Throughout its 101-year history, the Tour de France hasn't registered much with sports fans in the United States, despite the fact that Americans have won the race eight of the past 18 years -- Lance Armstrong's five-year reign and Greg LeMond's legendary comeback to win the race in 1989 (one of his three victories over a five-year span in 1986-'90).

The race registers in Richter-scale proportions with millions in Europe, but can U.S. fans get on board with one of the most significant sporting events in world history? Here are 10 reasons to ponder:

10. History
In the Tour’s 101-year history, nobody has ever taken more than five Tour de France victories, and only one other cyclist has matched Armstrong’s five consecutive victories.  If Lance succeeds, this will be one for the history books.

9. Sheryl Crow
The rock superstar is bright, talented -- and dating Lance Armstrong. It’s enough to make the rest of us don spandex, start shaving our legs and riding bikes.

8. Robin Williams
Believe it or don’t, but Mork from Ork is a very, very serious cyclist, a huge Armstrong fan and a personal friend of Lance. He’s been spotted riding in the Postal team car during the last couple of Tours, he’s been known to take meals with the team and provide a little improv entertainment.

7. No halftime-show hype
Although a massive publicity caravan precedes the racers along the Tour route, we don’t see any of it here in the States. In other words, we don’t get deluged with pre-game hype about the halftime show (and we aren’t subjected to thinly veiled publicity stunts from the likes of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake).

6. America looks good, for once
With U.S. foreign policy as unpopular as ever, it’s good for the world to see Americans in a positive light. We will figure prominently in this year’s Tour, led by Lance and his U.S. Postal Service squad, and backed up by countrymen Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer and Bobby Julich. Le Tour is one of America’s few chances to be a positive presence on the world stage.

5. Tyler Hamilton
Aside from Armstrong, Hamilton is likely to be the top-placed American in the Tour. He broke his collarbone in last year’s first stage pile-up, then gritted his teeth and continued on to Paris, even chalking up a coveted mountaintop stage win and taking fourth place in the final standings. If he stays healthy this year, Hamilton could even capture the overall title.

4. No need to call in sick
France is 6-9 hours ahead of us time-wise, depending on where you live in the U.S., meaning that in many cases, you can watch live coverage of the race on OLN or at http://www.letour.fr, and still make it to work on time.

3. It’s grueling
This year’s race is more than 2,100 miles long, spread out over 21 stages (technically, a prologue plus 20 stages) of racing. Watching these guys suffer takes the romance out of being a professional athlete, but it sure makes you appreciate your own job.

2. It’s enormous
More than 1 million people will line Belgian and French roads to see the Tour live, with another 1 billion tuning in via television, radio and the Internet. It's the most followed annual sporting event in the world, beating even the Super Bowl. Only soccer’s World Cup and the Olympics -- both of which occur every four years -- have more devotees.

1. Lance Armstrong
A comeback from cancer, then five straight Tour victories -- arguably the most inspirational story in sports history.

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