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It has been almost a month of sleep-deprived epoch spending at least 5 hours a day reading twitter updates of 2009 coverage of the Tour de France. For this year’s tour, my love on Lance hasn’t fade, and didn’t lose color even though he wasn’t able to defend the yellow colored jersey for his campaign return to the tour after three and a half years of retirement. At thirty-seven years old, going thirty-eight in less than two months, the Texan made it to the podium for third place just behind highly-favored teammate and rival Alberto Contador of Spain, and the amorous brother of Frank, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg in second place. The two are the best climbers in the sports of cycling today, and they proved it during their stage at the Alps that made Bruynell or Brunyell (I forgot the spelling), the team manager of Astana, pissed off on Alberto’s unexpected climb attack which had been against the team’s stage-climb-plan.

Team HTC has the best sprinter in the person of Mark “Cav” Cavendish and the determination of George Hincapie for finishing the tour after a serious crash mid-way, while team Garmen-Slipstream posted some threat of Britain’s Bradly Wiggins’ individual time-trial on 18th stage with his aero-dynamic trouser suit. Team Saxo Bank’s Cancellara showed some toughness on descend after reaching every summit of climbs. Astana team couldn’t be any stronger among the squads involved, they had the finest rider of Alberto Contador, the push of Germany’s Andreas Kloeden, the legacy of Lance Armstrong and of course the team’s time-trial velocity, so unbeatable.

Forget about the last year’s tour champion Carlos Sastre and the hyped-up Cadel Evans, they weren’t able to get their rhythm on front of the peloton, can’t even make their own break-away. And when the climb path approaches, they dropped down like an overdosed dopers, kicked at the back of the main field. Woooohh… Im’just kidding here, not declaring or accusing.

One of the reasons that made 2009 Tour de France more exciting is the live coverage of iTV (local channel that can be accessed through the web ATDHE.Net - Watch Free Live Sports TV). They did an astounding real-time report for everything that occurs, from climb attacks to sprint to descend to crashes and even rider’s hand signals had been deciphered and interpreted for the viewers to understand the concept of cycling. Like raising right hand means asking for water from the team car, left or right shoving signal to warn the chasers that dangers are ahead of them when they are about to approach cliff with no side railings, the two-hand roll-around signal of a man on yellow jersey, way of expressing reckon that he might not be able to retain his no. 1 rank after the stage, just like what Cancellara did during the stage 5 or 6 (sorry can’t remember exactly).

On top of that, iTV network also covered the tour by feeding updates through twitter! Brilliantly, such made me comfortable because they’ve fed it live, ITV Tour de France (itvtdf) on Twitter, this has been the site that fed every 5 seconds in gap, with nonstop reporting of the tour’s progress including spectators reactions. They made me feel I’m on the ride with them. And for Lance’s Lance Armstrong (lancearmstrong) on Twitter, at any rate, he twits you when “anti-doping control team” knocks the door on their suite every morning before hitting the road.

Now that’s the beauty of twitter. You’ll get in touch with everything that takes place. When you can’t sit in front of TV to watch the sport live, well I think you should twit, as the saying goes “For those who love will follow”, I love it and that’s why I followed the tour live by twitter from start to finishhhh…(it doesn’t matter how your lips shapes this time) lol

More so, I love the sport because it helps my brain rolls like a bike’s wheel that glide towards rational functionality after hard days of work.

Since twitter obliges you to read and imagine rather than just watch the actual action, it transforms you into a better individual, to work with your mind’s eye and keeps you out of being too dependent on mere image and visuals.

Now I think we should twit, to gain info and wit!

My newly written blog is dedicated to Deinty Yadz, who twits like a charm.

About the Author

Recently connected as a staff in Philippine Mining Service Corporation. A
creative writer who loves to inscribe what he sees and feels. Spirited
towards scripting excerpts of his own awareness who had an
uncontrollable desire to write down what’s in his mind, fiction or
non-fiction, takes his free-time imagining things only words could be
put to describe them. He loves to connect friends with his words, not
photos. Blogs for the sake of his hobby, not for money.

To get a piece of his writings, you need to treat him burger and fries. It’s worth the price.

His website is PaYag.org - Index. Email him anytime at koontz_circle@yahoo.com, koontz@payag.org or lolek.montalbo@pmsc.com.ph

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