Maybe I am just a cheap date, but watching stage 1 of the 2011 Tour de France kindled a smoldering flame within for professional cycling. Although still marred with the ugly truths, lies, and tales of doping, todays race was indeed just that, a race! Prying my eyes open with toothpicks, I was there at 5:00am for all the splendor of the opening day of the greatest stage race on earth! After months of news stories that read more like WWF fodder than cycling, I wondered why I even bothered to watch today. And yet today, the race favorites got complacent riding mid pack and lost time in a crash and the greatest strong man on a bike couldn't sustain an attack within the last kilometer. Clean or not, to my eyes, it was a bike race, where anything could happen at any moment. The result of an exciting day one will hopefully be a Tour full of unpredictable twists and turns.
Watching today's stage reminded me of those things that I find most compelling in endurance pursuits. The excitement of just a few seconds can carry you for hours, days or weeks to follow. In no way was the Tour de France won today. However, those who think they can win are all now set to task. That all so common cycling term of turning oneself "inside out" to get through the stage will be the metaphor for now. The fitness factor has been diminished and the mark of man has been elevated. Will those who lost time be willing to fight to get that time back? Will the beneficiaries of todays split be able to hold on to the advantage? Anything can happen at any moment and the heart will play a vital role in the determination of victor. Digging within the soul is the reason we ask so much of the body, heart and mind. It is impossible to know what gems of the soul exist if you don't go digging for them. Reluctantly, I am back in the role of superfan, waiting to see who will be willing to dig the deepest.
All this early morning talk and action has me itching for a ride. I wonder how high up the snow has cleared on Mormon Emigrant Trail? Looks like it is time to do some shallow digging and see what kind of effort I can summon up today.
One foot in front of the other, repeat!
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