Tour De France entering last weekend: the American view on the Tour AND previewing the final push to Paris

20 days after the race began, the Tour De France pedaled into its final weekend this morning. Yet as an American I felt one sting of negativity nagging me as I read and listened into these historic final stages-- since Lance Armstrong, us Americans have been hard pressed to even fathom one of our own to even win a stage. So.. why watch? Frankly I do not know but it is races like this that have a way of drawing you in and for me, I am no different.  The is something about the history, the years of stories and jubilation and decades of sadness and defeat, something about the sacrifice of these athletes, and something about putting their bodies on the line and pushing the limits of human exertion all in persuite of an ultimate goal that draws you in and does not allow you to leave and for me, I am not different. So with my mind open, void of the hope that an American will win it all, I awake these weekend mornings, bound out of my room and groggily turn on the TV to watch each new stage of the greatest bike race on the planet.

As the countdown to this years final stage now slides into its final hours, a long awaited recap of one of the race's most dramatic stages seems to be in order.

Heading into this morning's bout of contention, a mere 47 seconds separated 2nd and 5th place in the overall race, the poca-dot jersey for top climber was on the line, and the young rider classification currently held by Colombian Naro Quintana was in danger of being stolen away by American rookie Andrew Talasky.

So, with the stage set, the riders took to the roads yesterday all with one singular goal. To win the final competitive stage of the Tour De France. Kicking off early, the standing held true through the first half hour of the race yet as the competition neared its final kilometers, things began to get a little hairy. Like i said before, going into this race while just 47 seconds separated those 2-5th seeded riders each was riding well and seemed firmly situated to finish this stage in relatively the same order. Oh how looks can be deceiving. With just over 10K left in the race, a fierce move to the front of the pack by TeJay Vangarden sparked a frightful charge by the rest of the Tour's contenders allowing 3rd place Naro Quintanda the right to fight forward on the podium and causing then 2nd place rider Alberto Contador to run out of steam and loose almost 3 minutes of time before ceasing his fall at 4th place.

Fact is, yesterday's race was one of epic proportions yet also one of crucial moves and possible race winning proformances.

You see as the Tour De France now grinds into its hallmark 82 mile stroll of a ride into Frances capital city this final stage, much like it has in recent years will be largely a ceremonial victory lap for the big contenders as, with nearly every category nearly locked up, for second place Quintana and third place Rodriguez  they will basically need Frome to get off his bike and take a nap for them to make this a race and contend for the overall title.

Regardless of that, today's 12PM race will be a culmination of weeks of pain and sacrifice, a final meeting for over a 100 riders, and the bookend event in the most difficult race in sports: the 100th edition of the Tour De France.

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Tour De France heating up: TJ Vangarden ousted in final kilometers why Greg LeMond might go down as the last great american cyclist in history

France: they have no acclaimed football leagues, they have no internationally contending swimmers in the Olympics and frankly, even in Europe the French have no championship winning soccer teams. But nevertheless, come July ever summer, this western European country of 65,350,000 people captures the attention of the world with what has widely been dubbed "the most difficult major sporting event in the world". 

For 3 weeks every July, 178 of the greatest cyclists in the sport descend on France to compete in that coveted event. For 3 weeks they endure the pain of overworked muscles and brutal pavement as they unfortunately crash all in pursuit of the title of Tour De France Champion.  

Yet throughout history, a select few nations have exercised a willful dominance over all others as France Belgim and Spain have combined to win a total of 66 of the 99 races completed to date. France has won 36% of Tours yet the US on the other hand can only claim responsibility of 3 wins amounting to a mere 3.03% of races. 

But that isn't even the start of it. In those 36 French wins, 26 different riders have won the race while for the US, those 3 victories have all been won by the same outlying man: Greg LeMond.  

Born one June 26th, 1961, Greg LeMond began his cycling career at age 14 when he contacted then skiing star Wane Wong who recommended cycling as a primer cross-training method. Taking Wong's advice, LeMond quickly dominated and soon became the man to beat in his 13-15 year old intermediate category before he managed to move up to bigger and better competition 2 years before he was set to by switching out of the category and moving into the 16 to 19 year old category. 

2 years after that advancement into the "big leagues," and while still only 15 years old, LeMond finally clenched his first major cycling performance,  in 1977 when he finished second overall in that year’s Tour of Fresno. Yet while technically, he would "loose" that 70 mile race, when the night ended the 15 year old would actually go down as the day's big winner due to the fact that it was during that race that USA Cycling coach Eddie Borysewicz became intrigued by the pending star and requested that he join the nation's 1978 junior biking team and again in 1979, a competition that would give him a silver, bronze and gold medal in each of the 3 events he partook in. 

Yet much like his experience with the '77 Tour of Frenso, it was at the 1979 world championship that LeMond made a drastic step in his career. It was in that 1979 competition and more specifically in the coveted road race that gave him a gold that Greg LeMond went from being a "good biker" to being a "great biker". 

Fact is, just 1 year later, LeMond was named to the 1980 Olympic team but could not compete due to the State's boycott of that years games. Regardless of that as his patience began to run out, LeMond began to realize the probability of competing in the Tour De France. Going against the advice of his coach, LeMond decided to forgo the Olympic cycle and turned pro in the spring of 1981 but soon struggled against some of the sport's best breaking his collarbone in the first race of his sophomore season at least delaying his leap to superstardom. 

"At 400 meters to go you just don't put on your brakes, especially in the World Championships." LeMond said later as he looked to lessen the pain of his brutal crash. "But it really does suck."

Nevertheless with his time as a young rider coming to a close, LeMond took to the mountains of France in 1984 with the sole goal of finishing the Tour De France. When all ended, he had done what nobody had expected: he finished 3rd winning the young rider classification and earning himself a 1 million dollar deal to remain in the tour and compete for at least the next two years. 

"For me that really was the turning point [in my career]" LeMond said looking back on his performance that season.

Marching on, LeMond got even better in the ensuing '85 tour winning his first career Tour stage that season and finishing second overall in the 2000 mile competition. Yet for LeMond, 2nd was still not 1st but one year later, it would be as LeMond won just one stage but would in the end push his way towards becoming the first American in the history of the Tour, to win cycling's biggest race. 

Over the next 3 years, LeMond dominated winning back to back tours in 1989 and 90, snatching up 4 straight stages in 1989 before like he did in 1985 he just scraped by winning it all on zero stage victories and all by just 8 merger seconds. In 1990, he won a 2,000 mile race by just 8 seconds. 

Nevertheless, as he planned to defend his title, the effects of the shooting accident in 1987 finally caught up to LeMond as in 1994 he retired from the sport but immediately spoke out as he reminisced on his anger about the hunting accident that nearly killed him. 

 "I figure I had three months that went right for me after the hunting accident," three months in which he won the two Tours and a world road race championship. "The rest were just pure suffering, struggling, and fatigue, always tired." He said before going on to tell novelist Bryan Malessa that "I cannot rewrite history but I am convinced I could have won 5 tours." 

Now, 1 year ago, I would not have been able to say this but after Lance Armstrong was beaten down by the USADA earlier this year; Greg LeMond remains the ONLY American to ever win the Tour De France.

Yet while when you look through history, LeMond stands alone, after something that happened today, one has begun to realize that, 15 years from now, that still may be true. 

At just after 6 am eastern time, the 176 remaining bikers in this tour kicked out of the gate to commence what has widely been dubbed as the most difficult stage in the tour: the 107 mile double climb of the monstrous 6,000 foot tall Alpe D'Huez. 

First and foremost, it is important to understand really what even completing this stage involves.  For those 176 riders, they ride UP  a mountain equal in size to Mount Washington in New Hampshire  turn around and come back down, all before turning around once again and AGAIN climbing the mountain all while racing one another for the title of stage winner and moving at upwards of 25 miles an hour. 

So -- after immediately jumping out of the gates, several of the Tour's top riders hit walls early on leaving the door open for the only skillful American rider in the race: Tejay Van Guarderen. Nevertheless even Van Guareren ran in to trouble as during his decent of Alpe D'Huez a bout of tire troubles cost him some of the lead yet when leader Christophe Riblon marginally crashed a few miles later, Van Guardren exploded back into the race taking back the lead on the second climb of the race. 

Yet it was in the final 10k of the race that Van Guarderen's luck unfortunately ran out. As the race wound down many looked to Van Guarderen as the man who may finally become the first American to win a stage in the tour since Tyler Hamilton in 2003. He had a seven minute lead yet even as that dropped to 4 before continuing to fall as the American prodigy approached the 3 mile mark many believed he would in the end manage to hold a pressing Riblon out if the lead, long story short: he did not. 

Mere yards before the 1 kilometer to go mark in the race Riblon charged ahead ousting the American and causing a flood of heartbreak throughout any who saw that heartbreaking finish. 

Fact is, as football and basketball in the United States continues to grow, the talent pool that USA cycling can exploit to the fullest continues to shrink. 

Fact is as one watched Van Guarderen hang his head and laboriously climb the steps to his trailer, you had to wonder, if it is not will to win that is holding the United States team back, this fatal flaw that holds our nation back is simply that we do not have the ability to win a Tour De France. 

Now alright I will admit to playing devil’s advocate but when you think about it, the Tour De France is the premier event of a sport that statistically requires the physical ability of a person capable of running 21 marathons in 23 days. The Boston Marathon on the other hand is well one marathon in one day and while it, like the Tour is the most coveted competition of its kind, the Tour De France is by leaps and bounds more difficult than the marathon meaning that if an American has not managed to win Boston in 28 years, how might they manage to win an endurance event far superior than the coveted Boston Marathon? 

Fact is, the United States is one of the premier athletic countries on the face of the earth yet one thing it lacks is the extreme endurance capabilities of countless other nations. Fact is 1 year ago, the United States had won TEN tours but after we learned that in order to win 7 of those titles, America's finest needed to cheat, the terrible truth has finally come to a climax-- tens of years from now, Gregory James LeMond might likely remain the one and only great American cyclist in world history. 

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