{"id":21126,"date":"2013-07-15T11:50:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T09:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/how-does-the-tour-de-france-really-affect-you\/"},"modified":"2013-07-15T11:50:42","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T09:50:42","slug":"how-does-the-tour-de-france-really-affect-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/how-does-the-tour-de-france-really-affect-you\/","title":{"rendered":"How does the Tour de France really affect you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael O\u2019Reilly<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0On Your Bike<\/a>\u00a0states his views on this question:<\/p>\n

\"Australia's<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Orica-GreenEDGE on their way to winning the team time trial in this year\u2019s Tour de France. Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n

If you ride a bicycle regularly, do you have to care about the Tour de France<\/a>?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking about this after a recent exchange with a fellow cyclist, who said everyone in his office knows he cycles to work, and every July they want to talk to him about the world\u2019s biggest race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy, because I couldn\u2019t give a rat\u2019s about the event,\u201d he said, or words to that effect.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the Tour. A larger question is, what impact does the professional sport of cycling \u2013 with its victories, its star performers and its controversies, many of them doping-related<\/a> \u2013 have on everyday cycling, and the perception of cycling by the wider community?<\/p>\n

Britain is undergoing something of a cycling renaissance at present, and many have claimed that recent sporting successes have helped to drive acceptance and awareness of cycling.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Tour de France win by Bradley Wiggins<\/a> (subsequently knighted) and a fistful of cycling medals at the 2012 London Olympics certainly kept Spandex in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Of course, this razzle-dazzle is only part of the picture. Consider London, with its congestion charge, a well-funded share bike scheme that\u2019s not strangled by helmet laws, and plans to spend a further $1 billion on cycling infrastructure \u2013 sensible and forward-thinking measures to make the city cleaner and more liveable in the future.<\/p>\n

Did Cadel Evans\u2019<\/a> Tour victory in 2011 help bring a better attitude to cycling in Australia? Will media coverage of Orica-GreenEDGE\u2019s<\/a> four-day hold on the yellow jersey in this year\u2019s event have a beneficial effect on interactions between motorists and cyclists? It\u2019s hard to know.<\/p>\n

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