The Tour, Giro and Vuelta have been crazily unpredictable and brilliant fun this year. Even the lack of fans has been a bonus
By Gary Naylor for the Guardian Sport Network
If you are watching elite sport at the minute, you are watching it on television. You can either opt for the piped-in crowd effects – which are eerily a step behind the pictures, like soft thunder after a flash of lightning – or you can go for the thrill of hearing the curses between the shouts of “Time! Time!” at every throw-in. “It’s just not the same without the fans,” is the constant lament of fans. It’s true –
Football,
Cricket and rugby are not the same. Neither is cycling. But here’s the thing – cycling is better.
In the sorry parade of sports governing bodies, professional cycling’s UCI has a record that stands with the most dismal, but it declared that all three grand tours would go ahead and they have – chapeau! Putting on a bike race is not easy at the best of times. At the worst, it’s a leap of faith that had many cycling fans shaking their heads and speculating on which day the broom wagon would come along to sweep up the whole peloton. Chins were stroked when Tour de
France director Christian Prudhomme tested positive for Covid-19 and left the race for seven days.
Paris looked a long way off.