Blast From The TDF Past

I write a music blog so I shouldn't be surprised how music can transport you to another world or in this case another time. Hearing this music from the Channel Four days of the Tour de France instantly took me back to the time when, for three weeks, Roseanne, Blossom and Mork and Mindy were displaced from our screens (much to my sister's annoyance) and instead we got a glimpse into the greatest bike ride on earth/ At the time it was dominated by the mainland European's but my favourite was a plucky American by the name of Greg Lemond. As I rooted for him some Spanish guy had the cheek to come in and dominate the Tour. Miguel Indurain I will never forgive you for ruining my childhood. See, it's all come flooding back. You can download the track at televisiontunes.com.

More Than A Dream

There are somethings you hope will happen during your life time. I hope I will see England win the World Cup or European Championships, either I’m not fussy. I dream that one day Huddersfield Town will spend a season in the Premiership. However having followed the Tour de France since 1991, watching super human beings from various nations win the Tour I have never dreamed or hoped that a Brit would win the Tour. It was just so unbelievable I never imagined it was possible. Watching the tour year after year we were lucky if there was even a Brit racing the Tour and even then they rarely achieved anything great.

As time went on and we started to achieve some success with Boardman and Yates it still never occurred to me that we could win it or even contest it. That’s why 2009 is probably my favourite ever year of the tour. It was the year Bradley Wiggins allowed us to dream, that we could hope one day he, or another Brit could build on his 4^th in the Tour that year. I didn’t follow the Tour when Robert Millar finished fourth all those years ago and so this was the first time a Brit had finished within sight of the podium. Not only that but in 2009 Mark Cavendish showed that we could win a major jersey at the Tour by running Thor Hushovd close and winning stages for fun. His time would come surely and in 2011 the Tour organisers seem to have built the course to let him win it, I believe they even stated they didn’t want a sprinter to win as many stages as Cav had in the past and not win the Jersey. So sure enough, Cav won his ‘usual’ bag of stages and along with them he took the Green Jersey.

Did this inspire Wiggins that he could win the Yellow Jersey? Probably not, I think we have to give Wiggins more credit than that but it certainly can’t have held him back. Wiggins believed in himself, he might have surprised himself a bit in 2009 and then had to prove to himself it was no fluke. It’s always the hardest to do something for the first time, whether it’s the first to climb Everest or win a stage at the Tour. So much of that is belief. I think I watched the Tour and thought “wow, look at those super human beings”, Wiggo looked at it and thought “I want to do that” – “I can do that”. So some how from a position of having no challengers, we suddenly found ourselves with the Tour favourite. Who could have thought we had that in store!

How I Won The Yellow Jumper - Ned Boulting : Book Review

"Isn't that supposed to be jersey?" my Dad asked. "Exactly" I said and that's the beauty of this book. My Dad doesn't follow cycling and 99% of what he knows about it he's learnt through osmosis from when I lived at home. This book is the perfect introduction to the modern day Tour for those who are less than knowledgeable about the whole cycling world. While other books have covered the whole history of the tour such as the excellent Blazing Saddles this concentrates on the tour since it began in Ned Boulting's world. Ned was thrown in at the deep in 2003, sent to cover the Tour de France having never seen a bike race before. It covers the characters in the race since then with a (much appreciated) British bias.

While it may sound like Tour de France for the beginner it actually gives the avid follower a real insight in to the tour from the media's point of view, often with a humorous outcome. Anyone who's watched ITV4 's coverage of the tour (or channel 4's before that) will be interested as he gives insights in to the whole cast, as he calls it, including legendary commentators Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.

I would heartedly recommend this as a light hearted read for anyone in to the tour but more importantly to anyone thinking they'd like to know more about the tour - this is the place to start. It was excellent.

How I Won The Yellow Jersey - Ned Boutling