Larry M. Coleman

Hemingway is said to have told an entire story in six words: “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” It may or may not be true, but let’s see a story in zero words.

Since the Tour de France ended this week, let’s look at a bicycle.

First, this is a thing, not a story. A beautiful thing, a thing with the price tag of a used car, but a thing nonetheless. No matter how beautifully you describe it, even in a thousand words, it’s still just a thing.

However, with a minor change, we can make an entire story:

We still have an expensive bike. But now we have two people, and now we have everything we need for a story. You can know absolutely zero about pro cycling and still instinctively see the story in this one. Seriously, just stop and take one minute and think about how packed this photo is. Just pause for 60 seconds, look at it, and pick out the elements of story in this.

Done? Good. Here’s my list:

• man in front looking back
• man in second only inches behind, looking focused
• helicopter watching over it all
• weather is beautiful for a race
• bikes and cyclists are dirty
• they’re on a mountain (look at the incline)

That’s the bare-bones version of my list, but you can tell a hundred excellent stories from just that. But I wouldn’t be wasting your time if that’s all there was to this picture. I’m not exaggerating when I say that if I was on the Pulitzer Prize jury, I’d be advocating for this one to get one because it is not just one of the best of 2024, it is timeless.

So, if you know zero about cycling, here’s the even bigger story. The yellow jersey is worn by the person who has the best overall time that day during the Tour de France. In this picture, that is Tadej Pogačar, who won it in 2020 and 2021. He’s looking over his shoulder at not just anyone, but Jonas Vingegaard, the man who won it in 2022 and 2023. The rivalry between the two of them is one of the greatest in modern sports.

But wait, there’s more. It’s huge that Jonas is right on Pogi’s wheel because only three months ago, he was in a horrible crash and there were questions whether he would even be in the Tour de France this year:

So Jonas made it a point to be as close to Pogi as he could be just to show he was in it to win it himself. And, since it’s the Tour de France, there’s a helicopter to broadcast the duel up the mountain to millions around the world.

Make all your fiction be as good as this reality.