Although I left off blogging about the Tour after Stage 13, I didn't stop watching, and the remaining seven stages were the most exciting, particularly Lance's win in Stage 17, where he narrowly eclipsed Andreas Klöden of Germany. Lance was completely dominant and took most of the suspense out of the Tour well before Paris, but he still made the individual stages exciting. Here are some concluding thoughts:
* Lance should retire from the Tour de France. I always liked the image of Jim Brown retiring from football at the top of his game. Michael Jordan did it twice! Lance could probably win more Tours, but this would be a nice time to end.
* Perhaps the best thing about this Tour other than Lance winning was the emergence of Ivan Basso and Andreas Klöden as new faces on the podium. Jan Ullrich still finished fourth, and you can't help but wonder "what if" Ullrich had Armstrong's heart.
* The US Postal team is simply awesome. They did not win the overall team title, but they completely dominated the race. Hincapie and Landis were particularly impressive, as was Azevedo on some of the mountain stages. I wonder how many of these guys Discovery will manage to retain.
* It would be nice to have an American to root for, but I didn't see any rising stars in this Tour. Tyler is older than Lance, and he can't seem to stay on his bike. Levi seems like a great guy, but his upside looks pretty limited. I would root for Landis and Hincapie, but I am not sure that they have what it takes to be a contender on their own.
* Biggest disappointment of the Tour: Roberto Heras and Iban Mayo. Ok, that is two disappointments, but both of them dropped out in the mountains! That was where they were supposed to be strongest and really make their moves. Even before they left the race, they looked horrible.
This was my fourth Tour, and it has become a nice diversion each July. My son and I are already planning a trip to France to follow along, though not for a few years. In the meantime, we continue to ride the rolling hills of southern Wisconsin and imagine ourselves riding like Lance (think PowerBar commercial here, for those who watched the Tour on OLN).
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