The Tour de Life

I was lying on the couch, looking out over the water at the hot morning sun. Another day in paradise, but I was too sunburned to be out there. I needed a recharge day after the long kayak paddle the day previous and somehow found myself glued to the TV, watching the long bicycle race; the Tour de France. I had been watching pieces of it here and there, but today was the finish. What I didn't get was that everyone already knew the winner. He merely had to ride this last 70 miles in the pack of riders and he won. Apparently, the last day of the race was more like a parade through town. I thought this until the race got to the last 4 or 5 laps around the center of town and then something interesting happened.
Now I really like bicycles and own a couple of decent ones, but no spandex clothing I'm glad to say. The most I've ridden in a day was 50 miles and I'm damn proud of that feat. I still remember that ride and the feeling that I didn't want to sit down for a long time after.
Back on the TV, these guys I was watching had ridden about 3000 miles in a week and they had just finished about 50 miles that morning, when the announcer said, "here come the sprinters!". Huh? Then he proceeds to explain that there are men in the race that live to ride that one last day of the race and win just that one section. After all of that riding for a week, and then riding twice as fast as I ever have for 50 miles, they say, okay enough lollygagging, NOW I start racing. I saw this pack of young men pour it on going up hill faster than I could imagine going downhill. I saw energy that I could not believe in their faces and the way they pumped the pedals. How could they go through this whole thing thinking, screw who gets the big prize, I'm going for it today? Doesn't matter if they fell on Wednesday, underperformed on Thursday, and struggled on Mont Blanc.
I just couldn't get over it, riding that biggest race known to man and then sprinting on to the end just like they were going for the biggest prize of all.
I am definitely inspired.