The Tour de France is an astonishing feat, but as more and more riders drop out of the race with horrific injuries, should we be asking if it's worth it?
The clean snap of a bone breaking rings out as two more men fall in the scorching French sun. The rest struggle on, the strain stretching out their faces, eyes always ahead. Two more combatants will fall later that day. But this is no war, this is the Tour de France cycle race, the world's most watched annual sports event.
The latest day of racing on Sunday saw four elite athletes leave the race with serious injuries after two separate crashes – one into a barbed wire fence.
The 3,500km endurance test, created in 1903, this year sees 180 men push their bodies to the limit as they circle France. Up mountains, along 21 different stages, through adversity. Their aim? A jersey. The famous maillot jaune (yellow jersey) for the winner and green, polka-dot and white for the best sprinters, mountain climbers and young riders.
The overall victor receives £400,000 in prize money and thousands more in sponsorship deals. Probably far more valuable for winners like the world famous seven-time champion Lance Armstrong is the glory of winning what the New York Times called 'arguably the most physiologically demanding of athletic events'.
The founder of the Tour said his ideal race was one where only one rider made it to the finishing line in Paris. And indeed this gruelling three-week race is nigh on impossible. Throughout its 108-year history, competitors have responded by turning to drugs.
At first alcohol and ether were used to deaden pain, but the Tour soon became a hotbed of performance enhancing drugs, which are getting more sophisticated every year.
In testing the limits of human capabilities, there are casualties, and some are fatal. In 1995 an Italian cyclist crashed on a fast downhill descent and died. In 1967 Briton Tom Simpson died from a combination of amphetamine and alcohol use and heat exhaustion. Despite more advanced drug testing, drug use remains rife, the steep downhills remain on the course, and frequent accidents show that another death is not impossible.
Incredible but irrelevant?
These pro-cyclists are exploring the boundaries of what it is possible to do with the human body. With monumental self-will and years of training, some this summer will achieve fame and glory, attaining a goal most of us can't even begin to approach.
But others will fall by the wayside, breaking bones or being banned for doping. And even those that complete this punishing regime, no matter how fast, or what colour they're wearing, will still have just gone round in a circle.
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