Many Tour de France winners
Originally Posted by
OldPhiKap
Exactly. Finishing the TdF is not a participation trophy. It is the mark of an incredible athlete, and is rightly celebrated as such.
Unless they’re cheating and doping, of course. But I don’t want to draw UNC analogies into the thread.
Sorry, Bob, we'll be back to our regular schedule programming in a minute. I will tighten my chain and adjust my spokes as fast as I can.
As someone who has followed the Tour for many years [including bicycling some of the Tour segments -- which is a chastening, humbling experience] I would like to affirm that Tour fans do know how incredibly challenging finishing the Tour is, so they celebrate the ability and effort of all the riders. The final stage into Paris, in which the teams are no longer competing, but enjoying each other's camaraderie, is a powerful symbol of such and is rather unique in sports.
I also want to note that ALL of the classification winners [general, mountain, points, team, young rider, etc] are highly esteemed by Tour aficionados. The general classification podium winners are certainly celebrated as the best overall, but many of the specialists do not even strive to win the GC. Their team, fans and sponsors are hoping that they do well in their classification, such as mountain. In this regard, the Tour is very European -- more communal, less of a there is only one Winner mentality. Many Tour fans root for riders who are well known in their home countries to do well. So there many reasons for many Tour fans to feel good about after every Tour -- but it is much more than the participants being honored for just showing up, as OPK affirms.
Dang, forgot to bring my chain tension adjuster.
“I love it. Coach, when we came here, we had a three-hour meeting about the core values. If you really represent the core values, it means diving on the floor, sacrificing your body for your teammates, no matter how much you’re up by or how much you’re down by, always playing hard.” -- Zion