A strong fighting spirit is required to ride Grand Tour races, that\’s for sure.

\”Most Combative\” rider (see Tour de France) sounds rather like someone who\’s always at loggerheads with the coach; arguing with teammates; and constantly trying to run other riders off the road. Actually, it\’s not as negative as it sounds.

Most combative rider is the one who\’s good at attacking. It sounds rather odd to call a sudden, hard acceleration an \”attack\”, but who am I to try to change the lingo of Le Tour? Incidentally, that YouTube reminds me of the saying that bicycle racing is like chess on wheels.

There are attacks, and attacks, it seems. How about the sneak attack? Or a snack attack? Where did I put those Clif Bars? My fighting spirit seems limited to keeping fueled on a long Sunday ride, and keeping moving against the wind.

It\’s hard to believe that this year\’s Tour de France is nearly over. I suppose it\’ll be a hard fight for that yellow jersey over the next few days! And the super combativity award, of course.