Before you read the next paragraph, I want to reassure you that this post is a love story.
Today, Mark Cavendish drew level with Barry Hoban at the top of the all-time list of British Tour de France cyclists - they both have eight stage wins. Cav has done it in two years, and he's big favourite for this year's green jersey. (I might explain about all the different jerseys one day. I'm told by people who want me to stop that I do this very interestingly and they get it now, please stop, please, please stop.)
So I looked up Barry Hoban. He's a 69 year-old Yorkshireman who completed eleven Tours - also a record. He perennially battled Tom Simpson as top British rider. Simpson was a great crowd favourite, loved for his heroic solo attacks. In 1967 he died on Mont Ventoux, where this year's Tour will climax. Ventoux is a relentless, inecorable climb up a horrible bald mountain in the middle of a vast plain. Simpson - they were all on drugs and brandy for a mixture of misconceived reasons - pushed himself to the limit, fell over, said put me back on the bike, set off again, collapsed and died. The next day, out of respect to Simpson, the other riders let Hoban win.
Two years later, Hoban married Simpson's widow.
I am going to Lord's.
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