I'm not a sports junkie. I've spent too many hours emploring my city to spend the big stadium money on local community building needs and ideas. Even when a mega-church took over our old basketball/hockey/concert facility, I asked why we couldn't turn it into a sports facility for kids to have sports like soccer, basketball and others. So, all the sports channels and magazines going on and on about sports seems quite a distraction from my primary concerns.

Save one.

I have loved Le Tour De France since I was a teen. I have the knowledge of its inner history like baseball junkies can quote Ty Cobb's record and the value of tobacco cards. With some near mythic legends in the race like Eddie Merckx, Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, and Bernard Hinault, and anectdotes galore, the Tour is no normal sports event. It is like having a Superbowl every day in a different city for 23 days. I watched the tour while it was under the guidance of Jacques Goddet and Félix Lévitan (1962 to 1986) Jean-François Naquet-Radiguet (1987 to 1988) Jean-Pierre Courcol (1988 to 1989) Jean-Marie Leblanc (1989 to 2005). Maybe their influence has something to notice like NFL commissioners and the like in our big leagues.

This race did a few things for me that one might not see elsewhere, except maybe World Cup, if you're into that.

1.) gave me distinctions of the European cultures and senses of nationalism.

2.) taught me about Basque nationalism.

3.) reminded me yearly of Bastille Day

4.) provided some connection to study Bernard Tapie and his Murdochesque desire to be everywhere and in control of so much. la vie claire

But most interesting to me were the 'russians' in the race and how they were the fastest track riders we'd ever seen, great at sprinting, and yet so unknown outside Olmypic circles. It was a key indicator of how things were changing related to the Soviet meltdown.

Then came the American dominance of the tour with Lance Armstrong. Now, I don't know Lance personally at all, and couldn't tell you while swearing on...well...something sacred to me,...whether he's a corrupt person and has a good public smile. I could however tell you that my grandmother really looked to him for hope related to her cancer and at least knew someone had beat the damned disease that gets 1 of 2 men and 2 of 3 women. And I knew he could easily have had an inner determination that a person who had not beaten cancer might not have.

And from 2002 on, I was watching the "freedom fries" garbage mix with an adulation of the great rugged Armstrong figure dominate that little whimpy snooty France. (that's how it was presented anyway)

Their last great champion was Bernard Hinault, unless you recognize Laurent Fignon as a champion figure (i dig him). The Americans, and of course The Spaniard, dominating your race in conjunction with their dominance of Iraq, Afghanistan, and influence around the world wouldn't seem too favorable to me if I were French.

But what is on my mind now is...I'm Not Watching This Year.

I know that so far, 3 people have been booted and several teams have pulled out as a result. And the same method to announce the test results is being called in question. The same lab is being used, and it is the same tour organizer, Christiane Prudhomme.

I'm tuned in on it for a different reason though. Its because I truly believe in habeaus corpus. I have been told, and don't care if its true outside of symbol, that I'm descended from King John, who signed the Magna Carta, and many of the barons who were rebelling who made him sign it. The principle of the document established a person's right to some justice.

"we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right."