I admit I am not the “typical” US sports fan. Number one – I am female. Sports in the US is basically a male bastion. I can live without home run derbies, college bowl championship series – although I love college football, and super bowls. A holdover from my college days as a marketing major I still watch the 18 hours of super bowl coverage for the ads.

I am a world sports fan and this is my weekend!! I get to watch wonderful team and individual efforts in the Tour de France. Saturday was a wonderful time trial and evidently a hard one as the favorites were not there in the top from what I can see. Sunday was another day for the French as a breakaway gave the stage win to a French rider.

Some day in the future I want to stand on the roadside in Bordeaux or some other French province and watch as the bicyclist go flying by.

Most of my friends, and indeed my children even, are not at all interested in the Tour de France this year. Their only interest was Lance Armstrong. I keep telling them there was a Tour before Lance and there will undoubtedly be many after Lance. I like the fact that each day ends and no one can figure who will be at the top of the classification at the end of the 2200 plus mile race. I like that each stage there are new names to be learned, new faces to see. I also like to look over the French, German, Belgium, and Danish landscapes as the bike riders go through the countrysides.

Other than the wonders of the Tour de France, I have the end of a wonderful month of soccer on television. I have watched at least 75% of the televised World Cup games. I love soccer and this month has been fantastic – by month I mean from 9 June until now. Today, France and Italy will battle it out and it is anyone’s game. I favor Italy but don’t know why. France has sentiment on its side. Zidane will play his last international cap today. I cannot wait for coverage to start.

Yesterday was a wonderful consolation game, though no consolation to Portugal I am sure. The game was much closer than the final score would indicate. I was excited when Portugal finally scored but also happy to see Germany win. What I would have given for a month in Germany!