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| Some guys on bikes ... going very fast |
Is it even right to watch the Tour de France this year? I was leaning to avoiding the whole thing, which looked like becoming a Covid-fest, with tens of thousands of spectators perfectly timed to launch Europe's second wave. And the riders I grew into the sport with -- when you could actually watch it on free TV --have pretty much all retired. Now I have to acclimatize to a bunch of new stars, and deal with a dodgy online outfit called Flobikes just to watch at all. They are the only Canadian source for following the race this year. They will offer you a cheap monthly rate, cancel anytime. Good luck trying to get them to deliver on it.
The Tour claims to be limiting crowds and demanding social distancing from the spectators, and any team that gets 2 Covid positives, riders or support staff, will be tossed out. Fans along the roadside are masked, but at key points the crowds still look pretty big. Is this nuts?
What the hell. Hey, there is a Canadian in the race again: Hugo Houle, riding for the (once kinda druggy) Astana team from Kazakhstan. Good luck to him, somewhere way in the back. And they are doing a lot of racing in the gorgeous south of France, which is always nice. Great ride today from a young American called Neilson Powless, from the Oneida First Nation it says, fourth place on the stage after riding all day with a starry breakaway group. I'm getting hooked again.
