Hey Kid, Can I Borrow This? Tour de France Rider Nabs Kid’s Bike
Last week, during the Tour de France’s 15th stage, Germany’s Jens Voigt crashed hard in the descent of the Col de Peyresourde.
Voigt was never a threat to win this 20-stage race. He wasn’t even a threat to win one of its 20 stages. He was so far behind when his front tire exploded, in fact, that no one in charge of helping him was even aware what happened.
And that is why this story involves a child’s bicycle.
Most of the time, when a cyclist wrecks his bike that bad and there is no team car with a spare bike to replace it, a “broom wagon” comes in to relieve him. This relief, of course, comes with an elimination from the Tour de France. Voigt had faced a similar elimination last year after a bike wreck ended his race before he reached Paris. He recalled later that it was going to take a lot more than a busted tire, broken spokes, a wobbly frame, aching calves, taunting crowds, sweltering heat, flashes of Tyler Durden out of the corner of his eye, “California Gurls” on an inescapable loop in his brain and a sweaty bike seat (probably) to stop him.
From Velonation:
Voigt’s bike was totaled. “The frame was broken, the derailleur was broken, the front wheel was broken – there was nothing you could fix there anymore. I think there is this children’s program where they do part of the Tour de France stages. One of those cars came by and they gave me one of their bikes.”
The bike was painted yellow and equipped with good old fashioned toe clips. “It was way too small for me, it didn’t fit with my pedal system and it didn’t really work the way I wanted it to work,” Voigt said. “But it was something to move and I took the chance.”
Voigt ended up riding a children’s Huffy somewhere between 15-20 kilometers (9-12 miles).
If I’ve learned anything from MarioKart Wii, when riding a severely undersized bike, all one has to do is lift the front wheel of that bike to gain additional boosts of speed for short periods of time. I haven’t seen video of the incident (all the media cameras were further on up the road with the competitors), but I’m pretty sure he didn’t pop wheelies on the little yellow bike. He did, however, exchange the kid’s bike for a proper replacement after Voigt’s manager discovered what happened and sent a police officer to hand over a new one as soon as he could.
Some might suggest 15-20 kilometers on a kid’s bike – 0r any bike – isn’t that far and therefore not that difficult, but a) this is the Tour de France, and nothing is easy, b) people who say that probably don’t know how long 20 kilometers is and c) there’s no c – unless you thought of something that I didn’t think of. In that case, consider whatever it is you just thought up to be c.
Voigt finished more than 30 minutes behind the stage leader, which is, um, not good. But considering what it took for him to finish, it’s kind of awesome. No one can tell Voigt he doesn’t have drive.
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