Tour de France

Just as Wimbledon comes to a close, one of my favorite sporting events to watch begins, and this year I actually get to watch some of it. The Tour de France starts this Saturday. 21 days, 19 stages, 2 time trials, and over 2100 miles covered across France. I got into the Tour back in high school when I was doing a lot of riding wiht my friend Greg. We rode anywhere from 40-60 miles a week usually, sometimes more. These were the days when Lance Armstrong was winning his 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Tour De France races. For some reason this grueling endurance event has captured my attention. The excitement of the mountain finishes, thrilling time trials, and seemily common end of stage crashes always add excitement as the tour progresses throughout the month of July. There are so many factors at play for a rider to win even just a stage, and many more for his team to help him to a tour victory. With Lance, Landis, and Ulreich no longer riding, the tour has become increasingly interesting as many of the younger riders now have a chance at a tour victory. With Alberto Contador coming back to potentially take his 4th victory, he is a very likely contender. I also have high hopes for Frank and Andy Schleck, twins from Luxembourg. Andy, just 26 years old, has won the white jersey the last three tours which goes to the top young rider in the tour. Other riders to watch will be Bradley Wiggins from the UK, George Hincapie-USA, Levi Leipheime-USA, and Chris Horner-USA.