Sunday, July 05, 2009

The Tour de France is underway.

NABC Bank Street Brewhouse’s opening hours aren’t synchronized with the annual race times, allowing for European time, but I’ve informed the bar staff of the schedule for afternoon replays and highlights, and we’ll show what we can, when we can.

Versus television schedule

Versus Tour de France home page

Official Tour de France site

I’ve seen snippets of Le Tour in person on two occasions, in 2001 and 2004, and it’s a thrill to be in proximity to the festive atmosphere.

I still feel about the race much as like I do about baseball: The participants may be dopers, and yet the essence of the game itself is what matters the most, as in the poster on the wall at the Public House that shows Tour de France riders in the twenties seated on the steps of a bar, admiring children clustered behind them, drinking beers on break.

The ideal is bicycling in Europe. Beer and wine should be the drugs of choice, and will remain so on my personal bicycle tours.

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