Hey now everyone, it's time once again for the Tour de France to take its annual position as the pinnacle of a spectacular summer of sports. For those of you who followed my Tour coverage last year, welcome back. For all my fans who have enjoyed the past year of A Non-Traditional Sports Fan in America, I'm glad to see you all stoked for the next three weeks of action. And for those of you who might've trickled into here on a whim, I hope you stick around. I'll be presenting daily coverage over at FanNation in the newly-revamped Non-Traditional Sports World.
The first rider will push out of the starting gate for the 2009 Tour de France at 4:00 PM local time in Monaco (10:00 AM Eastern). There should be a lot of intrigue in this year's race, with four former champions lining up to contend for the maillot jaune along with several other riders who have been in the hunt over the past several seasons. The sprinters will vie for the maillot vert without one former winner, who will be absent the race for the second straight season after he celebrated Roubaix victory with a spot of cocaine and saw his invitation revoked. And the mountain goats could find a new spotted leader in their ranks...
Daily reports will appear here at FanNation stage by stage as the 2009 Tour de France progresses. Join the Non-Traditional Sports World to receive notice through FanMail when a new post is up. You can also follow updates via Twitter -- I am always sending updates throughout the day, on a variety of topics. But there will be an extra-special dose of cycling news and notes in addition to a broad range of sports during the next three weeks. Enjoy the Tour, and welcome to the party!
UPDATE: For those who might be leery about following cycling because they believe that it is nothing but a bunch of dopers, click here to get the straight facts about recent doping cases before you watch this year's Tour de France.
Bigalke is a freelance journalist who has been writing for FanNation since December 2007. An archive of Bigalke's writing can be found here. He is also the managing editor of Informative Sports and a contributing writer at Helium. Got something to say to Bigalke -- questions, comments, suggestions, derision to sling, vengeance to exact, commendations to render, or contracts to offer? You can reach Bigalke through FanMail, Twitter, the comments box below or here...
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