Much as I dislike professional sport - in principle at least - I cannot help being fascinated by the Tour de France. I love watching it on British Eurosport. Her indoors gets upset when I try to watch it all afternoon - I don't blame her, but I love it ! The live coverage is great. It's like a live travelogue with a bit of competition thrown in for good measure. Actually the TV pictures are provided by the Tour organisers and every station gets the same pictures, so the credit should go to them I suppose. The aerial shots are superb - and well-rehearsed, as every town or village the riders pass is shown with its name on the screen, as are any special sights, ruins, monuments etc. Add to this the exciting pictures from the motor-cycle camera men and it is sometimes impossible to take your eyes off the screen - or so I find anyway. I have to confess to being a bit of a cyclist myself, even at my advanced age, and I would secretly love to ride in the Tour, although of course after the first ten miles I would be at least five miles behind the rest of them and would no dobut give the official doctors some work ! Can't wait for the mountain stages. The cyclists must be some of the fittest competitors in any sport - imagine riding at about 40 kilometers an hour for five or more hours every day for three weeks, often up some pretty steep mountains in baking hot sunshine. Maybe if I had my time over again I'd give this a go.
