le tour...

It is hard to believe that tomorrow is the start of the 94th Tour de France...and I won't be getting up at 4am to watch OLN - or "Versus" as it is now named to get a glimpse of the riders in their first ride of the most grueling cycling race in the world.

After last year's debacle with drugs and such - including two of my favorites - Floyd Landis and Ivan Basso...well, I guess I lost touch of the cycling world. But now after taking a peek at the website and seeing that Team Discovery is still in the game - my "Tour de France" excitement is back...and I might just get up early to see who claims the first yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys of the Tour.

Just FYI: American, Levi Leipheimer is leading Team Discovery this year ... at least that's what their website says...however the Tour's site says another teammate is leading so I'm not quite sure what's going on there...but if it is Levi - he's got a good chance to place in Paris. If you all remember back in 2004 - the year of the crashes...it was Levi who went down in Day 2 in the massive pile-up at the finish. Those of you who saw it - you KNOW what I'm talking about. Hundreds of cyclists crashing over one another...anyhow, Levi was a favorite that year to give Lance a run - but he was out. The past two years, Levi has worked his way up in the rankings - placing in the top ten...which is good sign that he could make it to Paris and be on the podium. Maybe not first place, but why not? He's got Team Discovery working for him including the ever loyal George Hincapie, who pulled Lance to 7 victories.

So there you go.

~mitzi