Le Tour

It was a Thomas Moran morning as I climbed on my bike today, tall clouds and sunbeams pushing through. It does make the early rising and that too-shallow coffee cup worthwhile, once I actually get out and begin to focus on...nothing.

And the Tour de France begins this Saturday! Yippee! Le Tour ranks up there with Wimbledon and the Belmont in my books. I love that an entire country (albeit "small country") rallies and cheers for cyclists all along the roadsides - in the country, in the villages and in the cities for three summer weeks. (We Armstrongs don't experience a whole lot of cheering along the roadsides in our region of Americana.)

Here is where you can begin your Tour:

http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html

On most days the cyclists will ride around 160-200 kilometers (that's 100-125 miles a day!) There is one rest day each week, and three stages of the Tour are Time Trials (15-40 km).
Although the Tour de France is probably the most famous cycling race around, there are many, many such races in Europe each year. Road racing is catching on in the US, and we Americans even have three "big" races of which to be proud: the Tour of California, the Tour of Georgia, and the Tour of Missouri.

So...time to don your imaginary race kit and hop on that bike that's been hibernating in your garage for decades...