Tour de France Over. Brad Sad.

Some closing comments for this year's Tour de France:

It was a great Tour to watch but this year was a real nail-biter. For Lance Armstrong to ride for almost 84 hours and end up with a one minute lead, well, that's damn close. He really gutted it out this time around, and from where I sit he's no dead lock for a sixth win - which will make next year interesting to watch as well. Everybody will think they have a shot.

We were camping this weekend and so I didn't get to watch Saturday's final time trial until we got home on Sunday. I was dying to find out what happened, but first we let the kids pick a movie to watch. Of course they picked Mary Poppins, which clocks in at over two hours. Aaagh! We need a second television. While the movie was on Katy was getting race reports from her folks. She teased me a little bit but didn't leak any of the important news.

The time trial was very exciting and I was glad that I got to see it without prior knowledge of the outcome. The bad weather added a level of difficulty and drama to the proceedings - it seemed inevitable that Armstrong or Ullrich would crash, it was just a matter of who and when. Ullrich did fall, and after that Armstrong didn't seem to be going all-out, happy to just maintain his lead.

In general, I thought that OLN's coverage of the race was spectacular. However, after Saturday's time trial they succumbed to a Fatal Blunder. They interviewed a celebrity.

Apparently Robin Williams is a big cycling fan. Or maybe just a big Lance Armstrong fan, who knows? He managed to get a ride in one of the chase cars following Lance for the time trial. Good for him. Anyway, OLN wasted five minutes on Mr. Williams, who basically riffed on "staring at Lance Armstrong's butt for an hour" the whole time.

Hey guys - here's an idea - maybe you should find somebody to talk to who, oh, I don't know - maybe actually RODE in the race that day? Or who has something meaningful to add to the coverage? I mean, mad props to Mr. Williams for getting to ride in the chase car, but in the end he's nothing but a fan with connections. Move along, nothing to see here.

To end on a positive note, Tyler Hamilton, That Guy With The Broken Collarbone, finished fourth. Fourth! Insane!