What's with these bike riders (it's not all about bikes and sports dear)

As my friends will tell you, if it's a sport, Gil will watch and somehow Gil even knows something about it. "What does Gil do all day" might even run through their minds...

Well, one of my favorite yearly traditions is keeping up with the Tour de France and this year was going to be pretty easy as I spent the last week in bed and I had it on TV in front of me.

On a side note, my 7 year old watched a bit with me on Saturday and she had a 'unit' of French in FIRST GRADE this year and she pronounced 'Tour de France' in perfect French diction and corrected me when I said France like an "American". She also asked me if they were in "Paris (pronounce PA - REE) yet"? Note to self - too smart, need to re-think this Private School thing :)

Back to the Tour and these idiot riders. A couple of days ago I watch this AWESOME ride by some Italian guy named Ricco. He is young, dynamic and according to the announce team, at 22, he can one day look to winning the Tour and live up to his idol Marco Pantani. Well, yesterday he reached his idol MUCH SOONER than he thought because he got kicked off the Tour for DOPING. Yes, despite the fact that these guys know that EVERY DAY they will be tested they still do it!

To us as Americans, who are watching the steroid battle in baseball and all the other crazy things people do to get ahead it's not shocking it's just DISAPPOINTING. My girls, Cydney in particular, have become fascinated with sports like I have. She might not be the world's best female athlete but she will love sports for the reasons I do, I can see that already. The other night we watched the beginning of the All Star Game together and they were announcing the 3rd basemen. Out comes Chipper Jones, who plays for the Braves (Cydney's favorite team) and they had all the Hall of Famers out at their positions so there next to Chipper was my childhood idol, Mike Schmidt (3rd baseman for the Phillies). I looked at Cyd and saw her at 7 and a 1/2 and I looked back in my mind to see me at the same age in 1977 and sitting at the Vet watching "Schmidty" and the Phils start to turn things around that would lead to a World Championship in 1980. It was a very cool and humbling experience. I also realized I did not get enough of those experiences as a kid so I have vowed to change that for the girls. I HATE the Braves but I will 'suck it up' and take them to more games. In fact, I am starting tonight and taking Rachel out to see the Nationals and next Tuesday I will take Cyd to see the Cardinals (I think I'll even teach her how to keep a score book). I even promised the girls that as long as the Braves are NOT playing the Phils I will root for the Braves, BUT I WILL NOT DO THAT DAMN CHOP - EVER!!!!!!!!!

Rest assured I'll have one eye on the out of town scoreboard seeing how my boys are doing but I'll be with one of my girls!