the tour de france has started!

With all my planning for the holiday weekend (that and I no longer have cable) I nearly forgot that the tour de france had started earlier today. Look's like Lance had a pretty good day finishing second in the time trial two seconds behind fellow American and former U.S. Postal Service rider David Zabriskie" ; reminding all of us that other riders do participate in Tour besides Lance Armstrong.

I have to admit that it's kind of weird seeing Lance ride without his U.S. Postal Service jersey (the team switched sponsors over the winter) which previously rode with for seven years and won six consecutive Tour's with. The blue eagle provided the perfect patroitic symbol for us as Americans all to unite around as Lance asserted his dominance over the French country side for the past half decade.

And where their are stories of Lance's extraordinary feats stories of drug allegations seem to follow quickly behind. ESPN.com reports that Tour officials had surprise drug test prior to Saturday's time trial where they tested only Lance Armstrong (it was Lance's second for the tour, all riders are tested before the race starts). I don't know how I feel about the accusations about Lance's doping. On the one hand, I love Lance. I remember working in the bike shop the summer he won his first Tour and the whole place being abuzz with the potential of an American winning the tour and hearing about his remarkable come back story for the first time. On the other hand, the evidence (though any one piece is obviously circumstantial) is starting to paint a really dark cloud around the rider. Combine this with Tyler Hamilton's (former U.S. Postal Service rider and training parter of a Lance's) positive test for doping during the Olympics and you really have to wonder: I have convicted others of cheating with less evidence (Barry Bonds).

But one thing is certain. As Lance chases his seventh Tour title and the French and the media chase doping allegations, the next 22 days are guaranteed to be pretty exciting.