Pezcyclingnews: Tour’15: Never Forgetting

Roadside Stage 5: The run from Arras to Amiens roughly follows the old Western Front line in the First World War, through several battlegrounds, including the Somme, and past the too-many cemeteries in this part of the world. Thousand of soldiers died here including Brits, Canadians, New Zealanders, and 46,000 Australians. It was a sombre start after 4 days of intense fighting on the road.What numbers stick in your head when it comes to racing and riding? Too often, it’s 1. It’s not always healthy to just think about winning and winners though. Or do you think of watts pumped out, kilometers ridden, altitude gained? For me, today’s numbers are 295,000 and 46,000.The weather was a total contrast to when we arrived at the Tour last week 20 degrees Celsius cooler and the pouring rain made it a sombre day to join the mobile circus that is the Tour de France.Mechanics tried to work in the downpour; tyre pressures were carefully noted and adjusted. Endless checks of bikes were carried out. It was a last minute scramble to the sign-in, and a precarious journey up onto the podium depart.The run from Arras to Amiens roughly follows the old Western Front line in the First World War, through several battlegrounds, including the Somme, and past the too-many cemeteries in this part of the world. That 295,000? It’s the number of Australians who fought in the conflict; 46,000 of them died. It’s a staggering, sickening statistic. It makes me shudder, and is...

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