Australian cycling enthusiasts, along with many others, were jubilant as Cadel Evans rode last night to victory in the Tour de France.
The 34-year-old Northern Territory born Evans, set up his tour win in the final individual time trial of the tour in the penultimate last stage of the tour. |
| Cadel Evans in the colours of the world champion- a title he won in 2009. |
The ride into Paris, the final stage, is largely a formality with huge honour going to the rider who wins the last sprint for the tour on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Evans had no need to feature in the sprint, rather simply finish with the peloton.
Evans’ win prompted enthusiastic comment from many quarters with some declaring him to be the complete road cyclist with only success in the Olympic Games having eluded him.
Many in the cycling fraternity were euphoric about an Australian winning what they, and many outside the sport, consider the greatest sporting event in the world, even bigger than the Olympics.
Some declared it a seminal moment for Australian cycling as it illustrated to younger and emerging riders that they were not geographically denied opportunity of reaching the epitome of road cycling.
Embedded in the ecstasy of Evans’ success, the commentators predicted the growth in cycling over the next ten to 20 years, but overlooked some critical realities I can’t ignore, although the sheer virtuosity of the Australian’s success made me stand taller.
The tour, in its modern manifestation is a product of the industrial age and so despite its world embracing magnitude and complexity it edges towards collapse as the world uses more and more of irreplaceable resources; resources upon which such massive events are built.
Our world is moving toward “peakeverything”, the peaks for some resources such as oil have already passed, and within decades it will become increasingly difficult to sustain events such as the tour.
Humanity, and so by implication events such as the tour, faces a crisis of sheer existence brought on by the collision of multiple peaks – food, water, soil, oil and innumerable minerals – with a changing climate brought on by our seemingly irresponsible use of the very resources that are becoming exhausted.
One hundred years ago, the Tour de France was just that and limited largely to local riders and maybe that scenario will soon return.
In riding to victory in the Tour de France, Evans rode over several seemingly impassable peaks, but interestingly the peaks that both he and humanity may find even more difficult are yet to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment