Stage 1 of the 2014 Tour de France left from Leeds and finished in Harrogate. I was present for both start and finish, and it reinforced my belief that sometimes sport is just better on TV.
Plenty of sports are TV friendly – rugby league is an obvious example.
However, as Debbie Spillane pointed out recently, to truly understand the genius of Billy Slater, you have to see what happens off the ball – what ‘The Kid’ says and does when the cameras aren’t pointed at him.
For the spectator, cycling is not just TV friendly, it is TV dependent.
The Tour de France is my favourite three weeks of the year. 198 supreme athletes battling their machines, each other and, most importantly, the spectacular French landscape.
It’s a televisual feast, best enjoyed with a side of Ligget and Sherwen.
Regardless, when I learnt Yorkshire would be hosting the first two stages of the 2014 Tour, I was beyond excited. The first ever live cycling stage I would witness would not only be the Tour, it would be the Tour in Yorkshire – my fiancée’s home, and my first home in England.
I arrived in Leeds at 8:45am, two and a quarter hours before the Grand Départ.
Two and a quarter hours. I’d have a great view of the 101st Tour’s start, right? Bollocks.
Pre-race I watched a big screen as the 198 riders came onto a stage to sign on for the race. As for the start of the stage, I saw helmets passing between spectators’ heads.
Harrogate was worse. A kilometre from the finish line, the crowd was so dense, the only Tour action I saw was the bikes on the support cars’ roof racks.
Don’t get me wrong, the atmosphere was electric in both Leeds and Harrogate. They were fantastic hosts and the people of Yorkshire were proud and generous supporters.
My less-than-stellar day came down to two factors: my complete lack of understanding of the Tour’s draw, and the fleeting nature of live cycling for a spectator.
I should have arrived in both Leeds and Harrogate hours earlier if I wanted a decent view. I get that. Roarer Tom Fish turned up five hours in advance to get his spot.
But even if you get the absolute best position before a race begins, you ain’t gunna see much.
That much was made clear in Tom’s piece – five hours of waiting and though he managed to see Marcel Kittel’s victorious sprint, the story of the day was Mark Cavendish’s crash with Simon Gerrans, which Tom missed.
Few sports in the world are truly won at the very end. While a bunch sprint is only won when the first man crosses the line, a Grand Tour takes three weeks to win, and the odds of being present when the decisive move of the Tour occurs are astronomical.
Standing on the road and watching the peloton pass for a Grand Tour is the equivalent of watching a game of Test cricket and seeing a single ball being bowled.
For Stage 2, I stood outside York’s historic Minster and this time saw the entire peloton pass.
A few hundred metres away was the pub where I had sat and watched Cadel Evans ride that time trial in 2011, at the end of which he pulled on the Maillot Jaune, becoming the first Australian to ever win the Grand Boucle.
Both were beautiful moments, and I was glad to have experienced them in my adopted home city.
But I’m also glad that for the decisive moments of the 2014 Tour – Stage 5’s cobbles, Stage 18’s climbs of the Tourmalet and Hautacam, the Stage 20 time trial – I’ll be at home, seeing all the action unfold on TV.
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