Tour Tidbits

I'm a Tour fanatic. I admit it. My mornings usually go like this - I roll out of bed, make my way to the couch, turn on OLN, and watch the Tour stage. I got up at five a.m. on Sunday so that I could shower before the coverage started at 5:30. I started watching the Tour in 2001. I watched Lance give Jan "the look." That was awesome! I saw Beloki fall in 2003 as well as Lance fall that same year. The Tour is just great to watch, and I'm glad a lot more people are into it.

Here are some thoughts from what has happened so far:

Boonen is the man. Seriously, this guy is a great sprinter. I think he's going to pull off getting the green jersey. Winning stages two and three like he did was magnificent. I think McEwen will be a contender even though he still has some points to make up after that little shuffle with O'Grady on stage three. The green jersey competition is looking to be a good one.

Rasmussen is currently leading the King of the Mountains competition. He rode a solid stage today and kept up with the lead group until the very end. He got so many points yesterday in this competition that it's up to other riders now to catch up to him.

Although Valverde got the stage win today and is now leading the young rider's competition, I'm really hoping Popovych can contend for this.

Lance is in yellow after letting Jens and CSC have it for a day. Lance seems to be doing everything right. The team was great this morning. Everyone did everything they had to do to set Lance up for his show of strength. We will see if he reaches Benard Hinault's record of 77 yellow jerseys. I believe he's at 72 with today's jersey.

Tomorrow is another grueling day in the Alps. I will be up at 5:30 a.m. to watch live coverage for five hours. It takes something special to get me up that early in the morning. There so many things I like about the Tour - the tactics, the endurance, the metaphor to life...but that's for another blog.

Thanks for reading.