I've always enjoyed this event, even though I'm not a cyclist. I've lost a little interest over the years as a result of all the cheating and drug doping issues the Tour has had. Today marked the start of the 100th Tour de France. I turned on the race today and I must say, it was fascinating. First off it was a sprint stage. This means that the terrain was very flat and the sprinters would be in control at the end of the stage. With a little over 10 miles to race a huge tour bus got stuck under the finish banner. The banner is more of a structure than a banner. A team of people were scampering around trying to move the bus before the peloton sped towards the finish line at 50 mph. The race organizers attempted to move the finish to the 3 km mark in order to avoid the bus. At the last minute, the bus was moved and the finish line was cleared so the race finish was restored. While this was going on, the racers were trying to get in position for a possible 3 km finish. This resulted in at least 3 crashes in the last few kilometers. Of the four top sprinters in the race, three were knocked out by the crashes. It remains to see if any were injured. That left a wild free for all to the finish. The race was finally won by the last remaining sprinter, Marcel Kittel. It was a wild Stage 1. If this is what we are in store for this year it may be some event.
For more info: http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/
Two days...two wild finishes. In stage 2 a virtual nobody won the stage. A short distance from the finish line a small dog got loose on the route. The peloton missed catastrophe by inches as it sped by and the dog scrambled to safety at the last second.
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