Tour de France Coverage

Bicycle racing is in my blood. Its not that I race but I follow the racers. When I was a teenager I marveled at the exploits of the “cannibal” Eddy Merckx the five time winner of the Tour de France, five time winner of the Giro d’Italia and countless other victories, listed below for your pleasurable viewing.

This years Tour de France looks like its going to be a doosy with the possiblility of Lance Armstrong winning a sixth Tour, something that no other rider has ever done. Can he do it? We will see. A better question is if he does will that make him the “Greatest bicycle racer” ever? Hardly that. His record will never match that of the recent great cannibal Eddy Merckx. But this is just my opinion. Lets hear from the experts. But just check out old Eddy’s record just to put this in perspective:

The Great Eddy Merckx

5 times Tour de France winner (1969-72, 1974) and 35 stage wins. Wore yellow jersey for a record 96 days.
5 times Giro d’Italia winner (1968, 1970, 1972-74) and 25 stage wins.
Vuelta a Espana winner (1973)
World Champion (1967,1971,1974)
Hour record (49.431 km, 1972-84)
3 times Paris-Nice winner (1969-71)
Tour of Switzerland (1974)
7 times Milan-San Remo winner (1966-67, 1969, 1971-72, 1975-76)
Tour of Flanders (1969,1975)
Paris-Roubaix (1968, 1970, 1973)
Liege-Bastogne-Liege (1969, 1971-73, 1975)
Amstel Gold Race (1973,1975)
Tour of Lombardy (1971-72)
Het Volk (1971,1973)
Ghent-Wevelgem (1967, 1969-70, 1973)
Fleche-Wallonne (1967, 1970, 1972, 1975)
Paris-Brussels (1973)
Henninger Turm (1971)
Grand Prix des Nations (1973)

Top that Lance! Even with a sixth Tour de France you will never beat Eddy.

Here are some blogs that are covering the Tour de France and bicycle racing in general. Check them out. They are sooooo interesting I can’t stand it.

Jan Urlick has a weblog. Check it out even if it is in German. It is so cool.
A great blog that covers the Tour is the TDFBlog.com. So much info and links. This is a great site!
Another tour follower, WhileSeated, just loves the sport. The Professor’s Vent lets Millar have it in the kisser. Good for him.
Of course there is Cycling News and finally Velo News.