I'm a fan of cycling riding and following cycle racing, so this time of year is always a great one for me because of the Tour de France. This year in particular it's more exciting, because I and two friends have been training indoors since January and riding our road bikes outside since May, so I've been in much more of a cycling state of mind this summer.

I knew that the Tour began this Saturday, but today (Wednesday) I think I've caught the fever big time, learning of US Postal's Team's huge team time trial win today in stage 4. Lance Armstrong heads the US Postal Team (afectionately know as the Posties or the Blue Train) and is going for a 5th consecutive win of the Tour, to match the great Miguel Indurain.

So, with my thoughts turning to cycling and Tour de France results, I thought it might be nice to share some of the bits I've been collecting since the weekend for readers interested in the Tour. Enjoy!

First, there's of course the Tour de France Official Site, with all sorts of news, information and goodies in many languages.

Outdoor Life TV is showing 2 hour blocks of coverage on US cable TV and has an Official Tour website featuring live and archived audio feeds (Windows Media Player required), which are great for listening to in the background while working.

VeloNews, is covering the Tour as well, and includes rider diaries and excellent interactive flash-based Tour coverage too.

Eurosport has a nice cylcling section covering the Tour, CyclingNews.com has good info but a confusing site and Graham Watson's Photo Website has some excellent photos of the riders

The USPS has a Postal Team site up as well, for Lance and Postie fans.

I've found only one weblog completely focused on the Tour, like Le Blog de France, but I'm sure there must be more. If you come across a good one, please let me know.

Lastly, the weblog Nicest of the Damned has a nice beginner's guide on the Tour for those new to cycle racing and the Tour itself.

Oh yes -- a Dutch company called Deepweb has release a neat little Palm OS Tour de France reference application called Le Tour 03 (thanks PDANews24!) which shows details on the stages, teams and riders. It's free to check out, though a small $3 donation to Deepweb is certainly in order if you like it and use it.

Cheers too all the road cycling fans out there -- enjoy the next month! :-)