Tour de France is the best TV you need to watch MyZA

Reasons why the Tour de France is the best TV you’re not watching. Photo: AFP / Getty Images

Halimah Marcus believes that it is completely worthwhile watching the Tour de France on your television set. With two weeks left of racing and the Alps still to come, it’s not too late to tune in. Here’s why you should:

You get the whole story
22 teams, each with nine riders to start, are competing in this year’s Tour for a grand total of 198 cyclists. The Tour is a race that lays itself bare for 21 stages in 23 days, unfolding in one big beautiful mess of blood and sweat.

The plot twists like the road
France is a smorgasbord of iconic climbs and punishing locales from which race director Christian Prudhomme must chose. We can predict which days are likely to be the decisive ones for the overall standings, but where the true climax will come is anyone’s guess.

Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin
The Madden and Summerall of professional cycling, these guys have been announcing the Tour for years now. Over the years they’ve created a wonderful lexicon for the sport. Not least among their expressions: “Dancing on the pedals,” “putting the hammer down,” “a real job of work,” “wearing a mask of pain,” and, one for the fans – “the tunnel of noise.”

Those scenic routes
You’ve seen Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and the like-nature shows with sweeping shots of earth and sea. The cinematography of the Tour holds up well in comparison.

Crazy stuff
The most memorable TV episodes are the ones that remind you how futile it is to guess what’s coming next. Strong narratives consistently re-imagine the road ahead. The Tour may not have a writers room, but there’s no shortage of surprises.

There’s suffering, but with a soul
We’ve seen enough to know that suffering sells on TV. One way to describe the Tour is as a showcase of suffering. Here is an argument of one longtime fan, as excerpted from the stellar documentary Hell on Wheels:

“For me suffering has two meanings. Suffering can be negative. If you try to suffer for it’s own sake, that’s bad. It’s unhealthy. There is something wrong in your head. But when you talk about suffering that you must get through and that you can survive through enormous effort, that is something else. That is positive, good, and beautiful.”