Ooh La Lance!!!!!!!

A surprise post from Englewooooood. Yes, we are online here at the homestead, can you believe it?!?!?!?!

I can't put into words how excited I was for today. Since I first saw this TV show with guys riding bikes up and down tall mountains when I was 4 years old, the Tour De France has become an annual rite of passage for me. From seeing Greg LeMond become the first American to win to Miguel Indurain's dominance in the early 90s and now seeing the greatest champion of them all, Lance Armstrong, begin his final Tour, nothing matches the Tour.

What Lance Armstrong has done in the last 6 years is equivalent only to the Boston Celtics of the 1960s, the UCLA Bruin basketball teams of the 60s and 70s, and the New York Yankees have done. Lance Armstrong is a dynasty. So today, he began the final professional race of his career, beginning his quest to win just one more.

Today, instead of the usual, short prologue time trial which is only 3 miles long, was a longer individual race against the clock covering 12 miles. Starting on the west coast of France in the town of Fromentine, the riders would leave the mainland and finish on the island of Noirmoutier. The early starters were the beneficiaries of a strong wind at their back, enabling Dave Zabriskie, an American riding in his 1st Tour, to take the early lead. The big guns got underway: Alexandre Vinokourov finishing a strong 3rd, Lance teammate George Hincapie 4th, ex-Lance teammate Floyd Landis 6th among others. Some struggled: Levi Leipheimer 14th, Ivan Basso (3rd overall last year) 20th, Santiago Botero 25th, Michael Rogers 45th, and Andreas Kloden (2nd overall last year) 51st.

The last two riders to start were Armstrong and Jan Ullrich. Ullrich, last night, crashed into the back of his team car while practicing on the time trial course. He didn't see the car brake and crashed through the back windshield, your freakiest of freak accidents. Meanwhile, in a RANDOM drug test, Armstrong was the ONLY rider of the 189 competing tested (doesn't sound so random to me). Add to the fact all of the riders were tested on Thursday probably didn't make Lance a happy man. Add to the fact the growing number of doubters about his winning #7 and Lance was probably pretty pissed off.

A pissed off Lance should've triggered sirens all throughout the cycling community.

Starting a minute behind Ullrich (all the riders start 1-3 minutes apart, depending on the length of the stage), Armstrong charged out of the starthouse. He charged so hard his right foot came out of the pedals, which probably pissed him off even more. Zabriskie's time was still the best time by around 50 seconds; no one had come close to it. When Ullrich came to the halfway point, he was 42 seconds behind Zabriskie. It was clear the big German was not 100% after crashing yesterday, but he still should've been doing a little better. When Armstrong hit halfway, he was only 2 seconds behind Zabriskie, but more importantly, IN JUST 6 MILES OF RACING, HE HAD GAINED 40 SECONDS ON ULLRICH. That's incredible.

Lance was now closing in on catching Ullrich. If he did, he would be up a minute on the German. One thing that gives me great joy is to see Lance get after it, seeing the intensity and rage on his face, stomping on the pedals like they stole something from him. With 2 miles left in the time trial, Armstrong caught and passed Ullrich, something that you never thought would happen at all. Now, could Lance beat Zabriskie and win the Yellow Jersey. He was by far the closest, but he fell 2 seconds short, finishing in 2nd for the day. Even though Lance lost the day, he sent a message to the rest of the field, "You wanted me, now you got me."

Who knew there could be such drama on the very first day?!?!?!! But that's the Tour for you, you just never know, on any given day.

Also today, in an epic women's final, Venus Williams won her 3rd Wimbledon title, defeating Lindsay Davenport 4-6, 7-6, 9-7 in the longest women's final ever, lasting just under 3 hours. You know I'm not a huge fan of the Williams sisters, but it was nice to see pure joy on Venus's face after she won. It's evident she's put in a little time on her game, and it paid off. Now we can only hope sister Serena does the same.

Tomorrow's men's final will be the rematch everyone wanted: Roger Federer vs. Andy Roddick. Roddick will have to play his absolute best to knock off Federer.

Ben Curtis and Jim Furyk are tied for the lead after the 3rd round of the Western Open in Chicago at Cog Hill's Dubsdread course. Curtis, you may recall, came out of nowhere to win the 2003 British Open at Royal St. George's. The Kent, Ohio native has only made 3 cuts this year, so it's nice to see him doing well. Tiger is lurking, 5 behind, tied for 4th after shooting 67 today.

Well, back to Oxford tomorrow afternoon. This weekend, it's all sunk in. My defense is less than 3 weeks away; the paper is in editing phase, very close to being done. I have one job interview in Cleveland in a couple of weeks and may have another one around then also. It's all very exciting and a little nerve-wracking. But hey, this is where I wanted to be. I think after it sinks in a little more, that excited feeling will come back.

An update on my Grandpa, his doctors are going to wait until early August to see if his medication will bring his white blood cell count down. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts, they mean a lot.

Continue to have a safe and fun 4th of July weekend, don't drink and drive!!!!