Comic: Tour de France
Acid Tour
Le Tour started this year in the Netherlands, and the first stage (following the short prologue time trial) from Rotterdam to Brussels was chaotic, conducted in high winds and through a crowd of hundreds of thousands that had spilled into the roadway.
According to news reports, nearly every rider crashed at least once, and a pile-up less than a mile from the finish left dozens of riders on the ground, with one rider forced to carry his bicycle across the finish line.
Given the Tour's history with mood- and body-altering substances, riders were presumably prescribed a few pills for the bumps and bruises, a few more pills to ensure good performances tomorrow, and a few bottles of Belgian beer to wash it all down.
Roberto De Vido is a communications consultant, writer, cartoonist and jack of many trades. The former chief of Tucson Sentinel’s East Asia Bureau, he now lives in California (make of that what you will).
“It was dangerous, it was beyond dangerous — it was the most dangerous thing I ever experienced.”
— Mark Renshaw, HTC-Columbia team rider
3
