Julia's Mexico City

By no means do I consider myself an expert in the world of cycling. But thanks to Lance Armstrong, Kurt and I have been watching the tour every year for about five years now. It is always fascinating to watch the amount of pain these guys go through, then get up the next morning and do it again. They say it is the toughest race in the world and I can't really disagree. The race starts with 189 riders (all on teams) and every day, usually at least one rider has abandoned the race or has crashed and had to abandon. Yesterday was particularly sad as Michael Rogers and Stuart O'Grady had to bow out because of crashes and injuries.

There are still 12 stages (stage=day of racing, there are 21 days of racing, total) to go, so if you are curious, check out the tour on Versus if you get it. (Tivo is a great help when watching.) The scenery is gorgeous, especially now in the Alps.
(Copyright A.S.O. / Amaury Sport Organisation)(used without permission...)

The best part for us while watching is the commentary by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, Phil Liggett in particular.

Nobody gets more excited than Phil and he has become famous (infamous?) for his great/wacky "Liggetisms" while waching and commenting. Some of our favorites are:
"He'll need to dig deep into his suitcase of courage."
or "He'll need to unpack his suitcase of courage" and "Let's hope he remembered to bring his suitcase of courage." (Oh wait, that was either me or Kurt riffing on this theme.)
"He's exploding off the back of the peloton!" (Because no one ever just slows down or falls behind.)
"The peloton is angry." (We sometimes feel the peloton is merely miffed or peeved.)
and our favorite that we heard the other day:
"These are the boys who refuse to say never say die."

It is a hell of a thing to watch. Check it out if you if you want some true reality drama. Just as a "for example" Vinokourov is riding with stitches in both knees and one elbow after a bad crash in stage 5 and he was (still is?) expected to be a contender for the yellow jersey in Paris. Unbelievable.

Labels: sports, travel