Tour De France Obsession

It is well know that I have...charitably.... a lot of issues. One of then is that this time of year (which is the Long Dark tea Time of the sports lover's soul) tend to obsess over the Tour De France. I mean REALLY obsess. Thios time of year it seems like all we have. Baseball is meaningless until late August and other then that there are repeats of the World Series of Poker and well, nothing else. And I love repeats of The World Series of Poker. Norman Chad is one of the great unappreciated geniuses of American Broadcasting but still... I need more and this time of year I MAKE the Tour de France more.

I fell in love with the Tour a long time ago. I started watching the year Greg Lemond was supposed to win and Bernard Hinault had agreed that it was his year, then he screwed him. The French press loved it and ever since that time I have been a hopeless addict of the tour. The ascendance of Armstrong was a bonus and through his reign and leaving the Tour in a rain (reign) of drug and doping allegations and ineffectual stars I have still loved it and was very excited two years ago when Alberto Contador burst onto the scene as the next great champion. Last year was lost because hos team (Astana) got banned but it was still fun to watch.

This year the drama is back. Armstrong came out of retirement allegedly to support Contador on Astana and to push his main life project of "LiveStrong" which is his not for profit set up to combat cancer. Armstrong is of course an amazing story as a cancer survivor and his battle destroyed his first attempt to dominate the Tour and then his bounce back was an unbelievable exhibition of the unbeatable human spirit. This year he and Contador are about to duke it out in a soap opera drama type of fashion as the tour hit's the mountains. Contador arguably screwed Armstrong taking off on a break while he held back and Armstron seems pissed but tomorrow they hit the Alps and.... the best man will win. Contador... the young, amazing Spanish Climber against Armstrong, cancer surviving, American. Drama. I love it.

And this postcript is just for you Larry....JESUS!