Readers who follow sports will be aware of the fantastic achievement of Lance Armstrong in winning the Tour de France bicycle race in 2005 for an unprecedented seven consecutive times.

Lance Armstrong’s War describes how he won the Tour de France for the sixth consecutive time in 2004, breaking the previous record held by several riders for five consecutive Tour wins.

The sub-title states that this is “One man’s battle against fate, fame, love, death, scandal and a few other rivals on the road to the Tour de France”. The book is not for the faint-hearted as it contains many ‘earthy passages’ and expressions not used in polite society.

However, it is the language of the Tour and in that sense readers get a real life look at the world of cycling. It is a world of intrigue, fame, fortune and big sponsorship money. It also attracts millions of fans for that special three-week period in France starting on July 3 each year.

History of the Tour. Note 1. In 1902, two Frenchmen, Geo Lefevre and Henri Desgrange, conceived the idea for a race around the French countryside instead of in a velodrome. The first Tour, a 2,428-kilometre affair, was split into six stages and seemed at the time to be nothing more than a marketing coup for the sports newspaper L’Auto.

A century later this unique bike race has become a part of France’s heritage and, according to official terminology, is considered the world’s greatest annual sporting event. It surpasses any other sporting event because it takes sport outside of the stadium.

Of the original 60 who started on their primitive bikes, 21 finished, setting the stage for those who would follow years later to use their skill and stamina, as well as their ability to endure unimaginable suffering to ride through to the finish line.

The professional cycling calendar is controlled by the sport’s iron-fisted Vatican, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

Over the years the organisers have added many innovations such as mountain stages, individual and team time trials, and the routes vary through the French countryside. As the Tour has become more popular and a tourist attraction, towns across France have vied for the honour of having the Tour pass through their territory.

In addition, the situation that existed where a stage of the Tour would stop in a particular town in the evening and start there the next day is changing. A stage of the Tour may now end in one town and start in a neighbouring one the following day.

The Tour may also pass through a neighbouring country. For example, the 2004 event started in Belgium. The author has a chapter on Belgian toothpaste to describe the horrible road conditions in the early stages.

As the Tour has become more popular, there have been significant developments in the race and its strategy. These days, millions of people from around the world also watch the race as it winds through the highways and byways of France.

Bicycle design. Viewers of the Discovery Channel, Lance Armstrong’s sponsors for the 2005 Tour, would have seen the elaborate preparations and tests which were done in preparation for the event. Bicycle design, material, wind tunnel tests, even helmet design were part of the preparation process.

At one stage prior to the 2004 Tour Armstrong tried out a narrow bike and found it unsuitable. It was quickly dumped.

Technology and Teamwork. The race is often a matter of strategy and timing. Teams have clear strategies in which the leader is supported by junior riders(domestiques).Teams are led into battle by a directeur sportif (coach) who is usually a former rider.

The coach communicates from a trailing car on an ongoing basis with team members who wear headset microphones. The team bus also has a slew of other support persons known as soigneurs who are critical to the overall performance of the team and the leaders. The number of teams is now limited (the 2005 Tour had 21 teams) with a maximum of nine members.

Health and Fitness. Grand Tours are so demanding that they have been described as running a marathon every day for three weeks.

In describing dinner for the Postal Team, fuelling up for the coming day, the author speaks of what might be described as a feeding frenzy during which a rider would consume about 9,000 calories of special food and drink.That’s the equivalent of 28 cheeseburgers!

This build-up of team energy was critical to the capacity of the members to wear down the opposition. Lance Armstrong with his consultant physician also developed a quantitative set of measures of his state of fitness and strength on a bike.

Keeping clear of colds was a major concern as antibiotics were inimical to good performance.

Performance Enhancing Drugs. Over the years the Tour has been rocked by scandals and a number of riders have been banned or suspended.

Armstrong, as the world’s premier cyclist, is tested some 30 or 40 times a year both in and out of competition. Said to be the world’s most tested athlete, he has come up clean every time.

Nevertheless, David Walsh, a journalist with the Sunday Times, has been digging for evidence to the contrary and eventually published a book in France titled L.A. Confidentiel: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong. The book, published shortly before the 2004 tour, was filled with accusations but had no real evidence or ‘smoking gun’ to prove Armstrong guilty.

While some journalists supported Walsh, other mainstream journalists saw the book as being nakedly partisan. Armstrong dismissed the charges and in responded by entering libel suites against the publisher and papers that quoted from the book. In addition, he has kept a dossier on journalists who became labelled as friend or foe.

Safety and Crashes.

The Tour is a highly hazardous event with many riders over the years either losing their lives or suffering major accidents. Last year 99 riders crashed in the first week and 12 abandoned the event.

Armstrong who had had a minor crash earlier in the week complained that race organisers had placed unsafe barriers on the approach to Angers in stage 6 of the Tour, leading to huge pile ups and the likelihood of crashing as riders sprinted to the tape at 40 miles per hour.

Cracking.

This is a term applied to a rider who has reached the point of despair and either drops out of the race or drops back from an advanced position because he has been beaten at a stage in the race. Armstrong is characterised by his ability to hide his stress limits.

Lance has retired after his unprecedented seventh historic win in the 2005 Tour. Note 2 Sport writers have compared his dominance in the sport of cycling to others who have dominated their sport over the years.

There is football’s Pele; Michael Jordan in basketball; Wayne Gretsky in ice hockey; Bradman and Sobers in cricket; Jesse Owens in athletics; and Muhammad Ali in boxing.

The question now is, who will be the next leader after Lance Armstrong who has definitely retired? Note 3.

Note 1 www.touredefrancenews.

Note 2 Cycle Sport. Tour de France 2005 Special. Copy courtesy of David Linehan

Note 3 Part 2 will explore the world of Lance Armstrong and the battles he faced in the 2005 Tour.