Three Weeks in July

For anybody who thinks cycling isn't a real sport or who thought the Tour this year would be overshadowed by the doping controversies or who worried that the lack of an American star would make the race uninteresting, I have news. So far, after the Prologue and three stages, the mystique of this competition remains intact.

No, I don't think Levi will win. I just have never seen him go an entire three weeks of a major tour without having at least one really bad day, and you can't win the Tour if you do that. Maybe he'll surprise me.

In the Prologue, we got to see why the World Champion gets to wear that rainbow jersey (temporarily traded in for yellow).

Stage One showed us incredible teamwork and tactics. David Millar's finesse at getting the polka dot jersey was perfect. And Robbie McEwen's remarkable win after his crash was jaw-dropping. His team set him up perfectly, and his incredible speed was unstoppable.

In Stage Two, we got to see how the Quick Step boys earned their name. Everyone expected Boonen and his team to make that win happen and they didn't disappoint. The only fly in the ointment was the the big crash at the finish -- looking at the replays, it appears that it was Boonen's rear wheel that touched Zabel's front wheel and set off the chain reaction crash that stopped 150 riders from joining the sprint finish. Perhaps Boonen was not perfectly focused and contributed to the mayhem, and with his less than stellar results in the other stages so far perhaps he is showing a bit of vulnerability.

Then in Stage Three today, it was the gutsy breakaway caught right at the finish and more intriguing tactics in the KOM/polka dot jersey race. And then an incredible demonstration of the almost super powers inferred onto the wearer of the yellow jersey. Another jaw dropper, and when you saw Cancellara go you could just tell that he was going to pull it off.

So, we're just starting, not even to the mountains yet, and it looks like this will be another great year for the TdF.