Yes, friends, it’s time again for the Tour de France, one of my favorite sporting events to watch on television. Ever since our cable system began carrying OLN (now called Versus) I’ve watched every minute of the tour, either live or DVR’d. This year’s event begins tomorrow with the Prologue time trial through London and Kent. Stage 1 is on Sunday. It runs 200k from London to Canterbury, and then they go into France. Here’s the TV schedule.
I thought my interest in this race might wane once Lance retired, but it hasn’t. I watched it all last year and enjoyed seeing Landis win, but we all know what’s happened since then. Now I can root for Levi Leipheimer, who is now the number one rider for Discovery Channel. Sort of hate to see George Hincapie not get that nod, but c’est la vie.
If you want to keep up with the course, the legs, the mountains and the gossip, here are a few good places to go:
1. The main Tour de France Web site.
2. The VeloNews Tour Web site.
3. The Versus TV network main Tour site.
4. L’Equipe, the French sports newspaper’s Tour site (for those who can read French)
5. The Paceline, the Discovery Channel’s Web site, featuring daily commentary by Chris Carmichael, Lance’s old coach.
