Things to Look for: “Natural Breaks”
By Jessica | Permalink |
2 comments | July 12th, 2007 | Trackback
So, let’s say you’re new to cycling and you’re really enjoying the Versus coverage of the Tour de France - especially the fun sayings the two English announcers come up with. I mean, who couldn’t love “suitcase of courage”? But just in case you’ve been confused about what the heck a “natural break” is, I’m here to set you straight.
The Brits are altogether too polite with their nomenclature here - a “natural break” is what we crude Americans might call a “potty break” or “pee break” or the like. Sometimes riders will take these pee breaks while they’re still riding (this is especially amusing when a teammate is forced to push them along while they “take care of business” - I always imagine what a crap job that is, no pun intended), and sometimes the entire peloton will pull over for a moment in an agreed-upon pause in the racing. The latter is almost never shown, to keep the public from thinking of such nasty things as bodily waste while they’re enjoying a sporting event. And generally the TV cameras avert their eyes if they see even a rider going into “natural break” position. Apparently this year the photographers are less prudish.
In one day, both Reuters (right) and Graham Watson (left) snapped shots of an entire line of riders relieving themselves alongside the road. This appears to be on two different occasions, proving that these boys are keeping well hydrated. Thankfully there are places along the race route without hordes of spectators, or the riders would either have to be more discreet or race fans would get a very different view of their favorite riders. Indeed.
Now, next time you hear anyone mention something about a “natural break,” see if you can catch it in the TV shot before the producer tells the cameraman to think of the children watching.
Comments
The husband tells me that the ladies do the same thing - pull off en masse and pee - only yes, they do have to completely dismount. Squatting on a bike isn’t exactly elegant. The other option, he says, is they just don’t bother stopping at all - they just, for lack of a better phrase, pee in their pants. If you think about it, by that point in a race their urine is probably mostly water. If it’s raining, they won’t notice a difference - wet is wet. If it’s sunny, it’ll dry pretty quickly. And if it’s all about winning, you’re certainly not going to let a little pee stop you from doing that, right?
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Funny stuff. The Brits will also say “call to nature”.
I guess your next assignment is to find out what the ladies do since they are running the women’s Giro right now. Wouldn’t they completely have to dismount?