Tears of pride came to my eyes when my sister called me yesterday to ask questions about the Tour de France. Okay, maybe not tears...but I did choke up a bit. Mensa Boy and I have been watching "the tour" for 20 years and no relative of ours has expressed any interest in it at all. In fact, during the month of July, when we've attempted to plan family events around it, we've gotten some murmurs of disapproval, sidelong glances, eye rolling...much like we've done when certain other beloved family members try to skip events for football games.
It's been very tough not watching the tour this year. And last year. But it has been made a bit easier by the Tour's comprehensive website. With OLNTV, the website has put together a nice compilation of still photos, video clips of each day, written summaries that are updated every few minutes and best of all...live streaming commentary by our heros, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. And of course there is the CBS compilation show they do on Sundays. But you don't get to hear as much of Liggett and Sherwen as you'd like.
The question Julia asked? "What's a Peleton?" Ah, dear sister...the Peleton is the big bunch of riders all riding together. When they cross the finish line at the end of the stage, every rider in the Peleton receives the same finish time, regardless their position in the Peleton. Generally you'll find our own Lance and his crew near the head of the Peleton. Not always right at the head, but never too far back. The further back you are, the more dangerous it gets, as there are more riders in front of you that can crash and you can run into them and crash yourself. Her next question "What about this breakaway? Don't those riders win a lot?" No, they don't. In fact, they hardly ever take a stage win because riding in the Peleton reduces one's burden by as much as 30%, as those people draft off each other. A breakaway rider guts it out on his own, or with a couple other idiots and usually they end up being caught by the Peleton before the stage ends. You'll notice there is pretty much never a USPS rider in a breakaway. It's just a stupid stunt. Waste of energy.
And that's all I'm writing today. Sorry Dad, for another boring post. And there is no joke at the end today. Nothing except this admonition:
Don't buy Benchcraft furniture!
someone remind me to write about Amazing Race tomorrow....
8:01:51 AM 
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