Tour De France

I would consider Tour De France as one of the greatest athletic feats that a human body can accomplish. A lot of people would disagree with me, but that does not bother me. It is a cycling race for 21 days where they average almost 200km a day.

The tour starts with a prologue and ends in Paris at Champs de Elysse. It has basically three kinds of stages time trial, flat stages and the mountains. The secret to winning the tour is "if you are good in the time trial and the mountains you have a chance of winning". There are normally 3 time trial stages and about 6 or 7 mountain stages and those decide the race. It is fascinating to watch these stages as they are so competitive and the cyclists employ teamwork, tactics and their last ounce of energy.

It is a very tactical race and the team is very important. Each team has a leader and the goal of the team members is to support the team leader unambiguously with team interests always above personal goals. The discovery team (formerly the US Postal Team) was the best example with Lance Armstrong being their leader and everyone else supporting him 100%. The T-Mobile is the example of a team which had the best individual riders, but could not win the tour since they had no team leader.

This year's tour was the most open and exciting tour after a long time since the Armstrong era was over and every rider thought they had a chance. It also helped since the top two riders Jan Ulrich and Ivan Basso were disqualified. Floyd Landis of US won the tour this year after a big comeback in one of the mountain stages and scoring over his nearest rivals in the final time trial. He was formerly in the US Postal team and later on went to Phonak to become a team lead.

Somehow cyclists are always caught up in performance enhancing drugs nightmares. There is a major scandal every year and this tarnishes the sport quite badly and loses a lot of spectators as well. Although, it has one of the most comprehensive testing policy, some of the cyclists are still following the wrong path. Hopefully, in the future the sport becomes more clean and attracts a wider audience. It is a big religion in Europe and catching up in US. It will be a great deal for cycling if it can penetrate Asia.

Happenings this week

There were varying events that had on an impact on me this week.

One was the sad demise of Pramod Mahajan who I considered a politican of the current generation. He was a very dynamic, forward thinking, tech savy person and his thinking was like a management person in a MNC. He was not afraid to wear clothes like any normal person unlike other politicians who put up a show by wearing white khadi clothes. Although he is considered the main person responsible for the failure of the 'India shining' election campaign, he has proved his worth to the BJP and the country. There has been a series of unfortunate deaths of young politicians who thought differently and would have carried India forward like Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, Kumaramangalam and so on. Hopefully more and more young leaders come into politics and take over from the oldies.

I went to a concert tonight of Mandolin Srinivasan in Manhattan. It was a delightful concert which kept me engrossed throughout. The tempo was very good and a high energy level was maintained. His mastery of the mandolin is too good to be true and it seemed as if he was just toying with it. His support cast was fantastic as well with mridangam, ghatam and his brother Rajesh on the other mandolin. He gave equal prominence to all his co artistes and did not hog the show, a solid team performance. I got an opportunity to talk to him after the concert and congratulated him on a very fine performance. My evening was made and fond memories to cherish.

I have been travelling to Washington DC every week and tried the train and the flight as my options. Delta shuttle (hourly service between NY and DC) is proving to be a hit with me since it is very flexible in terms of timings, airport terminal is separate (security check is fast), tickets cost the same price even if you buy on the same day and very quick for me to travel to the airport as well. They serve alcohol on board. This is very surprising considering that none of the domestic flights (i hate the flights in US) that i have travelled on before in the United States do so. One more trend i am noticing is that i get called for the special screening at the security (happened 3/7 times now).

The summer has begun and it feels good not to wear a coat or jacket while stepping outside. Baseball season has started, NBA playoffs are in progress and the soccer season for the leagues are completing and the cup fever is catchin on. Looking forward to an exciting world cup and watching some good soccer games.