Tour De France 2009 - Preview

July 4th - July 26th

21 Stages:

• 8 Mountain Stage w/ 3 mountain finishes!


• 10 Flat stages


• 3 Time Trials - (1 Team trial)

and

LANCE!!

We didn't want to get excited early but now we can hardly wait to see Lance Armstrong compete in the Tour this year. Do you think he has a chance? Obviously he has the talent, the will, the drive. This years tour features a first. A mountain stage on the day before Paris. Traditionally, watching Lance take a mountain is like watching a skier being towed up a lift. Effortless. Amazing. Truly, Ripley's Believe it or Not territory. Will Lance ride this mountain all the way down to champagne on the Champs Elysees? We'll see.

Of course, we are looking forward to seeing our favorite announcers ever. Any Sport. Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwin and Bob "Do I really look that much like, Shrek?" Roll. We miss Big Al Trautwig. Does anyone remember the machete incident?

Alot of our favorite riders are back. Here's a rundown of winners for the major tours this year so far:

Giro d'Italia : Dennis Menchov - Rabobank

Tour Down Under: Allan Davis - Quickstep

Dauphine Libere: Alejandro Valverde - GCE
Cadel Evans - and Alberto Contador 2nd and 3rd

Tour of Qatar: Big Tommy "Cokehead" Boonen - Quickstep (Booted off this years Tour as of 6/18/09 for positive cocaine tests. How very 1970's of you, Tom. We're disappointed.)

Team Columbia Highroad riding under that name for the first time but welcoming back veteran Big George Hincapie. Hincapie is the only rider in history to have ridden on 8 - Yes, EIGHT, Tour Winning Teams. And he married a podium girl. Some guys are born lucky. Never before has he rivaled Lance in a Tour - he's always been Lance's right hand man. So with Armstrong on Team Astana this year - it should be interesting.

This years tour begins in breathtakingly beautiful Monaco - Stage 1 is an individual time trial through the city itself.

Read more and follow the tour here:
http://www.letour.fr/indexus.html