Tour de Lance Update
Longtime Philadelphia sports columnist Bill Lyon says Lance Armstrong is like Seabiscuit. Longtime Philadelphia sports columnist Sandy Grady says Lance Armstrong isn't like Seabiscuit. I'll try to see Seabiscuit in the next few days and let you know who's right.

Also, a sports columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer says Armstrong has won over the French:

The proof that Armstrong has the rooting market cornered weren't the American flags he saw as he arrived in Paris. It's that the French were waving them, too. They didn't begrudge his winning the 100th Tour de France as much as they did his previous victories, and this one was contested in the context of a political split over the war in Iraq. ... Armstrong has become the symbol of the underdog and the dynasty at the same time. Those strange bedfellows make him simply the greatest comeback story ever.

And AP sports columnist Jim Litke reminds us to not forget what Armstrong went through in battling cancer:

Lance Armstrong has been on top of the world so long that the rest of us sometimes forget how he got there. Not Armstrong. Barely 18 hours after crossing the finish line on the Champs-Elysees, he left his room at the luxury hotel where the Texas flag flew overnight to attend a news conference to remind the world how he came to win five Tour de France titles in a row.

"You always look back to 1996 and you realize that a crash on Luz-Ardiden or a little cycle cross into Gap is not nearly as bad as sitting in a hospital room in Indianapolis," he said yesterday. "Drawing on that experience helps and is perhaps one of the secrets to winning the Tour."

Also, the Boston Globe has a fine story about the courageous Tyler Hamilton, who finished fourth in the Tour despite riding since the second Day with a broken collarbone. Hamilton will ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange Friday, then make the morning talk-show circuit Monday.

UPDATE: Is Lance Armstrong an athlete? David Whitley of The Orlando Sentinel puts the question to the test - by trying to ride one measely stage of the Tour de France, on an exercise bike at the Y. Hilarious.