A True World Tour?

The Paris-Roubaix race is often called "L'enfer du Nord":  the Hell of the North. This "classic," a long one-day road race, is held early in the Spring and has run through all kinds of weather, from snowstorms to heat waves.  It also includes mud and some of the roughest cobblestone roads in Europe.  Many riders who excelled in other kinds of races avoided Paris-Roubaix, or didn't fare well in it:  Bernard Hinault, arguably the most dominant racer not named Eddy Mercx (and, like Mercx, a five-time Tour de France winner) entered P-R only once.  He won, but vowed never to ride it again, in part because the tendinitis that afflicted his knees was aggravated by the vibration of the cobblestones and the weather

If P-R is the "Hell" of the North, Belgium's Ghent-Wevelgem might be its Purgatory.  The annual race winds through Flandrian towns anc countryside and includes those notorious those notorious  Belgian cobblestones that challenge the best dental work as well as other parts of riders' bodies.

The Paris-Roubaix and Ghent-Wevelgem are, like other classics including  Milan-San Remo,  considered Tour-level (elite) races.  For decades, they were dominated by riders from  northern and western European countries like Belgium, France and Italy.  Since the fall of the Soviet Union, riders from former Bloc countries have made their mark, as they have in the Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Espana).  So have cyclists from the Americas, mainly the US, Canada, Mexico and Colombia.

For a long time, observers believed that the first non-European or American riders to establish a presence in the European racing circuit would come from Japan, which has long had a strong tradition of cycling.  Also, China looked ready to become a cycling powerhouse because they have done so in other sports and it, like Japan, has a long tradition of cycling.

Perhaps they, or some other Asian country, will infiltrate the ranks of Tour-level riders.  But, perhaps not surprisingly, the latest cyclist to interrupt the European hegemony has come from a place that, however quietly, has been turning out other world-class athletes.

Yesterday, Biniam Girmay defeated favorites Christophe Laporte of France and Belgian Dries van Gestel in the latest edition of Ghent-Wevelgem.  The 21-year-old hails from Eritrea, an East African country across the Red Sea from Yemen.  He rode with a mastery and discipline that belied his youth:  Although he mastered the cobblestones, he left enough in the tank for a perfect sprint finish.

Biniam Girmay (l) celebrates his victory.  Photo by Kurt Desplenter, for Agence France- Presse.

Perhaps this is a sign that the World Championship will one day live up to its name--in cycling as well as other sports.  

Race Stopped Because of Fast Woman

The great artist Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucentes) inscribed "Yo lo vi" ("I saw this") on the plate bearing his etching "Los Desastres de la Guerra" ("The Horrors of War").

I probably will never do anything as great as any of his work.  I do, however, tell my students stories (in the context of whatever we're doing in class)--from my own or other people's lives--and end them with, "Yes, that happened during my lifetime."

One example is that of the Lovings.  Richard, who was white, and Mildred, who was black, married in Washington, DC.  One week after I was born, cops in Virginia burst into their home and arrested them.  Their case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which decided for them and struck down all remaining miscegenation laws in the United States--less than a month before I turned nine years old.

Another story comes from a woman I knew.  She went to a Seven Sisters college back when women's institutions of higher learning were still called, usually dismissively, "girls' schools. (Even when I was an undergraduate in the late 1970s, the women's sports teams were often called "girls'" teams.)  She applied for a job in a corporation and, after passing the typing test--which all female applicants took, even if they had advanced degrees--got a job as a secretary.  

There, she met the man she would marry and later divorce.  He had just spent time in the Army, which is probably the reason why he was hired.  He didn't (and never would) attend college; in fact, he had only a General Equivalency Diploma (which, despite its name, is not "equivalent" to a regular diploma when you're applying to colleges or for a job) that he completed while in uniform.

He did his job "well enough" and got several promotions.  She, on the other hand, was never promoted in spite of excellent performance reviews.  In those days, their company--like many others of the time (early to mid 1960s) had this policy:  If both members of a married couple were working in the company, the woman could not hold a higher position than the man.

I found myself thinking about those stories after a piece I heard on National Public Radio this morning.  According to that report, a women's bicycle race in Belgium was delayed because one of the riders caught up to the men's race, which started ten minutes earlier.

Yes, you read that right:  A women's race was delayed because they caught up to the men.

The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is the first "spring classic" of the Belgian racing season.  Held annually, the 74th edition ran yesterday.  The first edition of the female event commenced in 2006.

Now, when I say that the women caught up to the men, I'm exercising a bit of, um, poetic license.  Actually, one rider--Nicole Hanselmann, the former Swiss national champion--found herself riding right behind the ambulances and other support vehicles for the men's race.  

Race organizers claim that they delayed the women's race out of fears that the riders of "the fairer sex" would get "entangled" with the support vehicles.  And they didn't call their action a "stoppage" or even a "delay; instead, they said they "neutralised" the race until the other women caught up, and the men moved ahead.



Whatever they call it, it threw off Hanselmann:  She finished 74th.

I can't help but to think, though, that at least one of the men's race organizers was a religious fundamentalist--or just a plain-and-simple male chauvinist--who wanted to penalize Ms. Hanselmann for being a fast woman.

And to think:  This happened during my lifetime!