I’m pretty sure, you all know the good old cycling bon mot, that one-day races are like thrillers and grand tours (a. k. a the big three week long events) like soap operas.
Indeed, it seems to be a witty remark considering how thrilling the last few kilometres of the Milano-Sanremo can be or how many unexpected plot twists we can witness during Ronde van Vlaanderen or Paris-Roubaix. And of course, if we take a look at the story of the birh of the Tour de France, we possibly couldn’t more agree, that the form, how people are following an event day by day, because they want to know what’s next in the story, reminds us, 21st century people, of the idea of tv series easily. Of course, people living in the late 19th and early 20th century were more familiar with novels published in series in newspapers, but nowadays we watch significantly more stories in series, than read. Even I, a literary scholar do that. It’s normal.
And that’s the other thing! The aforementioned bon mot was most likely born in the era, when tv-series were usually shallow, clichefull, cheesy stupid stories, inferior to the films or novels. But many things have changed in the last few decades and nowadays high-quality tv series seem to be the leading form of long-term story telling. And the different forms of storytelling have always shaped the ways of human consciousness.
When I was watching the first stage of the 2021 Tour de France, and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) just crossed the finish line, I had that stupid feeling that
“I know this thing, this is very similar to… to…I don’t know what exactly, but it is really like that thing.”
The best idea to figure out what is this like, was to start a brand new project (was basicly the first version of my upcoming new book). Yes, I’m a graphomaniac, who needs the act of writing (typing) to stimulate the act of thinking. Anyhow, it didn’t helped first. And then suddenly, during watching a Zach Braff interview about directing the second episode of Ted Lasso, it became everything clear: the first (or better to say the first two) stage(s) was/were like a pilot episode of a tv (or streaming) series.
Just think about it! In the recent few years in the middle of the conjuncture of producing high quality series for television a new trend has developed (partly because of the way how shows are pitched): sometimes the first episode of the series is abit different. More dramatic, fulled with more tension, because the story has to catch the attention of the audience. Main characters are frequently introduced whileconflicted to eachother in a scene which remaijs pivotal throughout of the whole story. And the episode ends quite often with a cliffhanger. Then the second episode is, where usually the everyday life in the world of the particular story is introduced.
The first weekend of the 2021 Tour de France was quite unusual. Traditionally the opening stages of a grand tour are either time trials or routes finishing with a bunch sprint to favor the spriters, who have very limited opportunity to wear the yellow jersey, usually in the first week of the race only.
In 2021, the first two stages looked very similar to the Ardennes Classics finishing on smaller hills in both cases. Nobody expected bunch spints, rather a big showcase among the main protagonists of the recent few cycling seasons, a. k. a. the actual stars of the peloton. Not only between the obvious GC contenders like Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic (nota bene, the fact, that the GC contenders were showing themselves actively on the first few stages is another sign of this new styled road cycling racing), but also the world champion Julian Alaphilippe, the all-rounder Wout van Aert, and of course Mathieu van der Poel, whose story was on a different level due to the sport historical context.
The average (mostly flat) first-week stages cyme only after this spectacular opening weekend.
Isn’t it like to put the main protagonist of a show in the spotlight right at the beginning?
Although Van der Poel left the peloton right after he lost the yellow jersey and also Roglic had to abandone the race due to his injuries after involving a crash, they all were pretty much the protagonsist of the spectacular show called Tour de France 2021.