PEZ Roll with Oldies: My (Virtual) 1903 Tour de France

The Tour de France released the latest edition on July 1st, this time from Denmark’s bike-friendly lands, once again at the pinnacle of the biggest bike race. The Grand Department Store was scheduled to leave there in 2020, but has been delayed due to the pandemic. We hope that Covid-19, who recently destroyed Peloton in the Tour de Suisse, will not ruin the tour party again.

Pandemics are now in their third year, and over time there have been many ways to deal with pandemics and their antisocial effects. In addition to more than 6.3 million deaths, the entire country was closed, events were canceled everywhere and travel restrictions were put in place. And people have to find new ways to deal with the stress imposed by all of this. There are comical behaviors such as hoarding toilet paper and baking yeast, but there are also long-term effects such as heroic consumption of alcohol. However, there were some happier outcomes, such as the new bike boom and the increased challenges of virtual exercise.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, these challenges allow you to accumulate miles while staying close to your home and recording them in dedicated software that shows you where you are on the map. Google Street View usually shows you where you are (virtually). Postcards that highlight where you pass are often sent to your email address. Some apps will be rewarded for every 20% completion by planting a tree somewhere or making a charitable donation. Challenges are all kinds of activities such as running, cycling, walking, climbing stairs, swimming and more. Finally, you will win a certificate and usually a very cool medal. As a cool medal pushover, I embraced the spirit of virtual challenge, running around Hadrian walls, Cabot Trails, Inca Trails, and Mt. Fuji on virtual roads, including Route 66 lengths for cycling. , Great Wall of China, North Coast 500 around Scotland. But one of my favorite virtual challenges was cycling the distance in the 1903 Tour de France, the first edition of the race.

The first Tour de France took place over 19 days, covering 2428 km with six huge stages, the shortest was 268 km and the longest was 471. Takatogetsu is not included, but there was enough mountain climbing. The area around Ottawa was fairly flat, so my own virtual route was easy, but my main advantage is that I can only ride in sunlight and sunny days, the roads are smooth, heavy wool and A century ago, my bike was a steel frame, but it was light and comfortable, and had a great range of gear and brakes to actually do something that was much more suitable than cotton garments. .. Of course, I didn’t have to worry about food or where to sleep. The big advantage of these cyclists in 1903 was that they were athletes and less than half my age.

Departing from Café au Réveil-Matin in southeastern Paris at 3:16 pm on July 1, 1903, 60 cyclists (all professional or semi-professional racers) headed south to Lyon. Forty-nine of the athletes were French, four were Belgians, two were Swiss, two were German, and one was Italian. This is a short video showing a reenactment of the tour that began in 1953.

There have been years of cyclists riding the Tour de France route alone, but a few ridiculous people did it on outdated bikes, and good signs of the difficulty of this approach are shown here. :

Looking at the stages in turn, in the first stage of 467 km, the winner Maurice Garin completed in 17 hours and 45 minutes, averaging 26.13 km / h. My own version was a bit long at 480 km, spread over 11 days and took less than 19 hours, averaging 25.45 km / h. The first stage victory goes to the original.

Next was the 374km section from Lyon to Marseille. Hippolyte Aucouturier managed this for 14.25 hours at an average speed of 25.8 km / h, but I shortened 374 km by 1 minute, so Stage 2 was mine.

I’m on the roll now when I defeated stage winner Octurier again in Toulouse in stage 3. He averaged 21.26 km / h at 423 km, but I soared at an average of 23.55 km / h.

But my victory was short-lived. In stage 4, Swiss rider Charles Laser did not ride in stage 3, but was still able to compete under the rules, but killed the shortest stage of the tour, traveling 268km at an average speed of 30.63km / h and only a short distance. I was ashamed of 25.263. Well done, Charlie!

Stage 5 was also a long grind, and Garin won again. He boarded Nantes from Bordeaux at 16:26, 425km and averaged 25.835km / h, but my time was 23.29km.

The final push to Paris crossed the longest stage of the tour, the brutal 471km. Garin was once again the winner, the first Tour de France overall winner, and arrived at Parc des Princes on July 18 after a spectacular ride of just over 18 hours. My own virtual stage was only 0.5km / h slow. Garin’s victory time for the entire tour was 94 hours and 33 minutes, but I spent 97 hours and 12 minutes. He took only 19 days, but on my virtual tour I was able to ride as much as I could, so the total number of days was 58.
When I challenged, the end to end run that provided the app had a specific start date, but this is no longer the case, so you can start at any time. In addition to maps and postcards, we also provided a leaderboard to see how the tour is progressing compared to other tours, adding a competitive Frison. As soon as I completed the course, I received an electronic certificate for printing. A few weeks later, I received a nice medal to add to my ever-growing collection. Postcards were meant to keep you motivated.

Virtual challenges are interesting and often educational for those who aren’t brave enough to confront crowded airport terminals, all moving at glacier pace, and are looking for some motivation for athletic activity. Warning: They are addictive!

For more information on the Virtual 1903 Tour de France, see this end-to-end run. https://endtoend.run/la-boucle-de-france/

Other interesting virtual issues can also be found at:
https://www.theconqueror.events/
https://adventure.mypacer.com/

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https://ift.tt/sMXk3z7 PEZ Roll with Oldies: My (Virtual) 1903 Tour de France

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