For all those who are disenfranchised with the sport of cycling a story has come out of France which helps ground us in the true meaning of why we pursue our athletic endeavors. For those who decide to look past all the majesty and athleticism of this sport with such a rich history and fierce competition to look only at the fully-documented instances of doping, it is an event in which no times will be kept which illuminates the true depth of what sports can achieve. Next month, nearly two-hundred convicts will become the literal embodiment of Albert Londres’ famous quip about Le Forçats de la Route (“The Convicts of the Road”) as they travel 1400 miles through France by bicycle. 

Sylvie Marion, a spokeswoman for the French prison authorities, told the press, “This project aims to help these men reintegrate into society by fostering values like effort, teamwork and self-esteem. We want to show them that with some training, you can achieve your goals and start a new life.” The 196 cyclo-convicts will ride in one peloton, accompanied by another 124 guards and prison sports instructors. Breakaways, ubiquitous in the professional Tour de France, will naturally not be allowed. Ankle-bracelet GPS devices will ensure that all of the prisoners are accounted for along the route. And there will be no maillot jaune, the idea to instill unity rather than competition. 

So many of our youth, whether in the United States or elsewhere around the world, would be so lucky to enjoy such a philosophy. Too often the prison-industrial complex centers its philosophy not around rehabilitating its charges for a fruitful return to society but rather around allowing minds and bodies to rot and vengeful thoughts to fester, resulting in little more than recidivism. Here’s to hoping this pilot program pays dividends for the French, for sports has the ability to do many wonderful things beyond dazzling us as spectators. 

We can all learn something from every party in this story. The forward thinking of the French prison authorities is laudable. The courage of the convicts, and their willingness to tackle such an arduous bicycle tour, should be commended. Some voices in cyberspace find this little more than a joke, arguing that time behind bars should be spent behind bars. But just as no two snowflakes are alike, neither are two crimes. For those who are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, the punishment often goes beyond reason. A healthy experience borne of teamwork and cooperation could be just the ticket to keep people out of a repeat trip to the penitentiary. Obviously the current system isn’t doing the trick, here or overseas... 
 

If that didn’t seem absurd enough as you first read it -- “Convicts to Get Their Own Tour de France” -- yet another story from France is indeed even harder to fathom:  

Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!

Rafael Nadal Loses on the Red Clay of Roland Garros! 

This whole tournament has been one exercise after another in seeing how far reality can be skewed. Dinara Safina, the woman who was supposed to be exposed as a pretender in the pole position, continues to churn along. The women’s draw might’ve been a minefield -- Elena Dementieva, Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic are all out of the tournament -- but Safina prepares for her semifinal clash with 20-seed Dominika Cibulkova with a clear path to the finals, which would help maintain her top-dog status. 

For Nadal, it wasn’t the ATP points that mattered here... the Spaniard was competing against history. With both the consecutive-titles record and the calendar Grand Slam in play, Rafael turned in a thoroughly uninspired performance against Swedish veteran Robin Soderling. Soderling, who is one of the rare players on the tour with whom the normally congenial Nadal has had issues in the past, came out pressing the issue. Four sets later, Nadal was now 31-1 lifetime at Roland Garros, the armor proving no longer impenetrable. 

What happened to the magician from Mallorca who seemingly was impenetrable? Soderling was supposed to be mere fodder to be cast aside en route to that inevitable fifth title that would’ve put Nadal ahead of Bjorn Borg. After all, in the Italian Open earlier in May, Nadal had plowed 6-1, 6-0 through Soderling en route to the title. But Borg’s countryman, utilizing his size advantage over Nadal (6’4” versus 6’1”), played the match of his life. Getting to every ball, using his reach to cleanly counter Nadal’s high-spin shots, Soderling left everything on the court. Aggressively compiling 61 winners and nine aces during the match, every nail in Nadal’s coffin was justly earned. 

Afterward, Nadal made no excuses. “Well, that’s the end of the road, and I have to accept it. I need to face the fact I didn’t play well this week. It’s not a tragedy. I had to lose one day. I have to accept my defeat as I accepted my victories: with calm.” One could only wish that the sports starts to which most Americans are more accustomed could accept defeat with such grace. There’s something noble about the post-match handshake, win or lose. Just as Stanley Cup competitors line up for a handshake after the series, this is one of those traditions that illuminate the reality that despite how fierce the competition may be on the court, there is still an inherent respect for one’s opponent. Players like LeBron James could learn a thing or two about magnanimity from Nadal’s comportment. 

The train ride hasn’t ended yet for Soderling, who subsequently plowed through Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals to set up a spectacularly stunning semifinal clash with Fernando Gonzalez, who did some giant-killing of his own in taking out third-seeded British sensation Andy Murray. Roger Federer, who had his own shaky experience with Tommy Haas when he lost the first two sets of their fourth-round match, nearly lost his opportunity to take advantage of a Nadal-less field. 

It is a rough time for favorites plying their trade on the red clay surfaces of Stade Philippe Chartrier, Stade Suzanne Lenglen, and the rest of the facilities at Roland Garros. Federer is still now the big remaining favorite, expected to take his first Roland Garros victory with the King of Clay out of the draw. But Federer certainly isn’t looking superhuman. Don’t turn your back on Soderling -- he proves match after match that perhaps he is finally rounding into the potential that has long been apparent to Swedish Davis Cup captain Mats Wilander and coach Magnus Norman (himself the last Swede to reach the finals at Roland Garros in 2000). He just might have an upset or two left in his wide wingspan... 

And in one final upset before the semifinals, Serena Williams followed her sister out of the tournament with an epic battle against Svetlana Kuznetsova. There is certainly no shame in losing to Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion and a 2006 finalist at Roland Garros. Williams has shown signs of fatigue throughout the tournament, getting taken to three sets thrice in five rounds and ultimately losing the final one of her run. Failing to dominate her opponents, she never appeared to be in great condition. But it is an upset nonetheless for the world number-two, the woman who was indeed Safina’s biggest detractor when she overtook Williams for the top spot... 
 

For Denis Menchov, being in the top spot meant that it wasn’t about upset but rather merely maintaining his status as he burst from the starting gate in the final day time trial through Rome at the 2009 Giro d’Italia. A mostly clean ride along the technical Roman course and the general classification was his conquest. The contender on the Dutch Rabobank squad, who previously won the 2005 and 2007 Vuelta a España, stepped up in the centenary Giro to become the third Russian to take the maglia rosa. 

With Danilo Di Luca smelling his second Giro crown should he falter, Menchov pushed off from the starting ramp onto the rain-slicked roads. By winning the Stage 12 time trial through the Cinque Terre, Menchov wrested the jersey from former winner Di Luca. The condensation was now making the roads much more slippery than they had been when early leader, Lithuanian time-trial champion Ignatas Konovalovas, had come through to set the benchmark time of 18:42. 

Menchov rode like a man possessed, on pace to blister past even the 23-year-old Konovalovas. But in the final kilometer, number 3456 of 3456, Menchov -- one of the few riders to ride a full aero setup in the inclement weather -- slipped on the cobblestones and went a-tumblin’. If not for the astute work of Rabobank mechanic Vincent Hendriks, we might have seen a dramatic turn of events. Hendriks had Menchov’s replacement bike off the top of the team car before Denis even finished skidding across the paving stones. Helping the Russian remount, Hendriks saved the Giro for his team and its leader. 

So Konovalovas stayed atop the day’s podium, and Menchov despite the crash still managed to double his lead on Di Luca to 41 seconds at the end of the race. Ultimately, all that separated these guys in their three-week tour of attrition was five meters per hour of racing. Had they raced this distance without stopping, Menchov would’ve come in over the line while Di Luca was less than a quarter-mile behind. 

The Giro has rightly lofted its status up nearer and nearer to the prestige of the Tour de France. With a field no longer dominated by Italian riders -- five of the top ten on general classification and eight of the top ten young riders were foreigners on Italian soil -- the race has truly emerged from its provincial past to become a truly global spectacle... 
 

At a spectacle even older than professional stage-race cycling, it appears that Borel will get his shot after all... on the horse that started this whole crazy journey to the Jockey Triple Crown. With Rachel Alexandra’s new owners and trainer deciding to withhold the filly from the Belmont field in favor of resting her after a tightly-compacted recent race schedule, Mine That Bird will undoubtedly come into the final leg of horse racing’s premier treble as the favorite. No longer will the gelding sneak up on his competitors -- with a Derby win and second at the Preakness under two different jockeys, the horse obviously has strong stuff. 

But even at Pimlico it appeared that he was not quite riding his race. Borel wrote the blueprint when he hugged Mine That Bird along the rail to fly from last to first going away at Churchill Downs. When Borel decided to ride uber-filly Rachel Alexandra, the wonder horse who blistered her competition under Borel by over twenty lengths at the Kentucky Oaks, Chip Woolley turned to Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith. Had Smith had the foresight to follow Borel’s plan, we might be talking about this horse becoming the first Triple Crown thoroughbred to win all three under two different riders rather than Borel being the first jockey to win all three with two different horses. 

Borel, though, knew how to hold off the hard-charging Mine That Bird enough to take the second leg. So as horse and jockey reunite mere weeks after they were opponents, it is Borel on the cusp of history. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of Soderlings in the Belmont field to knock off the favorite. 

Charitable Man, who sat out the first two legs of the Triple Crown, will be fresh to take on the more battle-tested Mine That Bird. Dunkirk, the $3.7 million horse who came into the Derby as the favorite after several mounts suffered the ignoble fate of the pre-race scratch, will continue seeking the victory line for star-crossed owner Todd Pletcher. A quartet of local New York jockeying legends -- Rajiv Maragh on Brave Victory, Edgar Prado on Mr. Hot Stuff, Jose Lezcano on Miner’s Escape, and Kent Desormeaux on Summer Bird -- will try to use their home-track knowledge of the Belmont’s quirky 1.5-mile oval to seek an edge over Borel as well. 

But Bo-rail has shown time and time again that the cards can be stacked against him and he will still find a gap to squirt through to leave everyone perplexed and fighting for second. With history on the line, it’s hard to imagine another Nadal-like upset. Keep those eyes glued to the screen as history unfolds, because we might just see Mine That Bird defeat every other male in the field once again... 
 

History is all around us as the calendar shifts from May to June. Whether it is in history lost, as is the case for Nadal; history potentially to be made, as for Borel; or history written, as for Menchov -- we can still learn a great deal from how athletes comport themselves in each situation. The beauty of sports is that there is never a guarantee on anything.  

With the lawn tennis season about to begin, pre-Tour de France stage races already getting ready (the Dauphine Libere is next on the docket), the seasonal switch in soccer from club to nation when the Conferderations Cup begins in less than two weeks, and water polo about to celebrate its world championships... we’ve got a hefty dose of spectacle to consume. Be sure to get your recommended daily dose of diverse sport!