- By Mike Finch
Le Tour is over. Life seems meaningless. I have lost the ability to work a full day in the past three weeks and now I am faced with the reality of having to do so now. Not only was I engrossed in playing Fantasy League, I would watch the Tour at work, follow it online with our Tracker and then re-watch the last two hours and then the highlights package every evening. And the next morning I would read all the post-stage analysis online while I had my morning cuppa.
Now what?
How do I fill this void? What are we going to talk about around the office? Is there no comfort in this hour of need?
I’m not sure that I can wait another whole year for the Tour again. That’s 365 days of nothing! No Cadel, no Andy or Frank. No Tommy to cheer on! The reality is just too much.
Yes, I can watch reruns I guess. But it’s not the same. It’s not like sitting on the edge of your seat with your heart in your throat as Andy attacks 60km from the finish. It’s not the same as almost closing your eyes as you watch those heroes descending like madmen down Alpine passes. It’s not the same as marvelling over Cadel’s time trial performance as it happens.
I will miss the drama. The conjecture of what might happen today or tomorrow or Saturday.
There just has to be some way to let us down slowly. Perhaps the organisers should have an extra week with shorter stages so that we can be weaned off. It just seems too unfair that so much of our lives has been taken up by this drama and now… there is nothing.
I will watch reruns tonight. I will probably order the DVD set from last year and I will probably even start talking about Andy’s chances next year. It is the only way I know how to deal with this now…
Good luck to you all.
Heard a tweet this morning that I thought was classic. To avoid the post Tour blues, I’m pretending today is a rest day.
I understand the post tour blues.
Its been a fantastic tour to watch with some incredible performances – Thomas Voeckler who showed the most amazing amount of heart. Andy Schleck, with that amazing breakaway and then, of course, Cadel Evans’ time trial.
The tour tested the balance of individual and team performance.
And, best of all, (so far), no big issue with drugs
I hear you Mike. My supersport.com live streaming window sits empty on my desktop. I stare wistfully at it every couple of minutes, but no amount of Harry Potter-esque conjuring seems to be able to bring it to life. Closing it seems like an acceptance that it is all really over, and the Tour de Pakistan makes for a very poor substitute. Maybe tomorrow I’ll click on that little X in the top right corner. Maybe…