Spectator Sport

27 June 2009

Tour de force

In just over a week, on the day of the Wimbledon ladies final, or if you prefer, which I do, the third test between the Lions and the Springboks in Johannesburg, 180-odd riders in the heart of Monaco will set off at intervals for the opening time-trial stage of the Tour de France. It will be a magic moment in the late-afternoon Mediterranean heat when the greatest sporting event in the world starts to roll out again.

But why do we love it? Though we know that everyone is probably on drugs, why does it still retain that epic grandeur? The other day Bernhard Kohl of Austria, the disgraced rider who finished third in last year’s tour before testing positive for EPO, gave a devastating interview to L’Equipe. ‘I don’t want to continue leading a double life which is based on lies,’ he said (ahem). Earlier he admitted using outlawed doping products and methods for most of his career. ‘Without doping there is no equal opportunity in the top international field,’ Kohl said. ‘This is absolutely the end. I have voluntarily doped — in a system in which you can’t win without doping. Talent, training and iron discipline just aren’t enough at some point. Doping becomes the rule. A clean sport is unfortunately an exception.’

Bernhard’s spot on, of course. Hardly a year seems to go by without a Tour being blighted by a doping scandal, yet the return of the greatest spectacle in the sporting year never fails to stir the soul. This is endeavour on an epic scale — a 3,500 km bike ride over 23 days that makes demands on the body and the mind that dwarf most other sporting challenges.

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