Le Tour

Man, the Tour is fun. Even if you are not a cycling fan, watching the end of a stage and seeing the drama unfold is cool as heck. Seeing these dudes battle over 3 weeks or seeing them suffer in the mountains or even seeing the tactics take place is addictive and exciting. What's also cool is that there are 2 US teams in the Tour this year, Team Columbia and Team Garmin-Chipotle. Both teams have represented well thus far. I like the Garmin-Chipotle team not only because they have cool kits, but they have 3 Americans on their team and 2 former bad ass Gary Fisher mountain bikers, Ryder Hesjedal and Trent Lowe. They should do well overall but I don't expect too much from them with David Millar as their GC guy.

Team leader David Millar sporting some fly kicks...


American Christian Vandevelde representin the red, white & blue...


Team Columbia has a good GC guy, Kim Kirchen, who is doing very well. They also have old man Hincapie, a solid young rider in Lovkist and sprinting stud Cavendish. These guys are and will continue to make some noise over the next few weeks. I'm eager to see how Kirchen holds up over the long haul and also eager to see Big George get a stage win.


Every year me & the boys bet on the top 3 Tour finishers, with the winner taking home a beer prize from all participants. This year my top 3 goes- 1. Cadel Evans 2. Carlos Sastre 3. Alejandro Valverde. So far all of them are doing ok, especially Evans, but the truth teller will be the mountain stages. We also picked dopers this year since the last few years have focused as much on doping as the actual final podium finishers. I can't remember who I picked but hopefully this year we'll all be able to enjoy the race for what it is and not have to hear about the never-ending doping scandals. Cycling really needs a clean Tour and this one promises to be a good one with all of the unknowns and the wide-open field.

Vive le Tour!