L'As Des As

first of all, is this not an amazing photo? i wish i could take credit for it, but that would be wrong. i borrowed it from yahoo's coverage of the Tour de France.

so Lance won. L'equipe, the french sports daily, referred to him as the Ace of Aces. as a proud american (well i used to be more proud), i too was pretty psyched, but as a first generation american of french parents, i feel their pain. i can imagine this is how canadians feel when rogue teams from florida win the Stanley Cup. somehow, an american from texas (blech!) winning the tour 6 times in a row ... just feels wrong.

my paternal grandfather owned a bicycle shop and my dad was an amateur cyclist when in his teens and early twenties. so when we moved back to france, the month of july was pretty much "tour month" and i lost access to the remote (when we finally got one). and in france, the tour is on 24 hours a day. starting in the morning, there's the recap of the previous day, then the pre-pre show, then the pre-show, then the whole friggin' race, then the post-show, the post-post show, the recap during both the evening news and the late news, and then the recap of the recap -- just in case you were sitting under a rock all day ... this goes on for 3 weeks. today, i'm thinking that my dad feels just a little bit sad. papa, don't be sad. thomas voeckler is waiting in the wings.