War on wheels

Yes, I do know that I am girl and that not that many of the weak sex are walking encyclopedia when it comes to biking or the Tour de France. But please allow me to admit that for me that French institution stands for many things: summer, long, yellow, green, polka dots, campers, fans, winners and losers, hundreds of seconds, mountains, flat tyres, escapes, tactics, injuries, L'Equipe, brown-white colored bodies, the map of France with known places and less known ones, racing against time, the teamspirit when it matters, VIPs on Tour (even Tom Cruise will be over this year!) and every day coming a bit closer to Paris d'Amour.

Lance is ready for this year's Tour!! It is written all over his face. He knows what he is after. This is 'pure sang' boy who wants to get his message across when it comes to biking and this year he will be racing just against a few. The living sport's monument has been there so many times. Still after last year things did change a bit. Lance and Alberto won't be that close anymore. Tempted I am to call them enemies on wheels.

The war is on! I don't look forward to all the useless interviews that will be broadcasted. Many reporters will try to trigger their brains. I don't think they will show the back of their tongues! The only place that the real battle will take place on will the bike. Hopefully I will be able to feel the true emotions that matter. I hope to be able to see through the harsh words or the sentences that they will or won't say. All I want to see is the faithfull sportman's ship they will show to the world.

Today, we ended up after a nice breakfast with our good friends N,T and T who had invited us over to cheer on the cyclists. I have to be honest that I dressed A for the occassion in his Swiss Safari t-shirt he got as a present of his auntie Lilly. We cheered the yellow jersey on that was covering up the body of Fabian! Because family in the Swiss makes it a bit more personal when a Swiss is passing through. My personal highlight was the force that my little camera showed because the moment I show yellow heading my way I made it go bezerk. The result is quite a nice pic that I will put on Facebook very soon.

While we were heading back for home the troops on wheels were heading for Spa. On the wet roads many fell. 70 men felt the hard road under them and many saw a hospital or doctor. Even the bud of Alberto Contador looks a bit less glamorous. After the fall Fabian made them all slow down. So no real race! In a interview that was taken in the garden of the hotel in Lanaken (so damn close to my mother's!) he had to explain why he did it and what will happening next in the race of the year. 'Every day is a war!',was his response. He feels sad that he won't make it on the cobble stones in yellow but 'c'est la vie'!!

A was even a bit out of tune by this news. 'Mum, I think it is such a shame that Cancellera lost the yellow jersey today!' There was a 6 year old boy sitting next to me with rather sadness in his face. I tried to comfort him by trying to explain to him that the Swiss superbiker might get that shirt back. But like in most cases I could not garuantee that. Because in the Tour de France there are not that many waterproof facts. Today 70 people found that out the hard way! Hopefully they found many bottles of Spa-water in their minibars to clean out the dirt!