After 16 days including two grueling mountain 2 stages in the Pyrenees over the weekend, the Tour de France is taking a rest day and not a moment too soon, for me. I'm exhausted. I've been waking up every day for the past two weeks at 5:30am, sometimes as early as 3:30am to watch the TdF live on OLN while trying to maintain my normal schedule. I'm exhausted. The cyclists are tired, for sure, and they need rest, but even on their day off, they will be in the saddle for 2 - 2 1/2 hours just to keep their muscles from freaking out. Me? I don't train for this stuff. I need some sleep. Blessedly the end of the Tour is only a week away.

Why do I do this? I've been a fan of the TdF from way back before ESPN2 and OLN existed, back when ESPN, if we were lucky, would put on a half hour highlight show some time in the evening, no specific time, just wherever it fit into the schedule. Of course, there was no Internet back then so you couldn't track the race online or even find the TV schedule. You just had to stay glued to ESPN or get lucky.

So now when OLN is covering most of the TdF live, I can't resist it. I must watch. Almost to make up for years and years of deprivation. Added to that, this is Lance Armstrong's last ride and his performance so far has done nothing to make me question the insanity of waking up in the middle of the night to see cruise around France in yellow one last time.

So this morning, the rest day, I slept in til 7am and it was fucking glorious, but I'm still pretty zonked, looking forward to nights of a solid eight hours.