You’ve heard of breakfast at Wimbledon? Try baguettes in Paris. Tune in to the Outdoor Life Network at 5:30 a.m. Sunday to watch the most ceremonial march down the Champs-Elysees since the end of World War II.
Lance Armstrong, barring a collapse on the level of the destruction of Earth by fire, will parade into Paris with his record seventh Tour de France victory, all in a row. His lead of 2 minutes, 46 seconds should be safe through Saturday’s 34.5-mile time trial; expect the riders to make Stage 20 in about 74 minutes.
Forget Lance trying not to spill champagne over cobblestones. You’ve seen that before. Watch Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll on OLN wax poetic about seven years of domination.
Besides the expected seven Tour wins, Armstrong also will go down as someone who gave back. His Armstrong Foundation’s Livestrong campaign with the yellow bracelets has raised more than $50 million for cancer research. While Armstrong is looking forward to retirement, he’s not looking forward to the inevitable questions about his place in history.
“Whatever the people decide it is, it is,” he said. “I’m a kid from Texas that learned how to ride a bike fast and overcame a life-threatening illness to come back and win the hardest sporting event in the world, hopefully seven times. I’ll let the other people write on the tombstone.”
– John Henderson
WEAK IN REVIEW
1. Lou Piniella goes ballistic, again. Do ejections trigger a buyout clause in his contract, allowing him to be paroled from the Rays?
2. Lost a whole season to get a 24 percent rollback and a salary cap. Oops.
3. Larry Brown burns yet another bridge, leaving Detroit like he left a few other jobs: on a sour note.
4. Andrew Bogut gets ejected from a summer league game. Settle down, rookie.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
1. How about one big blockbuster baseball trade before the next deadline — maybe the world champion Red Sox sending two prospects to Philadelphia for closer Billy Wagner.
2. Michelle Wie finally win an event. She has been playing well of late and deserves a little something extra for the effort.
3. Tony Stewart not win an event (i.e. the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono this weekend). After winning three of the past four, how about sharing? Come on, Tony, with seven races left you’ve already locked up a spot in the Race to the Chase.
4. The Pistons keep a coach for longer than two seasons. Since Chuck Daly left in 1992, Flip Saunders is Detroit’s eighth coach.
THE COUCH
ON: Nearly every flavor of motorsports will fill the airwaves Sunday for a day-long marathon, starting with Formula One and ending with drag racing. Get the “jump” button oiled up on the remote, because the lineup looks like this: GP of Germany (10 a.m. on KCNC-4); NASCAR’s Pennsylvania 500 (11:30 a.m., TNT); AMA superbikes and MotoGP races (noon, SPEED); IndyCar’s A.J. Foyt 225 (12:30 p.m., ESPN); and finally the tape-delayed NHRA Carquest Nationals (7 p.m., ESPN2).
OFF: There are plenty of cycling events in the mountains this weekend. For the dirt devils, Winter Park’s mountain bike series resumes Saturday with the Valley Point to Point. The 18.8-mile race, which has a total climb of 1,950 feet, has divisions from beginner to pro and goes from the resort to Fraser ($42 race-day registration). For more on the event and series, go to www.epicsingletrack.com. For the roadies, the fourth annual Colorado-Eagle River Ride is Sunday out of Beaver Creek. Rides are 45 miles, 100 miles and 100 kilometers. The event goes through the Eagle River Valley and includes 20 miles of hard-pack dirt road along the Colorado River. The $115 ride-day registration, which includes a boatload of goodies, benefits the nonprofit Snowboard Outreach Society. For info, check out www.vailvelo.com.
AROUND TOWN
The Rapids (5-11-3) are trying to put together a run, and what better way to do it than at Invesco Field at Mile High, where they have picked up four wins this season. Coming off Wednesday night’s loss at friendly Mile High, four of their next five games are at home, where they are 4-4-1. As if fans needed any more incentive, Saturday night’s game against Chicago is “Marcelo Balboa Hall of Fame Night.” The first 5,000 fans get a Balboa bobblehead. Balboa, who will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Aug. 29 (check out soccerhall.org), was a founding player of the Rapids in 1996 and started 146 of 151 matches in six seasons. Are you wondering what we are: Does the hair bobble, too?
