In the Wake of the Tour
| I
have to admit I bought my first Sheryl Crow album the other day. My
secretary was appalled. “You’re just jumping on the bandwagon.” I
immediately realized she thought I had been unduly influenced by the
glimpses of Sheryl with Lance during the three weeks of the Tour de
France. My secretary was perturbed too by my apparent fickleness,
having forgotten about my most recent infatuations with Jennifer
Anniston and Faith Hill. To get another perspective I called my 30-something son in Philadelphia, telling him I had been accused of jumping on Sheryl’s bandwagon, as if that was a heinous thing to do. He said, “You’re about ten years too late. You’re jumping on the end of the wagon.” So what else can one glean from the aftermath of Lance’s monumental victory in the Tour De France? Television Commercials: By the end of three weeks of television watching, minimum of sixty hours cumulatively, I had become nauseated by the repetitive commercials I had watched on the Outdoor Life Network: the various products for blocking harmful shows from children offered by AOL and Foster’s beer (“the one with the boomerangs”). Given that they were shown a minimum of five times per hour it is astounding to realize that you might have seen them three hundred times, unless, like me, you taped the Tour and fast- forwarded through the commercials. Watching a Bike Race: Who would have thought I could actually watch a bike race nearly every day for nearly three weeks? Certainly not me. I rarely watch sports. The Triple Crown maybe, some of the Olympics, but a bicycle race…not until this year. Since I caught a real- life glimpse of Lance last year and spent some time trying to understand the intricacies of scoring, etc., my compulsion to follow the tour at a distance was a no-brainer. Part of the fascination of watching any sporting event is its vicarious nature. You put yourself in the place of a competitor to imagine what it feels like. It is as close as you can get to experiencing something you know you never will, an exercise in imagination. The other Francophilic inducement to watching the Tour is to see it as a travelogue: throughout the three weeks I made mental notes of places to visit in the future. Vicarious France: During the three weeks of the race we actually tore ourselves away from the television long enough to see a film one night, Before Sunset with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. It was a terrific choice: eighty minutes of the two of them wandering through the streets of Paris talking about their relationship and lives. The four of us (we went with some friends) having been to Paris together a few years ago, we wallowed in Parisian nostalgia. We decided Lance and Cheryl would not be accorded the luxury of anonymity on the streets of Paris.  The
Lanterne Rouge (symbolic of the last car in a train, the caboose): The
last rider in the Tour when all was said and done was a Cofidis team
rider, a French man named Jimmy Casper. He is 26 years old and finished
the Tour de France in 147th place, a full 3 hours, 53 minutes, and 49
seconds behind Lance Armstrong. On his official website I found an
email address to contact him and wrote the following:J'écrit un article pour un webzine. S'il vous plait de m'écrire quelques mots de La Tour de France 2004. Est-ce que c'était difficile de gagner lanterne rouge. Merci, Louis Borgenicht Within two minutes I got a mail system delivery message saying his email was no longer valid. Tant pis. For a moment I had dreams of grandiosity: an email interview with the last man in an historic Tour that, of necessity, had focused on who would be the first man in the final rankings. For fun, Google (sorry to use a neologism) “Jimmy Casper” and/or “lanterne rouge.” The Simeoni Affair: One of the discordant notes during the 2004 Tour de France was the dance of acrimony between Lance Armstrong and Filippo Simeoni. The latter has filed a defamation suit against Lance and is now claiming intimidation during the Tour. Police in Rome have questioned Simeoni about events during the race (Lance chased Simeoni down from a threatened breakaway), with the Italians considering whether to open legal proceedings against Armstrong for sporting fraud, violence, and intimidation of a witness. Whatever happens it will not be as pretty as Lance’s performance in the Tour, but any ensuing legal proceedings will keep three weeks of memories in July 2004 au courant. Everyday Is A Winding Road: I think I will go listen to Sheryl Crow’s song… Louis Borgenicht is a pediatrician/writer living in SLC, Utah. He's the co-author, with his son Joe, of The Baby Owner's Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year Maintenance. |
