David Leggat: Europe serves up summer feast of sport

If you're a sports nut, it's not a bad time to be in Europe.

Consider the menu.

Cycling's tour de force, the Tour de France, starts with a time trial in Monaco tonight.

It'll be around the same time as the women's singles final at Wimbledon between two players with the same surname, with the men's denouement to come 24 hours later.

The British Open - or as they call it over there, simply The Open - starts at Turnberry on July 16.

And next Wednesday night, England's cricketers start their bid to regain the Ashes off Ricky Ponting's Australians at Cardiff (and no, that's not a misprint).

The Tour de France has been scarred by doping cheats and repeatedly raises the question of how seriously cycling's authorities really are about cleaning it up.

But it remains one of the treats of the world sports calendar as it wends its way around France - this time with dips into Spain and Switzerland - over 23 days and 3500km split over21 stages, leading to the traditional finish along the Champs Elysees.

This time there are two New Zealanders to follow, Julian Dean with the Garmin-Slipstream team, starting his fifth Tour, and, for his Tour debut, Olympic double medallist Hayden Roulston with the Cervelo TestTeam, whose big hope is the defending champion, Spaniard Carlos Sastre.

This year the Tour has two blocks of high climbs - as distinct from your average run-of-the-mill middle-sized climb, which would more than do for most of us - to test the riders' endurance, and there could be a fascinating late twist.

The penultimate stage is from Montelimar up Mont Ventoux, a 167km gut-buster, and if the final day is traditionally given over to a largely processional trek round Paris, the events of the day before, July 25, could have a profound effect on the final day's activities.

Then there's Lance Armstrong, back in the saddle, but more in the role of helper than star turn. You have to wonder if he will be satisfied with that, or if the old instincts will kick in. It's hard to imagine he's simply there to take in the sights.

If you've lost any taste for the Tour because of the plethora of drug scandals, fair enough. Every time you think they've rooted out the stench, someone else gets caught stepping in the poo.

So a piece of advice: don't get caught up in wondering who might or might not be dirty. Many of them will be. Simply treat it as a marvellous spectacle, and leave it at that.

The Williams sisters will square off for the fourth time in a Wimbledon final tonight. There have been clashes between the pair when you'd find more combativeness in a geriatric pillow fight, although last year's final had more sting in it.

It tells you plenty about the state of women's tennis that a couple of sisters who pretty much pick and choose where, and how often, they play remain the game's pre-eminent figures.

The women's world No 1, Dinara Safina, won a solitary game in getting flogged in yesterday's semifinal by Venus. That paints a sorry picture.

And the Ashes. The tests were sold out months ago and will be the centrepiece of the English sporting summer.

Australia may not be the force of a few seasons back, but they do hold the celebrated little urn, courtesy of a 5-0 duffing a couple of years ago. A winner? Australia, but not by much.