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But today surely belongs to the most sympathetic rider in Tour de France, Carlos Sastre. Last year, we also cheered for beautiful Carlito, but this time he actually won. Cadel Evans will most likely win Tour de France, in the unadmirable, defensive style of Miguel Indurain, but Carlos Sastre is undeniably the spiritual winner of this year’s Tour. As Jørgen Leth would put it:

This year, the race has been very open, and thus very, very entertaining. Right now, five riders in the GC (General Classification) are battling for final victory, but since a time trial remains (Saturday), the climbers are forced to attack favorites Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov today, because the latter are “complete riders”, accordingly expected to take several minutes from the climbers in the time trial. Danish Team CSC/Saxo Bank’s Fränk Schleck (of Luxembourg) has got the maillot jaune, but is no time trial specialist (and neither is his captain Carlos Sastre). Led by former Tour winner Bjarne Riis, they are probably planning something big today — something, that no matter how clever and strategic, can be reduced to team mate Jens Voight’s laconic remark from yesterday: “Kill ‘ em all“.

As a special service to our Danish readers, pay attention to Sporten.dk, where legendary legend Jørgen Leth (see portrait above) comments on the entire stage LIVE on the web. It’s right now!

Suffering, glory, tragedy, victory. This one’s got it all. If you don’t want to see it all, just go for the final hour on Alpe d’Huez. Drama guarenteed.

July 10: Fausto Coppi and ‘La Bomba’
July 13: The Thin Air Is Coming
July 15: Rasmussen’s Reign
July 24: We Few, We Happy Few
July 25: ‘Cycling is War’
July 26: Exit Chicken!
July 29: When the Second Best Man Becomes the Best (Or: Showdown in Angoulême)

Enjoy!

But as everybody knows, the Tour REALLY starts today, with the first mountain stage going 197.5 kilometers from Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand-Bornand. Hopefully, the stage will give some real indications of who to look out for in the remaning stages. Should this, the first mountain stage disappoint, it’s almost certain that the next stage won’t: The 165 kilometers from Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes will most certainly be an ab-so-lu-te blast, with three cat. 1 climbs as well as finish line on the top of Montée de Tignes. Pain, pain and pain awaits the riders on the next stages, and drama, drama, drama awaits us, the happy audience. Watch, and feel the shiver run up your spine!

Illustration by the great Franquin, from Spirou et Fantasio 8: La mauvaise tête (1957). If you got it in your library, you really ought to re-read the cycling race sequence, it’s pure joy!

I hope to follow the Tour, and hopefully to blog about it now and then. In my first Metabunker post on cycling, I discussed Bjarne Riis’ doping confession. At the moment, Bjarne Riis’ Team CSC holds the maillot jaune, but Riis himself is not with his team, due to the pressure from the media caused by his doping confession, as well as former CSC-rider Jörg Jaksche’s allegations (see here and here). But it’s also worth noting that Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme has condemned Bjarne Riis harshly, and made it clear that he would prefer Riis to stay away, because the presence of the former Tour de France winner would soil the grandeur of the race. In fact, Monsieur Prudhomme wants to reclaim Bjarne Riis’ maillot jaune, and erase him as winner of the 1996 Tour de France.

Now, in the illustration above, Metabunker Mentor Jørgen Leth recites one of his old “Sport Poems” about legendary Italian rider Fausto Coppi; Coppi is often considered the greatest rider in history, even though he ‘only’ won the Tour twice – 1949 and 1952. Though there weren’t doping laws at the time, most riders were doped. Amphetamines, caffeine, opiates, ether, cocaine, chloroform and alcohol have been among the ingredients in riders’ water bottles from the very first Tour in 1903. Later, they would take pills called la bomba, packed with selections of the above-mentioned drugs. Fausto Coppi – Il Campionissimo – did also subscribe to la bomba. In an interview, Coppi was asked if he took la bomba, and he replied, “Only when I have to“. Pressed to define when that was, he acknowledged, “Almost all the time“.

Will Monsieur Prudhomme please reclaim Fausto Coppi’s two yellow jerseys? And, by the way, Richard Virenque’s polka-dot mountain jerseys? And Erik Zabels green sprint point jerseys? And …

The poem “Fausto Coppi” is translated from Jørgen Leth’s Sportsdigte (1976) by Steffen Maarup, with love, but without written permission. Illustration by myself.

If you read Danish, Jyllands-Posten has a great interview with Jørgen Leth, defending Bjarne Riis. Click here, go read.

P.S. By the way – did you watch stage 3 yesterday? Bloody amazing, the maillot jaune seems to belong to the right man these days, whew!

If you read Danish, do click here to read Berlingske Tidende‘s Ebbe Iversen’s accurate and thorough piece on Leth’s career.

Illustration by myself.