Au Revoir, Le Tour

It's been a long three weeks. I'm not as tired as the riders, but I am tired. I'm tired of some of the soap opera atmospherics surrounding this edition. I'm definitely tired of the same commercials. When you watch it a minimum of twice a day, you see them a lot, and since some of the sponsors only had a single commercial that they ran every break...you get the picture.

Commercials:

1. Worst: Cadillac. Couldn't you have sprung for more than one commercial??? The same lady in the same car purring, "The relationship with your car is a lot like any other relationship." Arrghhh!

2. Runner Up worst: Woo. I still have no idea what this is for because I muted it every time.

3. Dishonorable Mention: Volkswagen. What's with the coneheads?

Moving in the other direction:

1. Best: freecreditreport.com. They just have some catchy tunes.

2. Trek's Get Your Wow. Subtle. They kept the same basic footage but added bits or rearranged them as the Tour progressed. Kept things interesting.

3. Honda Hybrids. Again, catchy tunes. Makes me want to eat granola and move to CA.

Commentary

I will definitely miss Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen--even Craig Hummer and Bob Roll. I always expect superlatives from Phil and Paul--and hey, guys, props for getting techie with Twitter!--but I even enjoyed the American commentary in the evening broadcasts. Bobke proved very insightful and not just a comic prop. Kudos to all.

Cyclists

Top-notch, interesting racing. A bit of whining from one or two. (At least Carlos apologized, but Cadel....) I thought Week One was a bit of a bore with Cav's dominance. I like Mark. He's talented beyond belief. But it was three hours of (yawn) breakaway, followed by a catch followed by another Columbia victory. Had it not been for the rain and the hill in Barcelona, the other sprinters could have just packed it up and gone home. ('Cept Thor. He knew--and proved--there's more to sprinting than the leadout train.) Week Two had some more excitement, though not on GC. With Nocentini as a caretaker of the yellow and none of the GC faves going to make a move before the Alps, it was a waiting game. Nice revelation in Brice Feillu. Will he go with Lance's new team? Possibilities.

Speaking of Lance's new team: that introduced an entire new level of soap opera to the Tour's end. Every time Lance spoke with someone in the peloton, the commentators wondered: is he going to join Lance's new team? Won't know till September. (This subject will keep tongues wagging for months.)

Glad to see no doping scandals, at least so far. (Di Luca's positive for the Giro, announced during the Tour, was not even worth a raised eyebrow. We were all...so...shocked. Not.) Plenty of folks desperate for one. (Greg! Just let it go. Try and make some positive contributions to the sport again.)

My own training has suffered a bit, particularly in this last week. (At least in Week 2 I could watch the intro and stage recap, go out and ride for two hours, and make it back for the finish.) With the Alps on tap, I hardly dared leave the TV. I did manage to get in a few rides before lunch--thankfully, temps were unseasonably cool for Texas in July (80s before noon is practically arctic) so I got away with it. So I am hoping that if the weather cooperates I can get in some good morning rides next week. The summer is winding down and I am already dreading somewhat the start of the fall semester, if only from the standpoint of not having the freedom to ride all morning.

Finally, the end of the Tour will leave a giant void in the TV viewing spectrum. There is so NOTHING on TV. (600 channels and naught but junk.) For me, not a really big deal. I can read a book. But it introduces a vacuum that others will fill. (uuunnnhhhhhh....)

So Au Revoir, Le Tour! Catch you next year!