General News
25 July, 2025
BARRY'S CORNER: Tour de France
I will be glad when the Tour de France finishes up at the weekend, because it is torture for couch potato wanna be.
It goes for three weeks and is now broadcast in detail by SBS.
The trouble is the event starts at 9.30pm and finishes at an unrespectable time of one or two o'clock.
So it messes around with a bloke's head space and knocks work targets for the next day to pieces.
But what an event and the television makes the program into a major tourist attraction for France, let alone the feats of skill and endurance of the competitors.
With cameras on motorbikes showing real balance skills going down hill with sweeping bends in the road and helicopter-mounted cameras flying in unreal conditions and missing wires of electricity supply slung across deep valleys, it is a wonder any make the end of the race.
The competitors race as individuals in a sponsored team and it takes a while to interpret the scoring system and why somebody comes across the finish line in sixth place but still wins one of the prize jerseys.
This is a French competition, it has been won by many foreigners but the locals are making inroads.
It seems to be a remarkably non-environmental activity but some token changes have been made such as riders tossing out their litter in certain spots so it can be cleaned up quickly.
However, the event puts the spotlight on high level cycling and encourages cycling as an activity.
Of course, racing is not the only skill that needs focus for a cyclist.
There is always commuting to work, recreational and mountain bikes to be considered and Australians have been really active in a wide variety of competition events.
The high end bikes used for the competition are made with top quality products and the route used each day must use a lot of energy and planning so it cannot claim to be environmentally friendly.
Despite that the race must beat many other types of events in the consideration of friendly space.
It takes a bit to match the long standing French race but events are building up in Australia and to have a good following it needs more cyclists.
There are many mountain bike tracks across the states and velodromes and road races to get involved with or just cycle for good fun.