My colleague failed to mention the Tour de France in his column on surviving a slim sports calendar in the dog days of summer recently. All of the scenery and drama in the greatest cycling race is all I need to make it through the summer sports gap. 

I’m not a huge cycling fan outside of the Tour de France, just like I don’t watch swimming unless it is in the Olympics, or horse racing unless it is the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness or the Belmont Stakes. 

I do enjoy good stories and the drama those sports can bring, which is why from the start of the Tour de France, I spend a solid three weeks consuming everything I can about the race. I’m not sure what my first memory of watching the tour was, but my dad and I would watch the evening rebroadcast and root for Lance Armstrong. Back before we learned he cheated and then lied about it all. 

Right now, I’m watching a documentary looking at teams and riders from the race two years ago. I know what happened, who won the entire race and I can vaguely remember who won the stages but I wanted to learn more about what it was like from their perspective and their respective stories. 

For example, one of the riders has a farm in the countryside of France where he raises goats and he so desperately wants to win a stage for his home country. Another rider used his mountain biking experience to close the gap on a descent and win a stage. It was his best chance to ever win a stage and he did it. 

The documentary gave glimpses at the tactical approach in cycling. I have more appreciation for the event now than I did as a kid. Although it still blows my mind how much of a machine the peloton is especially when it catches a breakaway rider right before the finish line. 

NBC Sports, or Peacock, does such a great job with the broadcast. It is usually about the race and also about the country of France. Each stage takes you through a region, town or landscape and the commentators provide fascinating facts and help tell this great story split across 21 stages or chapters. 

The past few years have been filled with excitement and close battles between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard for first place. This year I’m rooting for a dark horse rider to mix it up. 

The great thing is once the Tour de France ends it will be just in time for Brookhaven Academy girls soccer to start followed soon by softball, public school golf and football. 

Hunter Cloud can be reached at hunter.cloud@dailyleader.com.