Kilkenny machine shows no sign of slowing down

Anthony Daly analyses Kilkenny’s crushing victory over Dublin.

The Tour de France will start later this month. Growing up, it was always an iconic sporting event of the summer but doping and drugs have completely diluted the authenticity and purity of the sport, especially the Tour de France. The event is fighting a constant battle for credibility and respect but the sport’s basic nature is still so raw and savage that the race still often strips everything else back to the bottom line of absolute will, and power of the mind.

The cyclist who breaks away from the pack up Alpe d’Huez is fighting a mind game against the machine. He is battling oxygen debt and the mountain’s savagery, his muscles are screaming for respite as the peloton try and hunt him down. The pack sense that vulnerability as they gradually reel him in. When they do, they crush him. Mentally, the guy who thought he could beat the machine is just crushed by it.