The overall winner of this year’s Tour de France, which begins Saturday, will be the rider with the best set of lungs over 21 days of racing. That’s likely to be a contest between the spindly Spaniards Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre, along with a cast of dark horses that could, at least in theory, include seven-time winner Lance Armstrong.
But behind the leaders, the future growth and maturation of American cycling may rest on the gigantic quads of a kid you’ve never heard of.
Tyler Farrar, a 25-year-old who races for the American Garmin-Slipstream team, is a mellow sort who wears a Tibetan tattoo on his wrist with the Buddhist mantra “inner peace.†But don’t let his placid exterior fool you. Cycling experts say he may be the fastest American ever to enter the race … Details