Why I love the Tour

This weekend the world's greatest sporting event that is not baseball began in London. Le Tour de France is something I look forward to watching every year, and I hope to watch in person next year. An incident today reminded me of one of the many things I love about the tour. In no other sport at this level of competition is the fan placed in such close quarters to theathlete . One of the riders was riding through his hometown, so he took a break to say hello to family and friends. You can't do that on a ball-field, or a hockey rink, or out the window of a stock car, but you can on a bike. LaurentLefevre rode out ahead of the peloton to meet with his family, and in respect to the great honor of riding through his home town the entire mass of competition slowed down to around 20mph and allowed him to catch up when the time came. Despite the constant barrage of doping allegation Cycling is still one of the most dignified sports around.