Wisdom from the past Tour de France observers and riders:

“You can’t influence the Tour. You have to take it day by day and give it your best.” John Degenkolb

“The difference between a pro and an amateur — the pros just don’t quit. Phil Liggett

“Sometimes the ability to recover is one of the strongest assets in a Tour that’s three weeks long.” Unknown

Ahhhh! Just breathed a sigh of relief. The 107th year of the Tour de France isn’t cancelled — it’s just starting later than usual. Ever since my son Alex started cycling, the Tour has been big at our house. Alex is in Brooklyn now, but we still watch it and talk about it.

One of the best things about watching the Tour on TV is listening to the riders and reporters talk about what it takes to survive the world’s most grueling sports event. Consider the comments above.

“You can’t influence the Tour. You have to take it day by day and give it your best” — how true that is of writing, isn’t it? We can’t always know what the outcome of a project will be, but we can give it our full effort: We can take it day by day and give it the best we have.

Or, “The difference between a pro and an amateur — the pros just don’t quit.” How important it is for us to remember this! Whatever stage we’ve reached in our writing, let’s be pros — let’s not quit! Let’s keep going, no matter how tough the road is.

And what about the “ability to recover” and how important this is. Writing is hard work! It takes mental and physical stamina. We need to give ourselves time to recover, time to decompress and let ideas, percolate, time to dream.

Tour tips — I love sharing them, so stay tuned and write on!