The Tour

I've watched the Tour de France every July for the last ten years. This July has been no different. Two things I want to say right now about what I've witnessed over the last week of the Tour.

First, there's been a Subaru commercial that has aired nearly everyday since the start of this year's Tour. I don't know if you've seen it on too on Versus or any other channel, but it really convicts me. It's probably silly that it does, but nevertheless, convicted I stand. Here's the scene: A man walks down the sidewalk on the way to his car and the camera pans away from him and shows a new Subaru Impreza parallel parked on the street. The man sees that the parking meter has run out and places change into it just before the meter police lady can write the owner of the car a ticket. The man's voice is narrating, and he proclaims his love for his Subaru Impreza and says that he loves anybody else who also loves Subaru Imprezas. It just convicts me of the way Christians treat each other, and more specifically, the way I treat other Christians sometimes. Just like the Subaru guy loves other Subaru people, shouldn't we love anybody else who loves Jesus?

Second, I've pretty much lost all respect for Lance Armstrong. I know that he is a strong symbol of the victory a person can have over cancer, and I know that he is one of the greatest athletes in the world (and perhaps all time). But he is a very poor example of integrity, moral capacity, love and friendship. I won't even go into what he did to the mother of his children for an example; today however, he and his team backstabbed the man who helped him win all seven of his Tour de France championships. George Hincapie was Lance's right hand man for all of his victories in France. He tortured and sacrificed his own body in order to propel Lance up mountains on his way to seven years of glory. And how does Lance thank him? When George had the opportunity to wear the yellow jersey for just one day, Lance's team, Astana, headed up the peloton and chased back enough of the time gap to oust George from his shot at the podium. And in the post race interview, Lance had the gall to blame another American team for chasing down George, denied having anything to do with George's loss, and even said that he regrets what happened today and said it must have been something personal between the two American teams. A shameless, gutless, ruthless, cheap, and insolent injustice that was. I feel bad for George (who even though was obviously vexed in his post race interview didn't throw anyone under the bus and handled the situation with dignity and respect).

I'm sure none of you who actually read this even care about Lance or George or the Tour de France, but that wholeheartedly pissed me off, and I just needed to vent.