Bicycle Touring in France

It's that time of year again.


The video's a bit ridiculous, like Michael Bay Presents: the Tour de France Route, but even an animated route map is absurdly exciting.


As Brian Blessed once said, "My God - Look at the mountain!"

I like the Tour's grading of summits, in that it is a system deliberately constructed so that it has a category of mountains so immense and difficult they are beyond categorisation. It's as if pedaling up a gigantic alp is not enough but the riders have to contemplate the philosophical conundrum at the same time. How very French.