Tour De France versus The World Cup

I'm a sucker for international sports - especially the ones you don't get to see too often in America. Obviously soccer falls less and less into that category as time goes on, but the Beautiful Game will always have my attention (even when it's not that beautiful, like the Germany/Italy game yesterday). And as the World Cup is drawing near a close, I'm getting sucked into another event that I've grown to love: the Tour de France.

Now let's start out with that last word: France. I don't share most of my countrymen's dislike of France, as basically all the reasons people give for France being hated are the reasons America is hated - we only think about ourselves, we only act in our own self-interest, etc. To me, that's just hypocritical. Most people don't even know WHY they hate France, they just know that they do because "everyone else does." Well, I have never been one to do something just to keep up with the Joneses, and I'm not going to start now.

To sit back and watch the Tour is, to me, an exercise in loving the purity of sport. Now, to folks who know anything about pro cycling, that's going to sound weird. Pro cycling is, without a doubt, one of the dirtiest sports in the world as far as performance-enhancing substances are concerned. But once you get past all that crap, the actual event itself is simple. Cycle as fast as you can for three weeks and you win. No referee judgment calls, no time outs, no time wasting, etc. Get to the finish line in once piece.

After watching Totti flop around like a displaced smelt for 120 minutes on Tuesday, to watch a bunch of guys just cycle as hard as they could throughout the beautiful European countryside was very refreshing, soothing, and exciting. And getting caught up in all the nuances of the tour - the roles of domestiques, the activity in the peloton, the excitement of the breakaways, and the final mad dash to the finish - was just fun.

And possibly my favorite thing about the Tour is the land they're riding through. Whether they're in France or making their way out of France on one of their jaunts through Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc. you get to see small-town Europe at its very best. The pride the Europeans take in their towns is so refreshing. Houses that have stood for hundreds of years are still being used. Narrow streets that were never made to handle automobiles are carefully maneuvered by cyclists as fans of the sport come out to cheer on the competitors and show off the pride they have in their communities. Ruins of old churches, castles, etc. dot the landscape. And the beautiful scenery of Northern France, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Languedoc (among other places) just make me want to visit even more.

Lance may not be there this year, nor are Basso and Ullrich (again, due to a doping scandal), but the Tour is doing just fine without them. There's more of a feeling of a lion sitting in wait as the peloton looks for someone to make a move to be the new big dog. Will it be Floyd Landis? George Hincapie? Tom Boonen? Or will some other upstart come along and start a new legend in this event? Only time will tell. But I'll be watching and enjoying every minute of it that I can.