That's very true and one reason why I said "traditionally" but there are no Monuments or Grand Tours in either Britain or Netherlands. It's just a thought and

That's very true and one reason why I said "traditionally" but there are no Monuments or Grand Tours in either Britain or Netherlands. It's just a thought and not a very well researched one so I wouldn't expect anyone to take it too seriously. For Joe Simpson, or say Earnest Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic, these are stories where something went wrong and they were able to show heroic Endurance* just to survives. In professional Cycling, it's slightly different, temptation is a factor. You can stop at any time and you'll be picked up by the warm Broom Wagon or team cars that follows the race. It would be so easy to give in to the devil on your shoulder offering you the easy way out... Even giving in to that weakness is venerated by numerous photographs of weeping riders by the side of the road. Cycling fans seem to respond to a loser's suffering, as we recognise shared weakness. That story of temptation seems to chime with stories of martyrs and saints. Who knows though, like I said it's just a hypothesis. * Sorry, terrible pun.