Dawn,,

So here it is..

live coverage of the Tour.

Today's stage is being billed as the Hell of July, due the Paris-Roubaix homage they will complete today. After yesterday's crashes, today's roads paved with 'pave', it may be an unexpected respite on sensibility.

We shall see.

Give me your tired, ..Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

Today, for the first time in a while, Seattle actually had better weather than Central Europe. Here, cyclists were imbued with an unfamiliar sense of well-being, inspiring congenial greetings, well-wishing, and generally good behavior, not often seen in the recent meteorological morose through which we just passed. For the pro-cyclists in Belgium, I sympathize with the dismal rain they experienced today, and the subsequent rain enslickened (Not misspelled, I just made it up--it means: recently rendered slippery as all shit.) roads, as well.

As I mentioned earlier, today's stage is not the first that I've seen of this year's race; I've slacked. As a cyclist, the Tour de France represents the premier event of my favorite pasttime, much like Free Donut Day does for those progressives seeking the release of imprisoned donuts everywhere. I've been overwhelmed by the majesty that it is this race, and was too 'entranced' by the scenery of Holland (which, I'm told, happens a lot, there,) I was hoping to find evidence of 'doping', as the competitors passed through Rotterdam and Brussels, but if they were, it wasn't of the sort I was hoping to see. That said, the events in the last 3,000 meters of yesterday's stage, may have been the sign, I missed.

As it happens in most modern Tour de France happenings, the race has been Nascar-ifically eventful. I'm guessing this is no accident, given the courting of American audiences and their tourism dollars. Even the four-mile, Prologue stage, that launched the whole thing on Saturday was not without incident.

Usually, the Prologue defines cycling's equivalent of the 'Pole Position' (Thank you, motorsports!) rankings for the first, official stage of the race. It's usually short and gutsy. Indeed, the commentators on Versus, spent more time tying their ties, I imagine, than each of the riders spent out on the day's race course. Nonetheless, seeing Bob Roll in a tie, is an event worth waiting for, almost as much as the prologue itself.

So, yes, the World Cup quarterfinals took a back seat to the most epic of epic events, the Tour de France, and I couldn't be happier. By the way, in case you were wondering, Wimbledon crowned new winners, over the weekend, as well. But it wasn't going to be Roger Federer, so I chose not pay witness. That said, if you'd like a more complete wrap-up of the actual events of the Tour, you'll be better served by BikeSnobNYC's new Universal Sports blog, regarding these events.

I homage, and I hope to learn.

So, in Snobbie's first post, he mentioned that the rider's characters would reveal themselves. I think it's important to introduce the riders 'characters', as we've come to know them, so we can better appreciate the manner in which they choose to reveal themselves this time around.

No discussion of pro riders can be complete, nor started, without mentioning the General Classification (GC) contenders. This year, the cast includes:

Lance Armstrong

and the Yin to his Yang, Alberto Contador.

Will it be the year for Levi Leipheimer?

Or will Mick Rogers build on his Tour of California win?

Will Christian Vande Velde avoid adversity, and build on the promise he showed just a few, short years ago? (It turns out, no.)

Or will David Miller be the one to rise to fame

Maybe Carlos Sastre, will congenially steal the limelight again?

Or, maybe we should just let Sylvain Chavanel enjoy his catch for a little bit, after all. But the French never get to enjoy their own race, anymore. Perhaps, we should let this year pass.

And what of Cadel Evans?

and, what if Bradley Wiggins has something to say about it?

Will George Hincapie will finally shed his Susan Lucce reputation?

And what about the Schleck brothers? They're a formidable team within a team, and have seen success at the Tour before.

That said, what of the sprinters?

(Okay, the word 'Friends' may be a bit of a stretch.)

Or will it come down to a team competition?

Like Radio Shack?

Or Liquigas?

Or Saxo Bank?

Either way, Mark Cavendish said it best, "It's just bike racing. Get on with it."

If you'll be in the forests of Arenberg tomorrow,

Ride safe. I love you all.

It's in the air, and I caught it!

It's 6am on Monday morning in Seattle, and I'm as excited as a six-year-old on Christmas morning. I've poured out a bowl of my favorite breakfast cereal, ruined it with soy milk, and turned on the Versus network to the live coverage of this year's Tour de France.

This is the third day of the Tour, which has passed through the Netherlands and Belguim, already. Yes, I watched those first two stages, but as I missed the early a.m., live coverage, I was only super-excited to watch, as opposed to the super-duper excited that I am this morning. I missed the other live editions because I could not summon the intestinal strength to get up early on a holiday weekend. As today's the third day of said holiday, let's just say that I'm still awake from what most would consider, yesterday.

I will venture to comment on the earlier stages later, but for now, I must catch up on the 'cycling education' that the Versus network chooses to issue every year. I'm tickled by this years version. Instead of just the usual, condescending explanations, there's an accompanying computer animation, and let's face it, cartoons are just fun.

Spoiler alert of the day: Alessandro Petacchi proves early on why it's important to watch the Italian cyclists anytime that they're on screen. I happened to see Twilight over the weekend (and managed to avoid paying any actual money for it,) and Ale-Jet has cleansed the subsequent disgusting crust from my eyes. In the words of the Spanish commentators of a few Vueltas ago, Petacchi, Petacchi, Petacchi!!

I'll be back later with more. But at the moment, the tour's on, so I gotta go. So exciting!!

If you're going to be getting into position for the bunch sprint today,

Ride safe. I love you all.

Freedom

I'm taking a break from all the fabulousness that is the world of professional and semi-professional sports for a moment, as today is the Fourth of July. The only day on the American Calendar where you must capitalize the full English spelling of the date. (Not to be confused with the day to be capitalized in Spanish, Cinco de Mayo.)

According to my Facebook Research, today is a day to celebrate our freedom to blow stuff up. It's also a day to celebrate another one of the age-old freedoms: to put opinions into print form. We have a freedom of speech for a reason, and that is, to use it.

It is often said that any time our nation sends our soldiers off into battle, they are fighting, at essence, for our freedom. I've not always accepted this in the literal sense, most notably, for our most recent engagements. I've never believed that the nations of Iraq nor Afghanistan have posed immediate threats to us, as nation-states. No matter, I do feel strongly that the children of our nation's soldiers should be allowed to feel proud of the work that their parents are doing, and that they should be reunited with them, permanently, as soon as possible.

In the results of our military engagements, part of the fabric of our collective freedoms were earned during the Vietnam War. The stated goal of this conflict was about fighting off the spread of communism, seen as a threat at the time, to the tenets of our own system. In the forty years since, we have seen communism, largely, perish from the political landscape of the globe, because of economic successes, rather than any from the battlefield. That said, though the end of communism was not the actual benefit we received, we've earned many freedoms because of this experience.

As Oliver Stone stated in his 'epic' film, "Platoon", we fought ourselves. We fought ourselves, and we earned precious freedoms. Decades and another few wars later, it's important to reflect on the freedoms that the fight in Vietnam earned us.

Freedom for introspection. It's okay to look forward, and it's also okay to look inside. Previous generations were not allowed this freedom. Indeed, some are still afraid to use it, but despite that, it is okay to do.

Freedom to accept. We may choose to disagree, but at heart, we are all Americans, using our freedoms. If we look inside, this is what we always find. And for that we can all be proud.

Freedom to reveal. Because we are free to accept.

Freedom to be less, and to give that much more.

Freedom to have an outward strength, and an inner strength much stronger.

Freedom to forgive. Others. And ourselves.

Freedom to love.

Many have said that we should forget Vietnam. We allowed our soldiers to fail. If we allow ourselves to forget, we fail those who fought for us, and the love that they gave our cherished nation.

We should remember. We should enjoy all of the freedoms they earned us.

And most importantly, we should celebrate.

Ride safe. I love you all.

Here we go..

So, today, I provided my real photo for my 'paying' gig. It was accepted. My image will be available for public viewing sometime soon. Rest assured, my blog here will continue to be the Windows 7 version of me.

I was a bit disturbed, that when I perused my hard-drive for suitable digital images of my visage, I found that I had very little of what I was looking for. I have many pictures of my butt riding a bike. (I was suddenly struck that I'm not sure that the rest of me knows what's like to ride.) In other images, I was lost in a stiff breeze, or sweating profusely from a (mumble-mmlmph-mumble)-mile hike. Not to sound like my life is much more epic than it really is, but it's clear that, while indoors, cameras found taking snapshots of me, are likely to suffer tremendous palpitations, and/or systemic failure.

That said, my 'paying' gig has a tendency toward verbosity even worse than what I've shown here. Man, if I got paid by the word... I'd stop using elipses, that's one thing. While I enjoy sports, epic in nature, it's not because I like words, epic in nature. I just happen to like sports that happen in nature, and are epic. Okay, so hockey occurs indoors, but the Stanley Cup beards are epic, and, let's face it, the playoff beards are very natural.

Moving on, I have an assignment for myself for this blog, and I'm afraid it's still forthcoming. As a proud slacker, I can't allow myself to do things on time. It might give me more time in the rest of my life to get other things done, where I start creating even better compositions, start giving dramatic readings of my work, get signed as a recording artist, sell-out, make a ton of money, go to 'I just made a ton of money as a recording artist' parties, meet male supermodels with ready access to illicit drugs, lose money trying to buy fashions to fit in with the supermodels, develop an addiction to an illicit substance developed from the blood of an endangered species, lose even more money than I have today, and end up broken and homeless. No. It's much better to be a slacker.

The new Twilight film opens tonight, for a 'special' engagement midnight showing. I might have to spend money to go see this film. I'm told it will be epic. I happened to have seen the trailer, and it prominently featured Seattle's Space Needle. It has a new name, that's far more pretentious, now that several cities in North America also have high-rise rotating restaurants, but to me, our is still the only 'real' one. But, I will say that featuring our Space Needle in the trailer is enough to get me to see the movie, so really, to also advertise it as epic, is just pandering. If they want me to see it so bad, they should just pay me.

Then, the trailer shows some exposed, twentysomething, male, shaved shirtlessness. That's when I decided that it's not just me that the advertisers are pandering to. Oh, silly, silly marketers. You really should have released this movie last weekend. That would be sweet.

Much has been happening in the world of sports. Wimbledon continues, as does the World Cup. Much can be said for the tenacity of these events. Not like that slacker sport, Tour de France. Oh sure, it's tough to ride fast for that long, and over all those mountains. But, it does include a couple of 'rest' days. Without those, the Tour could easily travel France and Belgium combined. Who knows, they might even be able to cover Denmark, while they're at it. Ah yes, the Tour de France. In Copenhagen. On fashionable bikes, and fashionable shoes. Anybody can ride for a really long time in lycra. But in denim? And Manolo Blaniks. Oh dear.

So, if you're riding a fashionable bike, or expensive shoes,

Ride safe. I love you all.

Ahh Monday..

I reestablished today, that Mondays are full of epic-itude. I'm certain that after an epic adjustment it will be back in the correct attitude for the week.

I'm glad it's over.

As you move into Tuesday,

...you know what comes next.

Pay no attention to the Man behind the curtain..

Here in Seattle, and in many places around the world, we are wrapping up the heady days that define Pride Week. As mentioned on CurrentTV's, "Infomania", this is the equivalent of a Gay New Years celebration (Hooray!). So make a resolution for how you will be better to the gay community in the coming year, and settle back into the reality that not all gays choose to wear glitter.

It was also brought to my attention that another act of terrorism has occurred in the city that is New York, and this time, it was an act that resulted in tragedy. There is no suspect that can be brought to justice, since it was a suicidal act. The culprit was a tree branch, in New York's Central Park; though, don't let the typical benevolence of trees reduce your opinion of this heinous crime. Here in the Northwest, trees are feared every November, as they commit terrible acts against the communities here. In this case it was an offending limb that, reportedly, crashed into a strolling mother, and her six-month-old child.

In all seriousness, I would like offer my condolences to the family. They suffered loss of their young child from the incident. I encourage them to keep in mind that they are not to blame for this tragedy, and should always remember that it was an offensive act beyond their direct control. Life is incredibly unfair, and please know that as humans, we are all here for each other. Please extend a hand, or a hug, to the person nearest you. This is all we ever, truly, have.

And to the Trees, I say this. Terrorism in New York City is so overdone, and tree terrorism anywhere is way to commonplace to merit acknowledgment of whatever cause you are promoting. For that, I will remind you that I will continue to use copius amounts of paper products, anytime I feel a need to rid myself of my 'bodily humours'. In fact, I'll encourage everyone I know to do the same. Yeah, you heard me. Take that, Trees! We will stand strong!

Moving on, I'm aware that this blog was hijacked yesterday, by a certain member of my household who ranted about some slang usage elsewhere on the web. I apologize for this, and have 'meted out' a punishment accordingly. On top of all that, the statement in question, was only marginally correct.

In the land of all sports, epic in nature, the World Cup tournament continues. FIFA's leadership announced today that they prefer 'the human factor', when it comes to goal line officiating. That's great for the soccer 'purists' out there, but personally, I prefer the mathematical element that technology may bring to the game. There's beauty in the way that numbers describe the world. I'll grant that technology can't extend a warm embrace, but give it time. It keeps advancing. I'm hoping that in recognition of this human element, FIFA will implement a new rule such that whenever the goal judge determines, "No goal", he or she should, then, offer hugs to the affected players.

("Is that a Yellow Card in your pocket?")

As we continue to wait for the most, marketed-as-epic of all epic events--the Tour de France, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships are under way, just outside of London's town proper. As with all epic sports, Wimbledon did not disappoint, in that it presented an epic-y event within an event, earlier this week, when the Isner/Mahut match continued on epic-ly for three days.

A tennis match, even a close one that goes a full five sets, usually lasts no more than a few hours. Typically, the winner of a set is the first person to win six games, but must always win by two, in the final set of a Wimbledon match. (Tennis players have their own equivalent of the 'dude rule'.) So, I venture that Wimbledon people don't hang out much at World Cup soccer events. Not only do they allow instant replay, they do not allow for ties. As it happened, young American, John Isner, eventually won with an astonishing final set score of 70-68, and the bourgeois sport of tennis very briefly captured the world's attention like an enthusiastic 'footballer' tearing his/her shirt off post-match.

On a side note, consumption of epic sports is an epic sport of it's own right. I'm considering starting a training camp, where I can offer coaching services for this. I could be the Chris Carmichael of Monday morning quarterbacks everywhere.

That said, whether you're a pocketed, Yellow Card of an international soccer tournament official this week, or a specifically-strung racket, in a what-should-be-expensive-but-it's-part-of-the-sponsorship-package quiver,

Ride safe. I love you all.