I'm a few days late but I just started watching the 2019 Tour de France. It's an event I randomly started watching the first year Lance Armstrong won. I stumbled upon the event early one morning after returning home drunk from the local rodeo. I got home, flicked the TV on and there were a bunch of dudes in spandex racing their asses off. I got sucked in by the drama and I was hooked. I had no idea who any of the riders were or what the story was but I was loving it.

Cheater or not, I've always felt that Lance Armstrong brought a lot of new fans to cycling. I can always claim I started following before he launched to superstardom but he's the main reason I stayed. Everyone wanted to beat Lance and each year all the main riders would give everything they had to give it a shot. Yes he was cheating (most of his competitors were too) but it was still amazing TV, 20 years later I still follow the event.

This year I'm a bit out of the loop on who the contenders are. We have last years winner Geraint Thomas, who should be a contender but after that I have no idea. The race is still in its infancy so we still have a few weeks to watch the cream rise to the top. The mountains always bring the excitement and right now the race is just creeping into the bigger peaks. I haven't looked at the upcoming stages but usually the plan for at least one big mountain stage each weekend. A few days from now we should know who's serious about winning the Tour de Grance this year.