It's Tour de France Time Once Again!!!

Today begins the 106th edition of Le Tour de France, spanning across July with yellow abandon. This year the boys start in Brussels, Belgium, honoring Eddie Merckx, five-time winner of Le Tour (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 & 1974). Fifty years after he received his first Yellow Jersey, the competition returns to the streets of Brussels, and the suburb where he grew up. Eddy Merckx was more than just the winner of Le Tour de France. He was a monster on the bicycle, winning practically every bicycling event of note beginning with his amateur championship world title in 1964. Because his career has so many highlights, and you really don't need to read a bio of "The Cannibal" unless you would like to, I'm including two links here, one to Wikipedia (click here) , and one to the Telegraph article about him (click here). They're both good reads if you enjoy cycling. 

Here's your full course overview for this year's riding of
Le Tour de France. Starting in Belgium with a sprint followed
by the Team Time Trial tomorrow, the boys then cross
into France and begin working toward the Pyrenees, then
over to the Alps before riding into Paris. The individual time
trial will be in the Pyrenees, from Pau to Pau. It's a
challenging course this year with lots of mountains.
Happy me! 

In the words of the TdF Race Director, Christian Prudhomme, here's today's stage from Bruxelles to Brussell, 194.5 km over "flat" terrain.  

The second Grand Départ held in Brussels after the one in 1958 will honour one of the country’s speciality: sprinting! Despite the fact that the day’s visit will take the riders on the roads of the flemish classics, the perspective of a bunched finish in front of the Royal Palace remains the most likely. But a solo exploit can’t be excluded. 

Sunday is Day 2 of Le Tour de France and features the Team Time Trial. We're still in Belgium, beginning in front of the Royal Palace. Once again, the caption for the stage profile will be the words of Christian Prudhomme. 

The Yellow Jersey will change shoulders if the winner of the previous stage isn’t surrounded by specialists of the collective effort. The final straight will offer the teams a fine view over the Atomium in the backdrop. Those that will have managed to stay as united as the atoms of the structure built for the 1958 Universal Exhibition should perform well. Last summer in Cholet, like in Plumelec in 2015, victory had been decided for just a few seconds.

On Monday we'll say good-bye to Belgium, starting in that famous cycling country, but crossing the border into France later in the race. I'll go through that profile and what Christian Prudhomme has to say about it when we start our week. For now, I'm happy. The Yellow Jersey is once again up for contention and the boys are once again on their bikes. It must be July! 

On a different note, DH made us a fresh strawberry and custard pie yesterday. So good!!! I'm going to have to put on another 1/2 mile on the elliptical to work off those calories, but so worth it. Have a wonderful weekend, I'm wrapping this up and heading out to the gym shortly. I'll be back on Monday with Stage 3 of Le Tour de France.