Tour de France Phenomena

Its that time of the year. Tour de France... Unfortunately that catchy slogan, "Tour de Lance" will not be shouted, as our hometown hero hold down 3rd place after 8 stages and Spain has a steady lead. All of that said, the Tour brings out the professional biker in all of us. Roadside cyclist are not an uncommon sight on the shoulders of our hill country highways. On weekends, city dwellers flock by the hundreds to the beautiful back roads. But during these weeks of nail biting trials and seconds between first and second place as our favorites press on over the Pyreneese Mtns to win that yellow jersey, those weekend warriors are hitting the roads more frequently than Saturday and Sunday mornings. Instead I passed a team in training just this morning... its Tuesday. Its almost as if they are trying to make up for those dreadful minutes trapping their choice Austinite in 3rd. The only difference in their hard work and his, its 105* here and about 80* there.