Until Next Year...

The end of the Tour de France is always bittersweet.  Like a kid leaving Disneyland, or the end of the holidays, it signals a return to normalcy.  For three weeks normal was: ride, watch the Tour, ride while watching the Tour, and watch the Tour again in the evening over a few beers.  The allure of the Tour is  not just the fact that its an amazing feat of strength and endurance.  Its signals the time that most avid cyclists should hit their best form of the year.  The Tour also coincides with some of the coolest mountain bike races in the west. The Tour is also a celebration of how cool cycling is on a global scale.  There are bike commercials and bike news and people who don't pay attention to cycling recognize that something is going on with all these bike geeks.  Then it ends, and things go back to normal, until next year.