Live strong. Wear yellow.

Okay, of late I've been busy. Too busy to post here most nights. But I haven't been to busy to watch the Tour de France this year.

In Monday's Post, Sally Jenkins has an article about Lance Armstrong and what he may choose to do in coming years. (Her guess is that he'll ride the Tour next year, because he would hate to miss it.)

She also talked about his performance in this year's Tour, adding this fascinating note:

He also took the final time trial Saturday in Besancon, despite the fact that he only needed to ride safely to clinch his record title. One of the reasons he streaked across the course so aggressively was that he received a meaningful e-mail reminding him yet again of how much he meant to other cancer patients.

Ten minutes before Armstrong went out to warm up for the final time trial of the Tour in Besancon, he checked his Blackberry, and read a message from a friend at Nike, Scott McEachern. That day, a man had gone into a Niketown store and purchased 500 yellow Live Strong bracelets, which are being sold as a fundraiser by Armstrong's cancer foundation. The goal was to sell them for a dollar apiece and raise $5 million, but $8 million have been sold. The gentlemen who bought a case of 500 had bought them for this reason: his father had just died of cancer. While he was alive, the father had watched every minute of the Tour. His son wanted to give the bracelets out at the funeral.

"I read that literally 10 minutes before I got on the bike to warm up," Armstrong said. "Do you think I was a little motivated?"

Great fun to watch this year. It'll be fun to see what he does next.