Big event takes ugly de-Tour, but who's watching?

	Jan Ullrich was barred from competing in the Tour de France amid doping allegations. AP

All right, I'll just say it: Does anyone in America care about the Tour de France?

Not just about what Lance Armstrong has accomplished, which obviously is remarkable. Not just about whichever American riders are going to try to fill his illustrious bike shoes. And not just about three-time champ Greg LeMond and how he was the first American winner back in 1986.

Do Americans follow cycling? If there wasn't a prominent American contender, national newspapers and TV stations and websites wouldn't do more than just the courtesy coverage, right?

I'm just wondering, because over the weekend, everywhere I looked, especially online, more often than not one of the top stories was the Tour de France doping case. Sure, no one wants drugs infiltrating sports, it's a big story, and it's intriguing that athletes can be suspended merely because they've been accused of cheating. Will Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso ever race again? That remains to be seen. But if they don't, who else besides Ullrich and Basso will lose sleep over it?

The Tour de France isn't the World Cup. Or the Olympics. Or even horse racing's Triple Crown. I've never once been at a bar and talked about any non-Lance Armstrong cycling story. In fact, the number of Armstrong stories I've talked about with people? I could count them on one hand.

But one thing that really intrigues me about sports is other cultures' fascinations with sports I'm not entirely familiar with. So I'll give things a chance. Rugby is cool. Cricket? Not so much. I've actually watched darts, partly because it's something I'll occasionally play, but also because it's great hearing that British announcer, in his unmistakably gravely voice, a la Brian Johnson of AC/DC, belt out "Uhhhhhhhhhh Huuuunnnnnnnnndred and Eiiiighteeee!" when a thrower sticks three straight treble 20s.