Let's Watch the Tour Together!
I've planned watch parties for both the Tour de France Hommes AND Tour de France Femmes. Details below.
Leg Day is a newsletter pursuing joy as a city cyclist. I write about the mundane oddities one encounters while moving around on two wheels, the infrastructure we rely on to stay safe in our car-addicted society, inspiring people I’ve met, and bike events you simply must attend.
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Click the above headline to open this dispatch in a new tab—it looks better outside of your email account. I’ll also have fixed any typos. Hopefully.
Last month, I made an Instagram Reel to promote the first pilot for Friendly Freelancer Laps.
A bunch of people saw it (terrifying) but I did notice that the post brought a bunch of new smart, hot people to the fold of this newsletter, which is, in my mind, exclusively read by smart, hot people. If you’re new to Leg Day, welcome! Thank you for not driving!
I’m hoping to do freelancer laps again this month, but want to see whether a different day of the week and more lead time will draw a different or larger crowd. Do any of these dates work for you?
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming (more event invites.)
If you had told me four years ago that I’d become the kind of person who regularly gets up before 9 am with the sole intention of sitting in front of my computer to watch a sport, I would not have believed you.
For years, my genuine apathy towards ball games has confounded close friends, professional contacts, and more than one barfly. Sure, I can appreciate the triumph of the human spirit. And I love reading great writing about sports—what 31-year-old man hasn’t gone down a David Foster Wallace on tennis rabbit hole. But my past attempts to understand the minutiae that goes into hitting, throwing, or kicking an orb really well have landed me in spaces that I find pretty boring. Most conversations about sports seem to end with people just listing off names of guys they can remember.
Becoming a cyclist has changed that. The first year I started riding in New York City, Netflix released the first season of “Tour de France: Unchained.” I was surprised at how compelling it all felt. I thought the show did a good job of establishing the broad dynamics within the sport: the way a stage’s terrain lends itself to a different kind of rider1, the fervor with which people compete just to finish in the top 10, the sheer FRENCHNESS of that particular event. But I also felt a real connection to the kind of effort people were putting in to get themselves around some of the most beautiful roads in the world as quickly as possible. As a then recent Strava user, I knew how fast I was going when I was trying to go fast. Learning that the pros were often riding three times as fast on their easy days blew my mind to bits.
The curiosity has turned into a full-blown obsession. I am now, unfortunately, a guy who is capable to listing the names of a bunch of guys (and gals! and folks!) who I think, for whatever reason, will triumph over others. I have loosely held opinions about which one-day races are worth watching (Milan San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Dwars door Vlaanderen) and which are not (Il Lombardia, Liège-Bastogne-Liège) that I will defend with unearned gusto. And yes, I have become the kind of guy who will get up early to watch cycling. Last year, I even stayed up late to watch the second stage of the women’s Tour Down Under2.
A lot of this descent into degeneracy has happened because of the internet. As soon as I started watching Tour de France Hommes3 highlights on YouTube, I was served more pro cycling content. Thankfully, I also have friends and family who are into cycling, who recommended some good, less algorithmically optimized sources for news and commentary. I deeply appreciate the breathe of what Lantern Rouge Cycling Podcast (Spotify, Apple), does, especially for a show made by three people. It’s insane how well and quickly they cover the entire sport of cycling, producing preview, recap, and broad picture episodes for basically every big race on the men and women’s calendar. The Escape Collective is a great source for this stuff too. It’s the website I have book marked on my phone to read whenever I have downtime, but I also love their podcasts. Spin Cycle (Spotify, Apple), which takes a pretty journalistic focus on mostly the men’s calendar4, and Wheel Talk (Spotify, Apple), hosted by four former racers who are now reporters, commentators, advocates and/or rider agents, are basically immediate listens when they find their way into my podcast feed.
But as good as articles and podcasts are, they can’t talk back to me. The content scratches an itch, but I’d love to meet more people in my community who might also teach me something about the sport’s history I don’t know, offer their own insight on the goings on of a particular race, and spar with me about whether Remco is overrated5.
Last year, I hosted a watch party for a random stage of the Tour de France Hommes6 and another for a random stage of the Tour de France Femmes7. It was really hard to find places with TVs that were open early enough to screen the race OR didn’t already have something planned that we’d be interrupting. This year, I got my act together a lot quicker.
I’m going to host two weekday Tour de France work-from-home friendly co-working sessions, one weekend outdoor park party, and one group Zwift workout. Each of these coincides with a genuine leg buster of a stage. Every team is going to be trying to do whatever it can to hold or improve their place within the general classification until the last possible moment. All of the events have an official start time of 9 am, and will end after the stage finshes. (Usually between noon and one.)
The two co-working events will be held in the back of Cordelia, a bookstore, coffee shop, and wine bar in Crown Heights. They have a large projector screen in the back where they’ve been showing World Cup matches, plenty of chairs and tables, strong Wi-Fi, and good coffee. (Google Maps)
The watch party on July 25th will be held at the McCarren Parkhouse, the cafe in the building in the northeast corner of McCarren Park. We’ll be watching on the TV in the covered back patio—no need to worry about rain or extreme sun exposure. I’m excited to try a Club Club sandwich, but they’ll also be serving caffinated and carbonated drinks as usual. Don’t get too wild though, we might do a Jalopy Ride after. (Google Maps)
I’m most nervous about the third one. For the first time since 2022, the Tour de France will go up Alpe D’Huez8, an epic 8 and a half mile climb with 21 swtichbacks and near constant changes in steepness. It’s technical, it’s tricky, and gets mobbed by fans every time it’s in the race. It’s always fun to watch. Most people will never get to ride it, or any of these French mountains, themselves. To solve this, back in 2018, the psychos at Zwift created a digital reproduction of the climb using GPS data. The moment after I rode it for the first time a few weeks ago, I felt a deep need to try and tackle it again. Why not do it while some of the best cyclists in the world are attacking each other up the real thing?
To make this work, I’ve set up a LEG DAY club on Zwift. You should be able to join with this link. We’ll do the “Tour of Fire and Ice” route, with the goal to stick together before the base of Alpe Du Zwift. Then, everyone will be able to take it at their own pace. No matter how quickly you do it, you’ll be able to say that you’ve done it. Pretty nice way to go into a weekend! I’ll host a concurrent Google Meet during the ride, so that we can cheer each other on while we’ve also got one eye on the race.
If you want calendar events for any of these, just shoot me an email! I hope to see you and all your cycling friends there!
It was only later that I learned every stage is a Tadej stage.
S/o Naomi Ruegg, who is always entertaining and animated. For more evidence, you can watch the finale of this year’s Tour Down Under, where she found herself in a consequential finale without a teammate against a group of three riders from UAE-ADQ.
Leg Day Style Guide update:
Tour de France - When referring broadly to the summer stage race organized by the Amaury Sport Organization, “Tour de France” is okay. If specifically talking about the men’s race, which is currently 21 stages, use “Tour de France Hommes” (“TDFH” on second mention). The women’s race, currently 9 stages and officially titled the “Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift,” use “Tour de France Femmes” (“TDFF” on second mention).
Usually twice a week, but they’re currently doing daily podcasts from the ground at the Tour de France.
I don’t think he is, but he definitely needs a therapist.
The dates I had wanted to book were unavailable at the venue I was working with.
It was cool to see Mavi Garcia, then FOURTY ONE years old, win a stage though! Age is just a number!
It must be noted that the TDF Femmes ended with Alp D’Huez in 2024. That stage was INCREDIBLE, maybe the single best stage I’ve seen since I started watching cycling.