it's been 10 years
4 July 2011. It is a swelteringly hot day, my 13-year-old self hates the sun and spends her summer holiday mostly indoors where the unforgiving heat of central Europe sometimes does not make it. It’s about half past one and there is absolutely nothing on TV. These are the days when even people my age have facebook and twitter but there is not much I know what to use them for so TV it is. One channel, after all, catches my attention. They are showing aerial shots of French countryside, the hills, the valleys, the chateaux and the sunflower fields and picturesque small towns. My precocious teen mind feels a lightbulb go off – I love history and geography, this is perfect. And oh, they are also showing funny-looking spandex-clad cyclists, almost two hundred of them, cycling through the landscape as well.
Honestly I didn’t care that much. I hated any kind of physical activity (if that isn’t obvious by how I was spending my summer), and I didn’t care much to watch sports either, unless it was the one sport Slovakia was good at – one of my first memories ever is from early 2001 when I cried during an interview with our then star goalkeeper after our ice hockey team lost with who-knows-who.
I watched the entire stage. I still remember who won that day – Tyler Farrar, as well as what his victory celebration looked like – he made a W with his hands, which at the time didn’t mean much to me. I was captivated, though, because of a wobble he had as he tried to put the W together.
The day after, I wanted to know whether he’d win again. So I turned the TV on again. And the day after. And for that entire July, I lived and breathed Tour de France. It was the Tour when Mark Cavendish had his HTC train and won 5 stages, including at Champs-Elysees, in maillot verte. It was the Tour before Sky started going for the dominant wins. It was the Tour Andy Schleck came to show he is the best and did so in one of the most beautiful stages in a long solo break to winning on top of Galibier. It was the Tour when he and his brother were so strong and so fun to watch. And it was the Tour that got me hooked on a sport I’d never truly cared or knew about and which ended up getting me through my teens.
I am so thankful to that bored 13-year-old girl whose only interest in the sport was the landscape. I still enjoy looking at the sights, but cycling has been front stage for quite a while now.
