Out of the Loop

When you hear French commentators report on the Tour de France everything sounds like it's really important, and this probably has a little to do with me not knowing French fluently. Well, today came one of those times when you wish you either were watching Phil, Paul and Bob on Versus TV or had a high-speed Internet connection handy.

Between our stops at Roman ruins today I poked my head in a bar we were walking past and saw the Tour on the television. All I saw were the riders from Team Saunier-Duval standing around and then picture of the team bus and truck surrounded by press. Even without knowing the language I knew essentially what was happening, just not the specifics. Well, neither of the two guys in the bar spoke English so I was out of luck.

When we got home from dinner I finally had time to get online with my phone to read the specifics (VeloNews has the best round up). In essence, one of the phenoms from this year's race isn't so phenomenal, just a doper. Now there will continue to be dopers in the sport but it makes me appreciate even more the strict new outside anti-doping program the American teams have signed up to be a part of (yes, it's not just burritos).