as followers of this blog will know I am a very keen follower of the the tour de france having been lucky enough to have watched stages n both france and in england on its two occasional visits.. and today is a good day for british cycling fans, as world madison champion, super fast sprinter 23 year old mark cavendish won todays stage (the fifth) from cholet to chateauroux. this years longest stage. there is as I have said before something so special about 'le tour', as I mentioned yesterday I am off to france on friday to the ardeche region. so not to see the tour this year but may well get a chance to pop down to narbonne so watch the stage down there as it is near and fits with the timing of other things. but that's silly to be decided. something I will say that I am still impressed with the online coverage especially from the tour de france official site, as well as the guardian online and surprising as it is to me the telegraph is good as well. pic courtesy telegraph.co.uk.
what I also have noticed is the way it is marketed the control that the french governing body in conjunction with cycling's governing body (based in switzerland) control every thing from the teams that are allowed to compete to the way all merchandise is designed and the way the logo is used. even the riders are paid in swiss francs!
sounds like a situation of complete dictatorship? I don't think so having been in france last week and experiencing the way the french people and visitors enjoy the racing as well as the TV coverage.
