Tour De France Informative Speech

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There is nothing quite like being tucked into your body as close as possible while mounted on a beautiful carbon bike with brand new tires, riding downhill, pedaling as fast as you can, at 45 mph on a summer day. It’s an adrenaline rush that everyone should experience in their lifetime. The smoothness of the gearing, the balance of the bike, the rush of the wind past your ears, and the feel of the pavement below is amazing.

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I have been riding road bikes, as opposed to mountain bikes, beach cruiser bikes, or BMX bikes for many years now, and have even had the privilege of riding one of the stage routes of the Tour de France during my visits to France. I have ridden steel bikes, aluminum bikes, titanium bikes, and currently, I ride my beautiful Specialized Roubaix Pro carbon bike that weighs only 14 lbs. Considering my former steel bike weighed 38 lbs, that is an amazing reduction in the weight of bikes since the early 80s. Also, I have rebuilt numerous bikes through the years, and as a matter of fact, I have just finished rebuilding a vintage French bike (called a Motobécane). I am glued to the set watching recorded stages of the Tour de France every summer, an event which my wife is immensely entertained by, as she just doesn’t get the thrill of watching the pros in action

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Today, we’re going to talk about the Tour de France. I’ll tell you a little bit about the bikes, the stages, and the riders of the Tour, as well as the professional cycling world’s attempt to rid itself of the “doping” problem.

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II. BODY
A. All professional riders are given free bikes from the manufacturer, who hope their bikes will win the tour, thereby increasing sales, and more importantly, bragging rights.
1. The vast majority of racing bikes are made from carbon fiber.
a. The lightest and strongest alloys are used in the non-carbon components of the bikes.
1.) My first road bike weighed almost 40 lbs, so today’s weight of 17 lbs or so is an incredible feat of engineering.
2.) That a bike manufacturer can make a bike to be less than half the weight of steel, yet 12 times stronger is pretty amazing.

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2. The whole point of getting the bike as light as possible is to minimize the weight of the rider, so that one is getting the rider as close as possible to carrying only his own weight.
a. You wouldn’t think it mattered that much until you see the times recorded in the time trials.
1.) Times sometimes vary by only as much as a couple hundredths of a second.
2.) Weight matters when it comes to bike racing.

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3. The tires on racing bikes are super supple, and grip the road in most conditions.
a. When a rider is pedaling downhill at speeds up to 5o mph, it is important that he have complete confidence in his tires.
1.) A blow out or flat at those speeds results in a darned uncomfortable crash.
2.) Sadly, it still happens, but not as often as it used to a couple of decades ago.

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B. The Tour takes place over a period of three weeks, with 21 stages and two “rest days”.
1. The riders often use the rest days to go out and ride anyway to keep the legs in condition.
a. The only difference between race days and rest days is that they tend to ride only 50 miles or so on rest days, then get their daily massage and eat enough to replenish calories burned.
1.) The stages consist of a prologue, which is used to determine who is in first place, second place, etc.

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2.) There is the prologue, followed in the coming days by “Flat Stages”, “Medium Mountain Stages”, “High Mountain Stages” and “Personal Time Trials”.

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2. The stages are like a chess game.
a. The teams work together to determine when to go all out, when to let other teams do all the work, and when to maintain a status quo, just to guard a lead.
1.) The Mountain stages separate the top tier riders from the wannabees, which means that those who are the best climbers invariably compete seriously for a place on the podium in Paris.
2.) The Personal Time Trials are where the leaders either stretch their lead or surrender time, and give up a large lead in the time trial due to fatigue. Unless they have help from the “Domestiques”, who are important for helping the leaders maintain position.

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C. The riders are amazingly fit athletes according to physicians at WebMD.
1. Lance Armstrong is one of the most famous of riders in our generation.
a. He is my height of 5’10” and at race weight, he weighs about 165 lbs.
1.) Some of the riders weigh in at as little as 145lbs.
2.) Its all about the conditioning and the legs.

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2. The riders are a disciplined group of people.
a. Their day begins at about 4am, and they ride at least six days per week at distances of up to 100 miles per day.
1.) They race in multiple races around the globe, all with the purpose of preparing to be invited to compete in the Tour.

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2.) To me, the most amazing riders in the tour are the “Domestiques”, who sacrifice their bodies with no reward other than to be able to say they rode the tour, and who are there only to set pace in order to wear other riders out.
3.) When they themselves are spent, they drop to the back of the peloton with no hope of placing in the top echelon, which makes them truly amazing athletes.

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D. I would like to mention briefly that the problem of illicit drug use in cycling is no different than in other sports.
1. As recently as the 2010 tour, a rider name Alberto Contador was stripped of his title because of doping.
a. Only four years earlier, Floyd Landis was stripped of his title for doping as well.
1.) The World Anti-Doping Agency is working hard in tandem with the Tour de France to rid the sport of doping.
2.) The amateur cycling world wishes them much success.

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III. CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY
A. If you can’t tell by now, I happen to be a little bit interested in cycling. I hope I have given you all a sense in some small way of the wonderful yearly experience that is the Tour de France. Every year 198 riders converge in France with the hope of bringing their team to the podium in Paris, on the Champs Elyssee, and of those 198, only three have the privilege of winning. 195 riders walk away without a win. A lot of effort, work, sweat and conditioning go into the chess game which is the Tour de France.

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