Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Quick thoughts on the Tour

It is taking my mind of the mortgage. (I heard a rumor that the lender was funding today, but I never heard from the lawyer that they got the wire transfer. Whatever. I have a place to sleep.)

At work today I was logged in to the Tour de France site, which has these "newsflashes" with text updates of what is going on, for those of us who can't watch it live. I was sitting there hitting refresh every minute or two, and after I saw

16 H 30 - Armstrong Crashes!
Armstrong has crashed. He has also taken down Mayo.

16 H 30 - Armstrong Back On Bike
Armstrong is back on his bike now.

I got frantic. Then my browser locked up. It came back at about

16 H 49 - Ullrich Not Defeated Yet...
Ullrich may be 50" behind Armstrong, but the German is gritting his teeth and is leading his five-man group (including Hamilton, Mayo, Moreau, Basso and Zubeldia) in pursuit of the yellow jersey who is now 3km from the finish of the stage.

...at which point I could exhale. It was pretty funny that I could get so excited sitting at my desk looking at text...had I been home my heart rate would have been up like I was riding myself.

I was actually thinking that Jan Ullrich *might take the jersey today. I feel almost torn...I want Lance to win five, particularly five in a row...but I like Ullrich. He's worked really hard to come back, and I hope there are more Tour victories in his future. (Maybe his streak could continue starting next year.)

One of the things I keep remembering about Ullrich is that he grew up in the old East German sports machine. Some of his less-discipled off-season habits might have been a delayed reaction to the hyper-discipline he was subjected to as a kid. That's just me playing armchair shrink, of course, but I figure he deserved a few years to be a headcase.

I'm also kind of an Euskaltel-Euskadi fan, too. I read a book a looong time ago that included some Basque characters...the author was very sympathetic to the separatists, but I don't remember much about it. I was left with the impression that the Basques were screwed by France and Spain, although there's nothing political about my support for the team. Maybe I just like bright orange.

I have now killed enough time that it is time for another OLN Tour rebroadcast. I love those guys!

* Ullrich's web page is in German. Between what I remember from high school and Babel Fish, I was able to make some of it out.