At first glance, professional cycling is one of the most boring sports there is for spectators. The action consists of three weeks straight of biking, kilometre after kilometre, day after day. But it’s not as monotonous as it sounds, since it is a sport in which teamwork, technological innovation and strategy can have dramatic and surprising effects on the outcome.

The Tour of Spain celebrates its 75th birthday in 2010. The first editions had fewer stages (14 instead of 21) but the stages often exceeded 250 km — Just imagine cycling 25 kilometres an hour 10 hours a day for two weeks straight !…. Not exactly a relaxing ride through the park.

This edition of the tour begins in Seville. There will be 21 stages measuring an average of 170 km each. The stages, although shorter than in previous editions, have dramatic and challenging climbs. There will be sprint finishes and an explosive end. If you rent apartments in Seville on August 28th, you will be able to see the exciting start to the Tour of Spain, which will pass through the whole city. After this nocturnal trial finishes, the race will start in earnest, full of sweat and steep battles till the finish line in Madrid on September 19th.

In olden days, cyclists were disqualified from the for cheating, such as climbing the difficult routes with their bikes tied to the back of a car, or throwing nails along the path to hinder the progress of other teams. Doping has also been an issue since the beginning of cycling, and the earliest professional cyclists took cocaine, strychnine and alcohol to withstand the demands of the race.

This year, for example, many say that the exclusion of the Radio Shack Team was due to persistent rumours of doping on the team. But don’t think that cycling is a less honest sport than others, at bottom; we ask a lot more of professional cyclists than other athletes. We want them to get faster and faster, even though we are a completely unable to do the same. We get excited about cyclists because the sport shows us the perfect fusion of man and machine, both the determination and the tranquillity necessary to face the biggest, most difficult challenges.