7 - 2008 - RodneyOlsen.net

The wait is over. The Tour de France 2008 begins today.

For the next few weeks I’ll be glued to the SBS Television coverage of the event and the official Tour de France website.

The Tour de France has been described as the toughest sporting challenge in the world. The elite athletes who take part face 21 grueling stages with many involving cycling up incredibly steep mountain roads. Some have compared it to marathon running saying that it’s like running a full marathon every day for three weeks.

This year’s favourite to wear the yellow winner’s jersey into Paris is Australian, Cadel Evans. If Evans wins it’ll be the first time an Aussie has won the event. Evans stood on the podium at the end of the event last year in second place, the highest ever finish for an Australian.

So what does the world’s greatest sporting event hold for us this year?

Running from Saturday July 5th to Sunday July 27th 2008, the 95th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,500 kilometres.

These 21 stages have the following profiles:

* 10 flat stages,
* 5 mountain stages,
* 4 medium mountain stages,
* 2 individual time-trial stages.

Distinctive aspects of the race

* 4 mountain finishes,
* 2 rest days,
* 82 kilometres of individual time-trials,
* 17 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed.

You’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little sleepy over the next few weeks. The stages are run each day in France which is late at night here in Perth.

C’mon Cadel.

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Do you know anyone who doesn’t enjoy hearing an encouraging word or two? Sure, there are people who don’t know how to accept compliments and encouragement well but most of us still enjoy a pat on the back now and then.

If we all enjoy being encouraged and knowing that we’re valued, why is it that we encourage others so rarely?

I know that some people are really good at encouraging others and if you’ve got someone like that in your life you would know how good it can be. I’m not talking about vain flattery but real encouragement that lifts and builds us up.

Life Skills Trainer, Jill Bonanno, joined me yesterday on 98.5 Sonshine FM for our weekly radio segment, Simply Living. We looked at how easy it can be to encourage others and what a difference it can make.

A simple word, a note, a touch on the arm can all be very simple ways to encourage others. During the programme we even had a caller tell us that she uses text messaging to send people an encouraging note now and then and she’s been amazed at the positive result. She’s had several friends phone her right after receiving a text message to say that the message came just at the right time.

Do you make encouragement a habit? How about instead of just nodding in agreement you decide to send a couple of text messages right now or phone someone who might need a kind word or even jot down a note for a friend? What about visiting a couple of blogs and leaving a couple of comments to let the blogger know you appreciate them? And here’s a twist – how about encouraging someone you don’t even know? Make a mental note to encourage the checkout operator next time you’re shopping or perhaps your bus driver or someone else you encounter in the next couple of days.

If you regularly encourage others I’d love to hear how you do that. If you’ve got a story about how you’ve been encouraged please tell me about it. Just click the comments link of this post and share your story.

If you’d like to hear Jill and me talking about encouragement (as well as all kinds of other stuff) just click play on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

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Archive - July 5, 2008