Tour de France 2008 - Grand Start July 5,2008

The grand start went off yesterday, July 5. The Tour de France has always been something I have enjoyed watching. All the way back to the times when Greg Lemond was winning in the 1980s. And of course everyone knows Lance Armstrong in his record setting 7 wins. I believe he could actually win more if he truly wanted to race again. The prize winnings for this race is very lucrative with the Yellow Jersey winner receiving over $700,000. Not a bad take for a month of intensely hard bike riding, over a 150 miles a day for a month. With only two teams this year from the US, Team Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle, it does make it difficult to find a team or person to cheer for. I cannot make any predictions on the winner because I really don't watch all the other races or know whose good this year, but I definitely am a fan of George Hincape from the US who does really well, and has ridden in 14 Tours. David Millar from Great Britian is also a good one to watch, because he did really well in the past few years. After only 2 stages a good start to the race has happened with Alejandro Valverde taking the yellow jersey. Team Columbia has a second place with Kim Kirchen who is French. With the top 45 seperated by 7 seconds, and the top 100 within 2 minutes, this year hopefully will be a great race! Phill Ligget is an awesome announcer! He's the Dick Vitale of bike racing.