Today is the start of the Tour de France and it started with a prologue in London. The prologue is a timed race, one man against the clock, unlike other stages where a team works together to make their designated rider the Tour de France overall winner. Riders in the prologue use specialized bicycles that have under gone hours of wind tunnel testing to perfect the slipstream that minimizes the riders race time. These specialized bicycles are made of carbon fiber and can weight so little that the tour created a minimum weight specification. My road bike is a Trek 5200 and it weighs a mer 15 pounds, half as much as my mountain bike!
The Versus TV channel broadcasts every stage of the race multiple times a day so you can't miss a moment of the action. The best time to watch the race is during the nightly rebroadcast, the commentary of Boll Roll is not to be missed. Bob is one of the funnest commentators you'll ever listen too and his expressive hand gestures are not to be missed. I love the way Bob pronounces the name of the race, he pronounces Tour de France as Tour Day Frants which does not sit well with the citizens of France.
Last year I was cheering for Floyd Landis to win the race and the seven prior years I was cheering for Lance Armstrong. Since day one has concluded I better get busy and select someone to root for since I'll be glued to the television for the next 20 days.
Prologue Final Results
1. Fabian Cancellara
2. Andreas Kloden
3. George Hincapie
4. Bradley Wiggins
5. Vladmir Gusev
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