Another day, another missed Hoddle. Well, you’ve come to expect it from me by now, haven’t you? Why do you think I hire someone to write this column? Because there’s no way I can be trusted with it myself.
It’s been overshadowed by the World Cup, but there’s another major sporting event that’s starting this week. The Tour de France starts this Friday, July 4, in Barcelona but will will wind its way through the mountains and valleys of France for three weeks. It’s the most important and most prestigious bicycle race in the world
I’m hardly an expert on the Tour, but I do feel like I have a history with it. When our children were babies, my partner and I would take turns, bleary-eyed, holding our sleeping newborns and watching the Tour, occasionally falling asleep on the couch. The Tour -- back then it was (eek) Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis -- served as the backdrop for early parenthood, and for that reason it’s earned a spot on my watch list ever since. I won’t watch every stage, or even religiously, but I do tend to tune in when I can, and watch the stage highlights.
These days the Tour is dominated by Tadej Pogacar, a prolific Slovenian who has won four of the past six Tours and is expected to win again this year. That’s okay. If nothing else, the Tour will provide a nice change of pace from the relentless soccer of the World Cup. I’m looking forward to it.