5 July 2009

Le Tour: Day One

OMG, guys... it's Tour de France time again!

This morning I watched the prologue on three large-screen televisions in an appliance store while my mum picked which iPod colour she liked best (her MP3 was stolen this week by petty thieves while she was at the gym, if you can believe it). I can't say I'm surprised with the current leader: Swiss Fabian Cancellara. Last year I watched from my decidely smaller-screened TV at home when he smashed the Olympic Time Trial race to pieces, and won a bronze in the Road Race.

Cancellara rides for Saxo Bank and is another rider sponsored by Specialized. I can forgive him for this though, because as yet I'm yet to hear any sordid stories about his recreational drug-taking. He won today's prologue with eighteen seconds under his belt - nothing to be sniffed at, and goes into tomorrow's 187km stage to Brignoles wearing yellow.

Notables in the top ten include Alberto Contador (an overwhelming favourite for this year's GC victory), Bradley Wiggins (ridiculously successful British track racer... my dad this morning made a comment about his name. To be fair, I wouldn't care if my name was Butthole Surfer if I could ride like that guy), as well as Twitter favourite Levi Leipheimer, last year's Tour runner-up Cadel Evans, and the ever-impressive seven-times winner Lance Armstrong. He's tenth.

My personal favourite Christian Vande Velde sits in 17th - and according to Twitter he's more than happy with that. Considering that just a few short months ago, a crash left his Tour plans uncertain, so am I. Expect Christian to climb the ranks over the next few weeks - last year he was sixth in the GC.

VdV smiles for the camera...?!


Anyway, over the next few weeks I'll try not to turn my blog into a mini-Tour news site, but I can't guarantee anything, because for three weeks in July every year, I breathe cycling.

Over and out, kids.

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