Last week I decided to ride Stage 2 of the Tour de France....from the humble, unscientific, non-competitive safety of my home. My usual afternoon run was hampered by rain that day, so I had the brilliant idea to set up my bike trainer in front of the big screen TV and "compete" along with the rest of the athletes in the Tour de France. "But who is me?" There I was pedalling away furiously on my bike, sweat dripping to the floor, breath fast and laboured as I watched my "competition" speeding along the route. Gripping the handlebars tightly and leaning into the turns, holding my line and praying that my novice skills would keep me from falling, I was rudely brought back to the reality of my location in front the big screen when the commentator exclaimed,
"These riders are reaching speeds of 40 miles per hour!" I glanced at my bike computer, curious to see its speed. The reality of my suffering at a mere 20miles/hour made my heart sink. "But who is me in truth?" I resigned myself to a leisurely virtual ride through the Belgium countryside. I can safely say that the Tour de France has to be one of the most gruelling sporting events that I am aware of, and these men make it look so easy, so smooth. These competitors are super athletes.
They cover over 2000 miles in 23 days working at or above their lactate threshold for hours everyday. The lactate threshold is the exercise intensity at which lactic acid begins to build up in the blood, and it signals the shift from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. An individual cannot continue to function for long periods using anaerobic metabolism because the lactic acid build-up prevents the production of more energy. Therefore the higher the intensity at which the cyclist can work before reaching this threshold, the longer and faster he can ride. So all the Tour de France cyclists have extremely high lactate thresholds and must ride at very high intensities for long periods as they power over and through rugged mountain passes, sprint uphill to the finish, and battle each other in races where every second counts. They possess a tremendous amount of power-endurance and speed-endurance. Indeed, a recent article on discovery.com stated that Tour de France cyclists are among the fittest athletes in the world. They have to be. A 100 mile ride around Trinidad takes me around 7 hours to complete. These super athletes do that in 3 to 4 hours and tackle such feats over worse terrain everyday for almost three weeks! Another recent article suggested, "If you finish the gruelling Tour, you could burn up to 118,000 calories. That's the equivalent to 26 Mars Bars per day."
This comparison just gives a great idea of the extensive energy demands of the Tour, and the need for strict, well-planned and frequent nutrition. I would love to eat even two Mars Bars a day! During Stage 1 of this year, a commentator remarked that this "easy" stage could demand up to 7000 calories from the athletes! I always marvel at the great bike handling skill of the riders as they release their handle bars and rummage through their pockets to retrieve a power bar or gel, tear it open and eat it all whilst travelling at great speed. And they often do this in the middle of the peloton (the large traveling mass of riders) just inches from other riders! The precise control they have over their bikes is quite amazing, and I never truly appreciated this until I attempted to do the same on a down hill from Maracas and wobbled all the way across the road and onto the soft cushioning (thankfully) of the grass on the shoulder. But despite the best bike handling skills in the world, the cyclists are completely vulnerable to the stupidity of over-zealous fans, who at all costs, must get a close-up picture of the oncoming peloton, or sprint alongside the athletes offering them annoying words of encouragement and tapping their bottoms. I always enjoy when a highly annoyed cyclist, whose concentration and rhythm have been broken by one of these obnoxious sprinters, punches or pushes them off the road.
In one of the early stages this year, a picture-taking spectator stepped out in front of the peloton and caused a massive crash as cyclists swerved to avoid him. Of course, with the riders in such close proximity to one another, when one falls, many fall.
Another thing that fascinates me in the Tour de France, is the level of the sport science that is employed behind the scenes. Apart from the technology that goes into the bikes and their components, there is an entire sport science team associated with each cycling squad. Chris Froome, a young star on the Tour from Team Sky, said of his team, "I've been working with the sports scientists and with Brad to get this right. (Sky's head of performance science) Tim Kerrison is a really clever guy and we were never going to overcook this." Before the time trial stages, the cyclists warm up on trainers which hold the bike in place yet allow the wheels to turn as the cyclist pedals. During these warm ups, the cyclist's heart rate is monitored to ensure that he does not go out of his warm-up zone and burn unnecessary energy. In addition Team Sky has spent a small fortune on making their own aerodynamic time trial speed suits to reduce wind resistance, and in fact, Chris Froome won the time trial Stage 9 in such a suit. So while I may not be an elite cyclist whose thighs are larger than logs and whose arms are smaller than pencils, I remain enthralled with the Tour de France and its super athletes. And while I will never be a super athlete, I will continue to live vicariously through them, pretending as I pedal ferociously in my virtual Tour de France world on my trainer in front the big screen TV. Ride on!
