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CNN Saturday Morning News
Tour de France Begins This Weekend
Aired July 05, 2003 - 08:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This weekend in Paris, kickstands go up for the 100th Tour de France. Festivities begin with a two wheel tour around the City of Light.
CNN's Jim Bittermann has some thoughts on why the Tour de France is more than just a race.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A century after it began, there's still nothing to compare it to. Tour de France cycle race is more than just a sporting event, more than just summer entertainment. It is a grueling, three week test of man against man, man against nature, man against machine. A highly structured yet uncontrollable epic struggle, absolutely free to the 15 million spectators who will line the roads and the hundreds of millions who will watch on television.
Journalist Sam Abt has covered 27 Tours de France.
SAM ABT, "INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE": So I think it is the toughest sport. I can't think of anything else. It's like, it's like running a marathon every day for three weeks. You know, who else does this? The soccer World Cup, they play twice a week for 90 minutes. For a bike race, 90 minutes is, you know, it's just a small part of the day.
BITTERMANN: Indeed. This year's riders will spend six or seven hours a day pedaling up and down Alps and across the French plains, covering more than 3,400 kilometers, more than 2,100 miles. This year's favorite to win his fifth tour, American Lance Armstrong, wishes everyone would stop saying he's the favorite to win. He, like the other 197 cyclists know that in this race, the slightest mistake, the smallest injury, can stop even the best qualified.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I think the race has everything. I think it has difficulty. It has joy. It has excitement. It even has death.
BITTERMANN: In fact, racers have died on the Tour de France and there have been countless injuries and countless heroics. But as tour fans have been seeing at a Paris exhibition, it is all part of the saga and myth of a competition that began in a suburb Paris watering hole called the Reveil Matin, the Alarm Clock Cafe.
(on camera): Much has changed over the past 100 years. The crowds and the participation have gotten bigger. The bicycles and the prize money have gotten better. And here at the Reve Matin, they've had added Tex-Mex food to the menu.
(voice-over): But the Tour de France can still be, as one expert put it, a long palm constructed day upon day that mixes fantasy with reality and legend with history. The stuff that will stir devotees and dreams once again this weekend.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 5, 2003 - 08:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This weekend in Paris, kickstands go up for the 100th Tour de France. Festivities begin with a two wheel tour around the City of Light.
CNN's Jim Bittermann has some thoughts on why the Tour de France is more than just a race.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A century after it began, there's still nothing to compare it to. Tour de France cycle race is more than just a sporting event, more than just summer entertainment. It is a grueling, three week test of man against man, man against nature, man against machine. A highly structured yet uncontrollable epic struggle, absolutely free to the 15 million spectators who will line the roads and the hundreds of millions who will watch on television.
Journalist Sam Abt has covered 27 Tours de France.
SAM ABT, "INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE": So I think it is the toughest sport. I can't think of anything else. It's like, it's like running a marathon every day for three weeks. You know, who else does this? The soccer World Cup, they play twice a week for 90 minutes. For a bike race, 90 minutes is, you know, it's just a small part of the day.
BITTERMANN: Indeed. This year's riders will spend six or seven hours a day pedaling up and down Alps and across the French plains, covering more than 3,400 kilometers, more than 2,100 miles. This year's favorite to win his fifth tour, American Lance Armstrong, wishes everyone would stop saying he's the favorite to win. He, like the other 197 cyclists know that in this race, the slightest mistake, the smallest injury, can stop even the best qualified.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I think the race has everything. I think it has difficulty. It has joy. It has excitement. It even has death.
BITTERMANN: In fact, racers have died on the Tour de France and there have been countless injuries and countless heroics. But as tour fans have been seeing at a Paris exhibition, it is all part of the saga and myth of a competition that began in a suburb Paris watering hole called the Reveil Matin, the Alarm Clock Cafe.
(on camera): Much has changed over the past 100 years. The crowds and the participation have gotten bigger. The bicycles and the prize money have gotten better. And here at the Reve Matin, they've had added Tex-Mex food to the menu.
(voice-over): But the Tour de France can still be, as one expert put it, a long palm constructed day upon day that mixes fantasy with reality and legend with history. The stuff that will stir devotees and dreams once again this weekend.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
