The Hardest Part About Cycling
is the pavement — the pileup when you hit the ground. The hardest part about COVID is the misinformation, disinformation, and denials.
The 2,156- mile Tour de France is the most prestigious bicycle race in the world today. Fans love it because the cyclists are within reach as they course through the serpentine route. In 2020, the first year of this COVID pandemic, the race was delayed by two months as the organizers tried to put in place new rules for testing and contact tracing. In 2021, the second year of the pandemic, the first stage of the race had a tumultous close. Thanks to a woman who seemed more keen on appearing on television with her placcard than on watching the race, the laws of physics played out before our eyes. As seen in images and videos shared innumerable times since that moment, she was close enough to the riders to have her placcard brush a rider and cause a massive pileup, with several riders having to eventually pull out of the race because of their injuries.
This is not the first time that there’s been a pileup at the Tour de France; in fact less prominent bicycle races also have riders falling off their bikes if not because of a bystander, but because of some stray pebbles or other objects that suddenly show up on the course. Even with all the protective gear — best helmets and all — you can’t fight inertia, and Newton’s laws of motion are…
