I’m hooked on most gruelling of summer sports – cycling
With the football season now over, I turn my attentions to the most gruelling but enthralling of summer sports – cycling.
It’s something us Brits are rather good at, with Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas winning the Tour de France over recent years and Mark Cavendish sharing the all-time equal amount of stage wins in ‘The Tour’.
When you first watch cycling on the telly, it just looks like a big group of people cycling for hours blocking up all the roads, but it’s much, much more than that.
Within those hundred or so cyclists are 20 or so teams with eight riders.
In the ‘Grand Tours’ they cycle every day for three weeks, with each Monday being a rest day.
Within those teams you have cyclists who are racing for ‘General Classification’ which means being the overall winner, the rider that takes the least amount of time to complete the whole three weeks. Also known as the ‘GC race’.
Then there are sprinters who excel on flat routes and are mega fast at the end of a stage. There are also ‘King or Queen of the Mountains’ who pick up points on the mountain days. You also have the best young riders.
As well as all those gunning for trophies, some of those cyclists are called ‘domestiques’ whose pure purpose is not to win a race, but to provide a draft or slip stream for the chief riders so they use less energy.
Their satisfaction comes from the team winning.
The first ‘Grand Tour’ of the year has just finished, the Giro d’Italia in Italy. Geraint Thomas held the leader's jersey, the Maglia Rosa, for eight straight days.
On the final stage - a time trial - he came second, but even worse, the time he lost was more than the gap between him and the rider in second, the Slovakian Primoz Roglic.
After three weeks of tough races, mega mountainous climbs, snow in the Alps and driving rain, Geraint lost the race by just 14 seconds.
Even though Geraint had nothing to ride off on the last day, he helped fellow Brit, but opposing team rider Mark Cavendish to win the final stage.
A sprint in Rome in front of the Colosseum, a true mark of sportsmanship and friendship.
It's almost unique to the sport, this is why I love cycling so much.