"The Tour throws a match into the box of fireworks and lets the whole lot go off at once"

The Doc hails the dizzying insanity of sport’s most dazzling spectacle

- Michael Hutchinson

There is a movie about the Eurovision Song Contest (titled The Eurovision Song Contest) that was released in 2020. It came about when Will Ferrell, who wrote it, saw the competition for the first time while staying with his wife's family in Sweden.

"What the hell is this?" he asked. "It's Eurovision," he was told. "It happens every year."

"Every year? This lunacy happens every year?" he replied incredulously. And he made a movie about it, which has one excellent joke near the start, but otherwise isn't as good as the actual competition.

Like most of us, I've been watching the Tour de France. And I can't stop thinking about the, "Every year?" quote.

I can't believe we do this every July and behave as if it's normal.

Every year I immerse myself in the Tour. And every year it knocks me off my feet and washes me upside down into the trees. It's overwhelming. Because I like it, and because it's my job, I try to keep on top of as much of it as I can. I'm always amazed by the detailed recollections many of my colleagues manage - who was in the early break on stage five in 2022 but punctured, who almost hit a spectator's handbag in 2005. Every year I begin July determined to achieve total recall.