. The locals love to walk (as quite a lot of the city is a no traffic zone and parking is extremely expensive), the tourists come to walk, and the city has all the facilities for it. Infact every road (even the main roads) have bike paths exclusively for cycles and broad footpaths.

The much feared metro is not all that diffcult to use. Infact I found it quite a breeze and the maps (both fixed and take away) available freely at every station make life quite simple. The maps are ubiquitous with every station or tourist attraction offering you to chose from a range of about 12 -15 maps. Also by Parisian standards the metro is very cheap. Now I don’t agree to the general perception that Paris is expensive. I would say it is frighteningly extortionate. For example you’ve NO public drinkingwater. You’ve to buy and it costs about 2 euros (as much as a small coke). Laundry is about 5 euros, a basic sandwich (which is just absolutely cold berad with a thick block of cheese) 4 euros, a basic meal at a decent resteraunt (not basic as McDonalds/Subway, neither a flashy brasserie) about 20 euros. As they say, all good things come at a price. So 6 euros a day for unlimited travel on the metro is not a lot.

Now a bit about the Parisians. The first thing you would notice is that how bloody well dressed everyone is. The men are extremely fashion conscious and about the women nothing enough could be said. Its almost as if the gendermarie is tasked to weed out all ugly dressed people out of the city. Ah the gendarmerie. The best dressed police force there is on the planet. And big show offs they are too. And the police is on cars, motorbikes,cycles and even skates!!! As much of Paris is a traffic free zone, they have to patrol on bicyles or skates, and its pretty cool. Along with that they do a bit of showboating as well, putting on an impromptu show.

Parisians are fanatic about courtesy. Every conversation starts with a “Bonjour” and ends with “Merci”. I mean everything, ticket counters, food desks, museums, if you ask directions, bars, policy everyone. Hell, I’m sure even if they come to bash your head, they follow the drill. Bonjour – BANG – merci. Well bash your head they well, if you don’t return the courtesy in kind. Well not bash but certainly be prepared for disgusting looks if you do not follow the code.

And they love their wine. One evening when I was exhauseted and returned to the hostel early by about 9pm. The hostel owner suddenly turned up with some wine, called all of us sitting in the lobby out on the footpath. There they had laid out a few tables and some eats. Finally we all had a small wine party right on the footpath in the evening! The funny thing though was that there were 2 French, 1 Spanish, 2 Portugese, 2 Germans, 1 Italian and 1 Inidan. Nobody seemed to know the other’s language but somehow we managed :P Maybe UN should take some tips on International discussions from hostel Jules Ferry in Paris.

Well that’s about a few quirks of Paris in real short. Tomorrow in part two I’ll try to describe a bit of what to see (and what not) and what is so enchanting about the city. Till then au revoir and let the comments coming :)

Oops (almost forgot)

Merci!

Mumbai to Paris transit

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So here goes. Finally my first post.

As I sit here at the Barharain International airport, its still that strange feeling that I’ve been feeling since friday. As they say maybe “fear of the unkown”. But the difference is that as I sit here among poeple speaking strange languages, funny dialects, exchanging unfamiliar currency, finally the scale of what I’m about to undertake is dawning on me. But also is this amazing feeling with getting to know how the world lives.

Anyways now to the interesting stuff. Firstly Bahrain International Airport should not be called that. It should be called the Bahrain International Mall. My god!!! What shops. You name it and its available (lots of F1 merchandise, made a note of that for the return transit). And people seem to have come here more for shopping than for travelling. Maybe its a ploy of Gulf Air to make money from excess baggage allowances courtsy the shopoholics :) However our dear Mumbai airport is leagues ahead in facilities and overall standards. Yes the duty free may be a kid compared to this, but as an airport, its much better.

But the first thing I noticed was that when one looks down at Mumbai from above, its like an exquisite piece of jewllery embedded with lovely diamonds and a pristine streak of gold runnig across (that’s the western express highway). Bahrain airport just seemed to pop out from total darkness, in the middle of nowhere. However to hteir merit they’ve certainly got some really good looking security and sales staff ;) . Ofcourse almost none of the sales staff are locals, but then does that matter.

Have been struggling with wifi, nobody at the airport seems to know how to connect (though all know that its free). So this post may finally come from Paris. Ah Paris. Can’t wait for it.

I know this post has been a bit staid, but then what much can one write about airports. Some interesting stuff would certainly follow a day of two later. So till next time bye and wish me luck ahead.

Cheers!

Alekh
-forever sports!