The 2008 TdF was great. Now what?

The Tour is the most exciting sports event of the year for me. I follow each day's stage with keen interest. It's a wonderful event to be a fan of, because it's such a long-lasting high. In contrast to the Super Bowl (which I do watch and love), the TdF gives you the gratification of competition for three straight weeks.

When the winner is announced (congratulations, Carlos!), it's all exciting and is the ultimate achievement. And all that's great.

But, the day after - today - the "What now?" feeling starts to appear.

I already miss coming in to work, opening my browser to the live coverage at either VeloNews or Cycling News and keeping track out of the corner of my eye at the breakaways, the mountain stage attacks, and the staggering feats of athleticism.

I guess I now get to live in a new part of the experience: fond remembrance. Just as hard-core baseball fans can recite story after story about when their favorite pitcher pitched a no-hitter, or about amazing come from behind wins, I'll recall the things that stood out for the tour for me. Like:

• Jens Voight, who while he didn't win a stage was probably equally as important as Carlos himself in Carlos' victory because of all the work he did pedaling at the front of the line ("pulling") for the CSC team through miles and miles of road.
• Or imagining the disappointment Cadel Evans must feel after his second year straight in second place.
• Or the surprise of Christian Vandevelde becoming a serious contender in his first Tour (congrats on 5th place - a non-trivial thing.)
• Or how truly competitive the tour was. After 88 hours of racing over 21 days, with brutal 20 mile mountain climbs done after two other mountain Cols totaling over two vertical miles of mountain climbing on any given Pyrenees or Alps stage, blistering hot flat stages of 150 miles or more, the top three competitors finished with no more than 1 minute, 13 seconds between them. Read that again. Then be humbled.

Yup - memory time. Thanks, boys. Guys like me are truly fans, truly amazed, and truly happy to watch you do amazing things.

Oh, and time to get on the bike - not just watch bike racing. ;-)