4th of July at the Tour

Today is a great day x 2! It marks the start of the 102nd edition of the Tour de France. And of course, it's Independence Day here in the USA. Happy Birthday, America!

I pulled out some of my favorite older Hero Arts stamps for my first card inspired by this year's Tour de France. The Skyline stamp has been one of my favorites since it came out, and it's especially fun combined with fireworks from Happy 4th. It's hard to tell in the photos, but I trimmed all of the buildings and popped them up, so the card has quite a bit of dimension. I added a little wood veneer bicycle which I tried to make red with a marker. The road is a fun roll of washi tape from my stash.

There are only three Americans starting at the Tour today - the fewest amount of Americans since 1996! Boo! (Read a VeloNews article about it HERE!) One of them is Tyler Farrar, a sprinter. He's riding for MTN-Qhubeka, the first African-based team to ever ride at the tour. "Qhubeka projects aim to help rural communities move forward and progress by giving bicycles to children in return for work done to improve their environment and their community." I absolutely love this. The Qhubeka project site says that since 2005, they've distributed 40,000 bikes to African villagers, and reduced commute time to school by 75%. I'm not a huge Tyler Farrar fan, but I absolutely love what this team stands for, and I'll be rooting for them! Follow the hashtag #BicyclesChangeLives on Twitter for more information about this project.

Another American rider is Andrew Talansky. He's the current US Time Trial Champion, and he'll be riding a pretty sweet stars & stripes painted bike at today's stage, which happens to be a time trial.

But my favorite American at the Tour this year is Tejay van Garderen!! Some of you have seen me tweet it during races - GOOOOOOO TEEEEEEEEEEEJAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!! And that's what I'll be yelling at my TV this summer, too. Tejay is one of the overall contenders. He's not a favorite by any stretch, but I'm crossing my fingers and toes that maybe this is the summer he surprises everyone. GO TEJAY!! Here's a cool article that he recently wrote, explaining this year's race. And how cool is this t-shirt? I think I need one.

Proceeds from this t-shirt benefit the Davis Phinney Foundation. Davis Phinney is a great American cyclist from years past, who was diagnosed with Parkinsons at age 40. His foundation supports those living with Parkinsons. So, a cool shirt to support Tejay, for a good cause.

Alrighty then! Now you know about the Americans at this year's Tour. Yay America! Yay France! Yay bikes!!