Tomorrow’s the day the TdF announces the mountains & cities it will visit next July. Normally they’d have the past winners of the yellow (overall leader) and green (best sprinter) jerseys but not this time, as both are subjects of ongoing doping investigations. It’s been quite some time since doping allegations haven’t been a major part of media coverage of the event.

But regarding the route, it will be counter-clockwise this year, hitting the Pyrenees first and saving the toughest climbs in the Alpes for the finish. The Galibier, Chamrousse and yes, the Alpe d’Huez all get crammed into the last week, at least according to usually-reliable sources.

And yes, plans are for Kevin (my son) and I to return, again, with our BikeFriday folding travel bikes, and bring you close-to-live coverage. In fact, with this new wordpress blog format, I can update from almost anywhere using just my iPhone!

This assumes of course that Kevin’s kidney issues will finally be a thing of the past by then. Right now I’m writing this from the surgery waiting room at Kaiser in Santa Clara, where he’s undergoing a 4 hour robotic surgery procedure that will hopefully put his severe abdominal pains behind him. Well, they’re sort of behind him now (lower back), so I guess what we need is for it to become an out-of-body experience.