King Carlos

Well Le Tour is over for another year...

Well done to Carlos Sastre and his team CSC, without whom I doubt he would have managed to win this years race. Never before in my years of watching has a team worked so well together and dominated the Tour so effectively. I really enjoyed watching the Tour again and hope my love affair continues. For those who paint it as a drug riddled joke, oh well. There will always be those people but lets hope they continue to catch the bad guys and the Tour gets stronger and stronger. I just love the way the French come out and support the race. Its more than an event to them its a way of life. Like a rite of passage in summer. I wish I had grown up there and been infused with the love of this Masterpiece as a kid. The names of these great men would ring in my ears like the great batsmen of old. My memory of events like these seem so much purer and grander than now, not that I dont love them now, it's just as a kid you seem to live those times.

Not sure what my mom would have done with us had my brothers and I started the " le tour " around the neighbourhood. Rugby, cricket and tennis were hard enough but the le tour would have been a logistical nightmare. Oh well, long live the tour...

I reserve this last place for Barloworld, typical big wig wankers who ride the good wave of last year and when the team hits some troubles you bail on them, how would you feel halfway through the tour knowing your sponsors were bailing on you come the end of the race. Sure some twit abused drugs but he got caught. Standing by one another in tough times is more important than anything, shame on you Barloworld. I wont be supporting you. The saying which appears on many a cars back window on the flats springs to mind: " when days are dark friends are few "

Personally I hate that saying, I am not a pessimist, but it finally found its place with the Barloworld board of directors.

Just Some facts and figures:

Calories consumed by a rider per day: 5,900 average, 9,000 max Calories burned by a rider in the course of the Tour: 123,900 (based on 5900-per day average at 21 days of racing)

Number of pedal strokes taken per rider for the three weeks: 324,000 (at 60 rpm); 486,000 (at 90 rpm)

Number (or miles) of barricades erected and torn down for the race: 217 miles Number of gendarmes (French military police officers) on the Tour: 13,000

Number of chains worn out by a single rider: 3 (Armstrong went through a chain a week) Total number of tires used by the peloton: 792

Number of finishers, worst-ever year: 10 in 1919 (out of 69 starters)

Most stages won by a single rider, career total: 34, Eddy Merckx (1969: six stages and overall; 1970: eight stages and overall; 1971: four stages and overall; 1972: six stages and overall; 1974: eight stages and overall; 1975: two stages)

Most number of stages won on single Tour: 8--Charles Pelissier (1930), Eddy Merckx (1970, 1974), and Freddy Maertens (1976)

Most riders to wear yellow jersey in one Tour: 8 in 1987Most days spent in yellow jersey: 96 by Eddy Merckx (in 7 participations)

Biggest winning margin (since 1947): 28 min 27 sec (Fausto Coppi--Stan Ockers in 1952)

Smallest winning margin: 8 sec (Greg LeMond--Laurent Fignon in 1989)

Longest solo breakaway: 253 km by Albert Bourlon in 1947

Biggest winning margin on stage win: 22 min 50 sec by Jose Luis Viejo in 1976Fastest prologue: 55.152 kph by Chris Boardman in 1994 over 7.2 km

Highest total number of "King of the Mountains" victories: 7 by Richard Virenque

Fastest individual time trial: 54.545 kph by Greg LeMond in 1989 over 24.5 km

Fastest team time trial: 54.930 kph by Gewiss in 1995 over 67 kmFastest average over a flat stage: 50.355 kph by Mario Cipollini in 1999 over 194.5 km (Laval-Blois)

Fastest average over whole Tour: 40.276 kph by Lance Armstrong in 1999

Oldest race winner: Firmin Lambot (36) in 1922

Youngest winner: Henri Cornet (20) in 1904

Most times participated by one rider: 16 (Joop Zoetemelk, between 1970 and 1986; he finished them all)