I've been reminded over the last two weeks how beautiful a sport professional cycling is. Since most of you are probably unaware that people even watch this sport, let alone that certain events are carried on on TV, I'll give you a quick note on what I'm talking about. The Outdoor Life Network (not a hugely poplar channel) has become my favorite channel because it does something incomprehensible to most cycling fans, it carries each of the three major European stage races live; The Giro d'Italia, The Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. So while I used to make a ritual of listening to Brewer games on the radio, now my sports routine is to get up at 730am and watch the best cyclists in the world. It's easy to think bicycle racing is nothing more than riding as fast as you can, but once OLN started showing live action of the Tour (as opposed to ESPN's pre-packaged hilite reel) I saw how much goes into it, it's actually a team sport with races within races. What makes the sport that much better for me is that I can cheer for a champion, Lance Armstrong. For those of you familiar with the success of my favorites in conventional team sports, you know how big a deal that is for me. To top it off, this July may see one of the most competitve tours in 4 years as Lance faces what may be his biggest challenge, a fellow American, former teammate and winner of two major races already this year, Tyler Hamilton. How much would that piss off the French.