I follow it every year, although admittedly got VERY spoiled by the years Lance was in it - still getting used to the event without him.
He is supposed to attend though on July 23 in the time trial in Grenoble and then in Paris the last day in affiliation with Radio Shack.
What to me a VERY special aspect of the event is the outstanding commentating of Phil Liggett, Paul Sherman, and Bob Roll. IMO they are the best in the business for this sport when compared to other sport's commentators. Phil has a soft spot for the Americans too, which I think is really special. You can tell by his comments - he used to refer to Lance as the "young Texan" for example, when Lance was just starting out.
As for this year's event - I agree - MAJOR CARNAGE!!!
AS has been discussed during the coverage, a lot of it had to do with the increased media involvement and their rabid thirst for coverage in and amongst the riders during the stage. But thankfully the organisers jumped in and throttled back some of the madness. But of course there has also been a lot of crashes that just happened normally without any outside influence.
I've really been impressed with some of the performances this year so far. Certainly Voekler is riding incredibly. Cavendish (with help from his team) is insane. So many more to be mentioned but I'll leave it there for now.
I think it's way too early to predict a winner - but at 4 min. back it doesn't look like Alberto will three-peat this year.
