Rose Cantine

It’s July and that means parking oneself in front of the television in the afternoon to watch the Tour de France. This year marks the first in a long time that there are no big stars. In the past few months we have seen well-known cyclists confess to having used banned substances. Some have been barred from racing. Floyd Landis, last year’s Tour winner, is awaiting an arbitration decision. He still claims his win last year was clean. Never mind all that, the Tour is still fun to watch and yesterday’s first climb into the Alps which included the Col de Colombiere at the end of the stage was terrific. A young German rider, Linus Gerdemann (24) won. He’s been cycling for only five years and his performance was impressive. He could hardly believe his victory and cried during his German and English interviews.

Today the riders are going to Tignes, a challenging uphill climb, but the worst is on Tuesday when they go to Val d’Isere and tackle the Col de Galibier.

Here are good Tour de France online resources:

Official website: www.letour.fr

Tour Google maps mashup: www.ubilabs.net/tourdefrance/

Guardian UK: http://sport.guardian.co.uk/tourdefrance2007

Tour de France blog: http://www.tdfblog.com/

Tour blog of Michael Rogers (T-Mobile rider): http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/michaelrogers/

L’Equipe (French): http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/HOME_TDF_07.html

Cycling News: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/07index.php

UPDATE: Michael Rogers abandoned the Tour yesterday in the climb to Tignes after taking a fall. He injured his arm and in great pain, tried to make it up to Tignes but could not make it. Very unfortunate because he is the leader of T-Mobile’s team.