Le Tour 2009

As usual, I'm loving Le Tour de France this time of year. This Tour is especially exciting due to Lance Armstrong returning to professional cycling. I caught on to "Le Tour" for the first time in 2005, the last year Lance won. I never thought I would see him out there competing again. He's no spring chicken, but is still rather "inhuman" if I may say.

I had taken up cycling and triathlons in 2005 so I had only started building my understanding of what professional cycling was all about. I knew Lance was regarded as a legend of sorts, but didn't fully understand what it took to win the Tour. After watching it regularly over the last 5 years, I get it. The Tour is a phenomenon. These men race an average of over 100 miles per day, for 3 weeks! It's just incredible. I once rode in a MS fundraiser called Waves to Wine, a two-day event. The first day we rode 75 miles along side the ocean through Bodega Bay. The second day was 57 miles of cycling through the wine country. By the end, I was beat! Everything was sore and achy and I was exhausted. And, no, we weren't even racing! There were also many rest stops along the way. I cannot begin to imagine racing every single day at high speed, in a peloton of around 100 cyclists, and trying to out-race everyone. Wow.

By the way, George Hincape rocked today! I wish he was in the yellow jersey. He deserved it!