Each year I pretty much block out July on my calendar so I can watch the Tour, explore the mountains around La Grande, and drink milkshakes. While I enjoy listening to the ramblings of Paul Ligett, the coverage of the Tour is second rate compared to the other grand tours. The Italians (on RAI) and Spanish (on TVE) provide much better coverage of the Giro and Vuelta respectively. When I watch the Tour, I develop a full appreciation for the skip button on my DVR. Without this feature, I would be slave to ads for pugilistic sports and the DR trimmer along with boring rider features wrought with over-played stock footage from past races. Occasionally the ads and tertiary information is interrupted by short clips of bicycle racing. The magical skip button allows me to view the clips only, so I get an irregular series events that almost seems like a coherent bike race. The DVR allows me to avoid the enhanced (aka de-hanced) coverage later in the day. So far, here are the highlights of my Tour viewing: Borat in his swimsuit, racer frontal nudity, naked butts (many spectators and some riders), a runner taking a header on a flat road, BriTel in the white jersey, an Oregonion in the top 20, and Jens finishing 22nd on Plateau de Beille.
Keep an eye out for my feature of the Anthony climb in Oregon Cycling Magazine.
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