Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The Battle of Brittany

Versus is currently running a commercial that equates riding a bicycle with flying. I can say, as a person who both rides and flies, they really aren't that similar. Let's say for argument's sake that both activities had certain qualities in common, I don't think many people would fly if the shared qualities occurred at comparable frequencies. Sure, in cycling as in flying you can go fast (relatively), feel the wind in your hair (if you're in an open cockpit aircraft and you ride your bike without a helmet), and explore new places, but luckily for those who tempt the gods of physics, crashing doesn't occur in flying nearly as often as it does in cycling. Case in point, today's stage in the TdF. Phil and Paul counted no less than ten crashes today. Two included pre-race favorite AC:

One forced Tom Boonen to fight just to make the time cut:


And one forced Shack rider Janez Brakjovic (who is not related to Erin Brockovich, or Julia Roberts who played her in the movie) to head to the hospital and eventually abandon the race:

The stage wasn't all blood though, as the peloton passed through the town of Saint Brieuc:

How would you like to live there? I can see it now,

You: Yeah, come on over for dinner.
Your Friend: Ok, where is your place?
You: It's the dull colored one, shouldn't be hard to find.

Just as I questioned Versus' comparison of cycling and flying, a couple weeks ago I questioned whether team Garmin-Cervelo would switch to a white kit for the TdF. Turns out they did:


I'm sure I'm not the only one who questioned (and secretly thought) if Garmin-Cervelo would switch to a "summer" kit. I guess professional cycling has become a little too predictable. And hey, wouldn't you know, Cavendish won another stage:

While Cav winning a stage isn't too out of the ordinary, winning a stage with an uphill finish in which the final sprint included classics extraordinaire Philippe Gilbert, most certainly is. Perhaps Cav is showing some of the form he showed in his 2009 Milan-San Remo victory.

On second thought, I'm not sure I should go so far as to compare two things that really aren't that similar.