96th Tour de France starts tomorrow!

2009 Tour de France map

While most of the United States will be celebrating our country's adoption of the Declaration of Independence tomorrow (although most don't even realize it), the cycling community will be shooting off bottle rockets in celebration of another incredible day: the first stage of the 2009 Tour de France! This is a three-week long opportunity for all Americans to get into the spirit of competition and keep up with the world's fastest cyclists, and there are many ways to get involved.

The easiest way to get involved this year is to watch the race. For the next three weeks (I know! Three weeks!) the race will be broadcasted on the cable channel Versus three times a day. (Sorry WWF fans, this is our time. Hey, don't hate on us, we have our mutual love of spandex to bring us together, right?) For those unlucky few who do not have cable the cycling community's heart goes out to you. The Versus website is also a fantastic place to visit during the next month to see how to get involved.

For the first time this year, the actual Tour is sponsoring a kind of fantasy game for fans. It is completely free to play, one only has to download a quick special player and they are up and running, or, er, cycling, I should say. The gist of the game is that players pick their cyclists, they basically create a team, and then for the duration of the Tour they manage their hand-picked team through each stage of the race. For anyone incredibly devoted to cycling this time-consuming game could pay off in the end. There is a good sum to be won by the "best" team manager. All the rules and regulations, including amounts to be won, can be read by visiting the English version of the Tour de France website and clicking on Games.

The people behind the Versus channel have been very helpful in the last few years, as far as helping fans get more involved in the race. For instance, every day there is a secret code that can only be attained by watching the race on television which viewers can use to enter the online sweepstakes. And the prizes for the online games are usually very awesome. They include everything from autographed gear to extremely expensive and fancy bikes to visits with famous cyclists. The website has more than just one contest, too. Because they know cyclists love competition there is something for everyone online.

Before the sun sets tomorrow, all Americans, cyclists and wannabes alike should give a friendly salute to our beautiful Statue of Liberty and thank her country for hosting such a marvelous event for more than ninety years!