Le Tour de France, avec Lance
Friday, July 3rd, 2009 by Andrew Braithwaite | Comment »
PARIS—He’s baaaaaaaaaack.
Four years after he last wore the Maillot Jaune on the Champs Elysees – 2005 was his seventh consecutive Tour de France victory – Lance Armstrong, or as I like to call him, The Wristbanded One, is back on French soil. And tomorrow, July 4th, the 37-year-old American sporting icon will celebrate his country’s Independence Day by hopping on a bicycle and setting out with 179 other riders representing 20 teams on a 21-stage, 23-day cycling journey across a country whose general public has never really warmed to the audacious Texan.
The French press has been whipping itself into a decent lather over Monsieur Armstrong’s participation in the 96th edition of Le Tour for the past, oh, forever or so. Technically, though, Lance is not in France yet, and neither are any of his competitors. This year’s Tour kicks off in Monaco with a 15-kilometre time trial, and will pass through five other countries – France, Spain, Andorra, Switzerland and Italy – before a champion is crowned on July 26 at Paris’s Place de la Concorde. (more…)























