Get ready for the 2010 Tour de France!

To me, about three years ago, the Tour de France was just this bike race that took place in France. Lance Armstrong was really the only cyclist I could name off hand. Then I started getting increasingly involved in endurance events, along the way falling in love with Le Tour (and other races as well).

This coming Saturday, July 3, 2010 marks the beginning of this year’s Tour which promises to be one of the most intensely contested races in a long time. One of the main reasons for this is the intense rivalry that developed last year as then Astana teammates Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador exchanged words, looks and mental gamesmanship. Since that time, Lance has walked away from Team Astana to form Team Radio Shack, taking along with him eight out of the nine members of the 2009 Team Astana (the same team that won the team title in the 2009 Tour).

Apart from the most watched rivalry is the the vast field of strong riders with widespread talent and teams that hope to guide their leaders to the podium on the Champs-Élysées. Perhaps the most watched among these riders is the second place finisher in the 2009 Tour, Saxo Bank rider, Andy Schleck who, along with his brother Frank, gave an amazing performance in last year’s Tour and promised to be at the front of the cycling world for many years to come.

If you’re not a fan of cycling because you find it boring or tedious, this year promises to be an incredible race to watch. Whether the Armstrong/Contador rivalry truly plays out or if the real challenge come from one of the new teams hitting the road in this year’s Tour, such as Team BMC or Team Sky, you can be sure that cycling’s best will be throwing down the gauntlet every single day between July 3rd and July25.

You can follow Tour coverage online at: http://letour.fr as well as on Versus. Additionally, Versus will be playing each and every stage live on it’s television channels and replaying it throughout each day. The Tour begins with the Prologue in Rotterdam tomorrow.