France is one of those countries that always gets picked on. In a preview for Rush Hour 3, Chris Tucker grabs a Chinese guy, shakes him, and starts interrogating him over something. The Chinese man starts speaking some gibberish to which Chris Tucker replies, "What did you say boy?!?!" Jackie Chan pipes up, "I think he is speaking French." Chris Tucker then shakes the poor man more violently while yelling, "Stop insulting yourself, you're Chinese!" The other day my little sister in grade school had a joke for me. "What's the shortest book ever written?" I stood there flabbergasted racking my brain for the answer. "French war heroes," she replied. Ah, now that made perfect sense. (I must say though, French soccer player Zidane looked like a war hero when he headbutted that Italian guy in the '06 World Cup)
However, amongst all these scrutinies, the French have got it right with Le Tour de France. One night I found myself flipping through channels and Le Tour was on. I ended up watching it for an hour, and I'm not going to lie, it was exciting. There, riding those bicycles, with those tight clothes and funky helmets, are well conditioned athletes. Not only that, but it's quite entertaining to watch the crazy spectators on the side of the road that further validate the stupid things people do when they know they are on TV. I love it when I see people on cell phones talking to a family member/friend watching at home and waiting for the camera to pass by them so they can point and waive to the camera, "DO YOU SEE ME?!?! HERE I AM!!!"
Last night's stage of the race was exciting because it had yet another stray dog. This time the dog wandered onto the road and took out a couple of riders. One of the riders slid on the road and got some pretty bad road rash on his back side, he later when on to win the stage. That will be a story to tell the grand children, "Yeah, I ran over Old Yeller with my bike and then went on to win!" I've always said that if you want to make a commercial better, you add a monkey. If you want to make Le Tour de France better, add a dog!
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I have to say this post is right on. It is suprising that a sport that only involves one motion repeated millions of times for hours on end can be so engrossing, but it is. There is nothing quite like watching riders wear each other down to nothing by constant attacks and then still talk nicely about each other at the day's end. I know there has been a lot of bad publicity because of riders doping, but at least they get kicked out of the sport for at least 4 years for it. Props to cycling for being so rigorous and testing all the athletes so much. If that same testing regimen was applied to most other sports there wouldn't be a league left to play. And as for athletes, these guys can sprint up to 50 miles an hour on flat terrain! On bicycles! That alone makes up for the chicken legs and goofy tan lines. When it comes to high energy sports, The Tour is it. And luckily for us Americans the French really aren't that good at it anymore. Go Leipheimer!
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