Pro cycle racing is beautiful - but brutal
Ok, so I'm not the most prolific blogger.... ;-)
However, I am a serious fan of professional bicycle racing, particularly the pro tour in Europe. While it's a popular spectator sport in Europe, with big purses and large fan attendance, it's (sadly) hardly on the radar screen here in the U.S.
Besides being a spectacularly difficult sport of human strength and endurance, it's also fraught with huge danger. Crashes are not uncommon, and having been in a couple of cycling crashes myself, I can tell you that:
- It hurts a lot to go down;
- These guys more often than not get up and finish a race after a crash -- a decidedly superhuman effort in my opinion;
- Anybody that doesn't cringe when they watch a crash, and who doesn't have huge respect for these athletes who put themselves on the line with nothing except some nylon and a helmet on their bodies, is way too closed-minded to be a friend of mine.
The folks who organize the Tour de France have put together a video of the notable crashes in the 2007 tour. While the Tour is the race everybody in the U.S. knows about, the summer cycle racing season is full of amazing races, with spectacular athletic efforts, exciting finishes, and too many crashes.
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