It seems the Tour de France spreads into the collective consciousness as Seth Godin, marketing guru, analogizes between the gains made while climbing on a bike.
He reasons that the descents don’t separate the men from the boys…the rate at which one can descend, especially on the road, is somewhat limited by physics and safety.  But, as we learned all to well during the BURN 24 Hour Challenge, the climbing is where the real gains are made.
Look no further than Contador’s sprint up Verbier in Sunday’s Stage 15 of the ’09 Tour de France as proof of that.
Of course, being of a marketing/business bent, Godin’s post correlates climbing well to taking care of business when times are tough or conditions adverse. From a racing standpoint, I can tell you first hand that the three to five minutes per lap that the top teams put on us during the BURN were almost certainly gained on the climbs.
The climbs are where everyone suffers, but those who make the effort to prepare, train and plan for them are the ones that come out ahead and, often, stronger than before.
