The Greatest Show on Earth

The Tour de France ends on Sunday and it without doubt it is one of the most exciting sports evens in the world. The football world cup came and went this year, a circus yes a spectacle no. The open championship of golf came and went, without Tiger the game of golf has needs another huge star. 

The tour de France has lived up to its billing as a great sporting event. This has not always been the way. Cycling is a sport that has lived in the shadows for years. The drug scandals have wrecked its reputation. This tainted image is always going to be surrounding  the sport. This Tour de France has been a true opera. The end of a great hero in Lance Armstrong, the rise of Andy Schleck, a brilliant aggressive cyclist from Luxembourg and the current champion doing whatever it takes to retain the yellow jersey. 

This tour has been brutal as a physical event, the climbs have been terrifying and difficult. Even the flat stages have been incredibly taxing with stages over the brutal paved roads of the low countries and northern France. Why has this captured my imagination is that everybody can ride a bike. What these cyclists put themselves through on a daily basis is unimaginable. Their is no hiding when you get tired the tour grinds on and you either make it or not no sport is that brutal this is why it is compelling.