My name is Anna and I am a Tour de France-aholic. That's right, I'm hooked. Last year I sort of paid attention because Mike liked it, but it's really grown on me. We went and watched Lance and the boys ride the Tour of California and I just totally fell in love with this sport. We tape it on Versus in the morning (it's broad casted twice a day, but the morning version shows everything, while the afternoon version is clipped) and watch it when we get home from work.
The first three stages (well, two plus the prologue) were absolutely amazing. The weather was pretty crummy in Holland and Belgium (they started there and reached France yesterday), so there were TONS of crashes. It amazes me to see these guys hit the cement at 30 miles an hour and then pick themselves right back up and get on the bike again! There were several guys that had to drop... broken jaws, collarbones, thumbs, etc.
Last night we watched Stage 3, the dreaded cobblestones. They made the riders race over 7 different spots of cobbles... one those crazy skinny little bike tires. It was an absolutely insane race to watch... I was totally on the edge of my seat for 2 hours! In fact, when I went to bed, I couldn't sleep! Lance Armstrong was pretty amazing - he lost a lot of time, but after getting a flat tire made this incredible charge to catch up to one of the main groups! I would love to see him win, but don't know if he has it in him this year. I want to at least see him beat Alberto Contador! Lance dropped down to like 18th place and I'm not sure that he can make up the time that he lost, but there are still 18 or so days left to go!
The other cool thing about professional cycling is the team aspect. Obviously, the riders are in it for the big individual win, but they're also riding for their teams. And they have some pretty neat strategy. For example, they'll "watch over" the guys that they are pushing to win the race. There are some guys that know they will never win, but are still excellent cyclists, so their sole purpose is to get their man up the hill, to the front of the pack, over the cobblestones, etc. If fact, in one of the Stage 2 crashes, a Saxobank rider actually got off his bike and handed it to Andy Schleck so that he could keep going. But it's not just the team spirit that amazes me, it's the excellent sportsmanship. After a serious crash took out most of the teams, a couple of the guys in the lead decided to hold up the group so that they all crossed the finish line together, neutralizing any advantage that they would have had due to the horrible crash. This happens time and time again - it's almost as if they feel they only want to win if it's a fair race. Very cool to watch!
I can't wait for Stage 4 tonight!
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