It's sad that Lance Armstrong has had such bad luck in this year's Tour de France. He punctured at an inopportune time during the cobblestone stage (yes, some times are worse than others), and yesterday he was involved in three crashes, one of which injured his hip. It just goes to show that there is luck—good and bad—in cycling. Lance was lucky during his seven Tour victories from 1999 to 2005, though all of us can remember the spills he took (think Iban Mayo) and the close calls he had (think Joseba Beloki). One thing that Lance always did to minimize the chance of bad luck is ride near the front of the peloton. He was not near the front yesterday when he clipped a pedal on a curb and went down; nor was he near the front when he got involved in other people's crashes. Bad luck has a tendency to find you when you're not doing things right.
Today is a rest day in the Tour. I enjoyed sleeping in. Here is a preview of tomorrow's stage. I'm looking forward to the battle between Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck, Bradley Wiggins, and Levi Leipheimer. All have good teams and all appear to be in great shape. Lance will be in the mix, though not with the objective of winning the Tour. He will guide Levi through the Alps and Pyrenees and perhaps try to win stages.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 