The Tour de France. Was it real?

I think a Brit named Christopher Froome just won the Tour de France.

But I couldn't swear to it.

In fact, I'm not sure the Tour wasn't just a figment of my imagination. Maybe it was merely an illusion and didn't really happen at all. Like when Mick Jagger first set foot on the moon and uttered those immortal words, "One small step for a Stone, and one giant leap for stoners". Or something like that. Close enough.

Some might now think, "Hey Leach. Just because you've lost your grip on reality doesn't mean the rest of us have. Of COURSE the Tour happened, you moron". And they would have a point -- or would they?

Did you see it on TV or read about it? Not me. Even the talking heads on the 4-letter network in the wee hours of the morning didn't pay much heed. These are the same people that will breathlessly yammer on over a video of a soccer match in Nepal featuring one-eyed monks pitted against bipolar rickshaw cabbies. But the Tour gets ignored? Really?

Let's not forget that in Europe and beyond, the Tour de France is arguably the most famous and celebrated race in the world. And this was the 100th running of it. The centennial, for crying out loud. Shouldn't this have been a big deal?

Evidently not, at least in America. Save for one obscure cable channel, the American media by and large ignored it. And that's not right. It could be reasonably argued that while strategy certainly plays a part, no other sporting event in the world -- ever -- has required more training, will and endurance of it's participants than the Tour de France.

However, after a brainstorming session with my pal Mick, leave it to yours truly, he of the delusional mind, to offer a theory as to why this happened.

No American riders were expected to be serious contenders. Kind of like the men in major pro tennis tournaments these days. From what little I could gather, there wasn't much talk of scandal, aka cheating in this year's Tour. Lance Armstrong's much ballyhooed fall from grace has finally -- mercifully-- dropped off the radar. He's like fellow Texan George W Bush. Even if a guy was a conniving cheat or a putz, you can only blame him for so much for so long, and then the story starts to get old -- ya know?

Maybe this is why the American media all but ignored this year's historic Tour. No word of steroids, human growth hormones, mysterious blood transfusions, or a rider "coming out" to announce he was actually a woman and through some sort of divine miracle, became impregnated on a climb up one of the Alps. Now THAT would have set the scribes to furiously pecking away at their keyboards and got the 4-letter network's attention.

This is not to advocate the use of PEDs or other such shenanigans, but it sure seemed to be a lot more fun in the old days.

And we knew the race was real.

Because we could actually-- you know -- watch it. Or even read about it.

At any rate, congrats to Christopher Froome, the 2013 Tour de France champion.

I think.