Goodreads Bookshelf
Tour de France, Tour de Vivre
I'm reading Lance Armstrong's autobiography now, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, and this passage struck me, and not just because the Tour de France ended yesterday in spectacular fashion with American Floyd Landis pulling out a win. Armstrong is writing here about the 1995 Tour de France, when his racing teammate Italian Olympic gold medalist Fabio Casartelli died while racing the Tour de France:
I had learned what it means to ride the Tour de France. It's not about the bike. It's a metaphor for life, not only the longest race in the world but also the most exalting and heartbreaking and potentially tragic. It poses every conceivable element to the rider, and more: cold, heat, mountains, plains, ruts, flat tires. high winds, unspeakably bad luck, unthinkable beauty, yawning senselessness, and above all a great, deep self-questioning. During our lives we're faced with so many different elements as well, we experience so many setbacks, and fight such a hand-to-hand battle with failure, head down in the rain, just trying to stay upright and to have a little hope. The Tour is not just a bike race, not at all. It is a test. It tests you physically, it tests you mentally, and it even tests you morally.
I understood that now. There were no shortcuts, I realized. It took years of racing to build up the mind and body and character, until a rider had logged hundreds of races and thousands of miles of road. I wouldn't be able to win a Tour de France until I had enough iron in my legs, and lungs, and brain, and heart. Until I was a man. Fabio had been a man. I was still trying to get there.
Your thoughts?
John, I'm here to tell you it isn't about the winning the race, it's the
ride! Get out and enjoy without worrying about the other riders. Ha, I've
managed to turn this into a metaphor for life.
Nice post. Now, if someone could only explain the point of golf!