Tour de France Postponed

I was very sad to learn yesterday that my beloved Tour de France has been postponed, with no make-up date set yet. Faithful readers of this blog (Luke) will know that over the past 3-4 years I've become a bit of a Tour de France fanatic. Ever since the summer of 2016 when I first got into it, watching the Tour de France has become a sort of summer ritual for me.

Starting in late June or early July and lasting three weeks, the Tour de France is a 21 stage bike race that covers about 3,500 km (2,200 miles (yeah, I just went Euro on you)) mostly inside France -- although the race does sometimes go through Spain, Belgium, and other bordering countries -- always ending up in Paris, beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

I do not follow bike racing throughout the year, other than a couple news updates here and there, and I barely know a thing about pro cycling, other than what I've learned by watching the TdF. But this postponement hits hard, maybe even worse than the postponement (cancellation?) of baseball season.

This year I will miss sitting in my living room, on hot July mornings, working with my laptop on my lap while I watch the latest stage of the tour, with Phil Liggett and Bob Roll calling the play, and Jens Voigt out there with the on-the-scene commentary. Or having the TV on downstairs while I wait until the last 10 km of the stage -- usually the most exciting part.

But just pile that on top of the heap of other things I and my fellow citizens will be missing out on this Spring/Summer, such as soccer season, baseball season -- and whatever other sport would be in season right now -- and uh... eating at restaurants, drinking in bars, being able to walk right into the grocery store without waiting in line, being able to buy toilet paper, etc.

(Update: While I was writing this blog post, they announced the TdF will start on August 29th; so I'll still get my tour...)