I don’t really know much about cycling.

I can’t keep track of who’s leading on a given day or figure out
the way those heats/stages work. In all honesty, off the top of my
head, I can only name one race and one cyclist: the Tour de France
and Lance Armstrong.

Comments like that probably raise the eternal ire of snooty
French cycling aficionados who turn up their nose at my American
ignorance. I’m sure that makes me some kind of sellout–but really,
I don’t care. And on top of that, I am particularly excited for
this summer’s Tour. Nor is it a secret why. Legions of bandwagon
cycling fans have consistently grown across the United States over
the past five years for one reason:

Lance.

Armstrong possesses that Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods-like
domination of his sport that almost makes the surname a dispensable
commodity. In basketball, one strives to be “like Mike.” In golf
all you need say is Tiger, and in cycling, Lance.

He is the most amazing athlete in the world, hands down.

He can sit on a stationary bike and cycle at a rate of more than
50 miles per hour for nearly an hour. The average healthy
college-age male can sustain this feat for 10 minutes–if
that.Armstrong is a professed atheist; but it is hard to imagine
this type of power coming anywhere but from God.

He spends at least seven hours on his bike per day–at least
during the off-season. Around Tour time, one would be hard pressed
not to find him riding. For that matter, one would probably not be
able to find him at all because he is training in elevations that
make walking uncomfortable.

When other celebrities and athletes meet him, what do they want
to do after they shake his hands? Feel his thighs, naturally–they
may be the most solid substance on the planet.

Probing the emotion of all the Armstrong hype, there is almost a
sense that he transcends the capabilities of humanity. He defeated
the incurable–overcoming testicular cancer and a body full of
deadly tumors provokes a lingering amazement of his persona. The
question now focuses less on, how did he did it, but more so, how
does he continue to do it? Can he do it again? It’s almost becoming
stupid to think he can’t. A three-week, 2,032 miles race–if
nothing else, the Tour is grueling. Throw in some mountains, and,
well, it’s hard to think of it not as a race but an endurance
challenge. Kind of like climbing Everest, it makes one wonder, why?
Why sit on a six-by-three-inch seat for countless hours, battle up
mountains most people would surely get winded walking up?

But Lance is known as a strong mountain rider. Typically during
the Tour, he hangs around the rest of the pack until they reach
Pyrenees–at which point he breaks away, not to be contested.
Mountains are his forte–which is odd, considering he hails from
Texas.

Still, considering all of Lance’s remarkable attributes–the
most amazing may be that he actually is human. During last year’s
Tour he suffered a nasty fall–seeing it caused pause at how anyone
could get back on a bike after that. He rode for a day horribly
dehydrated and with diarrhea. (Who rides a bike when they have
diarrhea?) He endured a rather public divorce with his
wife–privacy is not one of the spoils of celebrity. Then, of
course, there is the cancer. But in spite of human flaws and pains
he overcomes. That’s really why he captures our imagination like no
other athlete can.

So, this summer, July 3, the 95th Tour begins–and Lance has the
chance to win an unprecedented six in a row, overtaking the record
he currently shares with Eddie Merckx–yes, I had to look his name
up. Sign me up for the bandwagon. Call DishNetwork and get that OLN
station that airs the Tour.

Between now and next fall, there will be the NBA and NHL Finals,
the MLB All-Star Game, a number of boring preseason NFL games and
the Tour de France. I can say, without any degree of shame, that I
am most looking forward to the Tour.