gate not just basketball, but their lives.It also was particularly meaningful to her that Beard r

Chris Froome realizes hes on the cusp of greatness.The British rider already has two Tour de France victories and a third win in cyclings biggest event -- which starts Saturday -- would make him the most dominant rider of his generation.Another yellow jersey would also put Froome into an elite club of just seven riders who have won the Tour at least three times.Every rider obviously starts every new Tour equal and what has gone before counts for nothing, Froome said. This year I am hungrier than ever for success.Froomes top challengers will likely be two-time runner-up Nairo Quintana of Colombia and Alberto Contador, the Spaniard who has won the Tour twice but took his last victory in the Grande Boucle back in 2009.Froome is the defending champion and also won in 2013.There are a number of riders in other teams capable of putting in a challenge for overall victory, said Dave Brailsford, team principal of Froomes Team Sky. Thats great news for cycling fans, who can look forward to seeing some really competitive racing.The 21-stage race opens Saturday at Mont-Saint-Michel, a World Heritage Benedictine abbey perched on a rock off the Normandy coast. The picture-postcard starting stage ends at Utah Beach, where Allied troops landed on D-Day in 1944.The 3,519-kilometer (2,186-mile) race scales the Pyrenees before the Alps, just as the Tour did last year, again going counter-clockwise around France. That breaks with tradition because generally the Tour alternates between clockwise and counter-clockwise.With neither a prologue nor a team time trial, the route could favor climbing specialists. Still, there are two individual time trials in stages 13 and 18 totaling 54 kilometers (34 miles).The 103rd Tour will visit three neighboring countries -- Spain, Andorra and Switzerland -- and pass through 16 sites and stage cities unseen in previous editions.The most difficult stage on paper appears to be the eighth leg, a challenging 183-kilometer (114-mile) route through the Pyrenees from Pau to Bagneres-de-Luchon that features the legendary Col du Tourmalet plus three more serious climbs.Another serious test comes in Stage 12 with an ascent of Mont Ventoux on Bastille Day, July 14. Froome was the stage winner when the Tour last scaled Ventouxs barren, 1,909-meter (6,263-foot) peak in 2013.Ventoux was also the site of an epic battle between Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani in 2000, and where British rider Tom Simpson died in 1967 after he used a lethal cocktail of amphetamines and alcohol.After all the climbing and time trialing, though, the race could be decided on a dangerous and technical 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) finishing descent to Morzine in the penultimate stage.After this, all that will remain is the traditional -- but mostly ceremonial -- finish alongside cheering crowds on the Champs-Elysees on July 24.Security will be tight, with France in a state of emergency since attacks on Paris in November killed 130 people.The Tour will be protected by an unprecedented force of 23,000 police officers, including SWAT-like intervention squads.The Tour will also hope to attract overlapping audiences from the European Championship soccer tournament hosted by France, which ends July 10.---Andrew Dampf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asdampf Robert Newhouse Cowboys Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens embark on their first road trip of the season as they head out west to battle the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. 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With a chance to win the WNBA championship Sunday at home in front of a supportive crowd at Staples Center, Los Angeles lost 85-79. Now the Sparks have to go on the road for a winner-take-all Game 5 at Minnesota.Thats a pretty tough spot -- but the Sparks are a pretty positive-minded group, and one of their veterans has her own personal mantra to help. Alana Beard is in her 13th year as a pro, and shes been through some trials, for sure.Yet Beard has been a constant source of good vibes and uplifting support for her Sparks teammates. A win Thursday (ESPN2, 8 p.m. ET) would be the first WNBA title for all the current Sparks players. Even if they dont win, Beard will find solace in having given it her all, and in her belief in advice she got in 2001 but didnt fully grasp until a decade later.Beard had finished an outstanding freshman year at Duke and was playing for USA Basketball in the junior world championship in July 2001 in the Czech Republic. Oklahomas Sherri Coale was an assistant coach to UConns Geno Auriemma for that U.S. team.Duke and Oklahoma had been the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in the same NCAA regional that March, but both were upset in the semifinals and didnt meet. Beard and Coale were still processing how their seasons had ended. And Coale recognized in Beard something of a kindred spirit.I remember relating so much to Alana because her desire to do well and to be good and make everybody proud was so intense, Coale said. I told her, Youve never heard of this group called .38 Special, but they have this great song called Hold On Loosely. Its a good thing to keep in mind.Beard, then 19, indeed was not familiar with the band nor the song; it was released in 1981 and she was born in 1982. Still, Coales message stuck as a seed, but one that would take awhile to germinate.She said, Do you understand what that means? Beard said. I was like, Yeah, sure. Hold on loosely. I get it. But I really didnt understand what it meant until I was 29 years old.At Duke from 2000-2004, Beard went to the Final Four twice, but didnt get a championship. In her first six WNBA seasons with the Washington Mystics, she was often the leading scorer, but at times struggled to truly lead. Then she was out for two WNBA consecutive seasons with serious ankle and foot issues.Her second missed season was 2011, when she turned 29. That was the year Beard said she had an epiphany. Coales advice from so long again found its way to the surface.I was going through my injury, and I realized basketball alone didnt define me, Beard said. When you go through tough times, you start to understand more about yourself. Basketball was my everything. There were times I was so focused on basketball, I didnt have time for relationships, or my family. And I never wanted to get to that point again.Its weird how it came back to me. It hit me like an aha moment. In my mind, hold on loosely means sometimes you can want something so badly that it slips right out of your grasp. Thats where Ive been at the college level, and at points in my WNBA career.dddddddddddd Ive wanted it so badly that it slips away. Now, I know how to hold on loosely.Beard moved on from Washington as a free agent to Los Angeles in 2012, a team that has had its ups but also some downs, including a mid-season coaching change in 2014, and another coach in 2015. Beard, now 34, missed the first part of last season with plantar fasciitis.Earlier this season after a loss, Beard said Los Angeles coach Brian Agler wanted to remind the Sparks about who they were and what they were trying to accomplish.Coach posed the question, If you were an outsider looking in, what would you say about this team? Beard said. We were going through a rough patch. And I said, This team needs to understand what holding on loosely means. And when I explained it, they all understood it.Did they know the song? No. Beard didnt even recall that part. But the message is what mattered. The lyrics are about relationships between people, but its not a stretch to extend it to how you feel about anything that you really love.When Coale was asked about it recently, her first thought was on her profession in general.As coaches, we must be so aware of what we say, how we say it and when we say it, Coale said. Because it is impactful, for good or ill. These young players in our care are so malleable.We hope thats the cornerstone of everything we do as high school and college coaches -- that were giving people tools with which to successfully navigate not just basketball, but their lives.It also was particularly meaningful to her that Beard recalled this advice and benefited from it. That 2001 junior world championship team didnt win the gold; the Americans were upset by the host Czech Republic in the semifinals and then took bronze. However, it was a group of several future WNBA standouts, including Beard, Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter, Monique Currie, Nicole Powell and Shameka Christon.I actually have a picture of that team in a frame on my shelf in my living room, Coale said. Of all the teams -- and I wasnt even the head coach! Its not like I have pictures of all the teams Ive coached; I dont have enough walls. But I have a picture of that team.It was a really neat connection with that group of kids. And my daughter, who was little then, just loved Alana Beard. So did my son.In fact, Colton Coale, who now works with his mom at Oklahoma, texted her after Beards game-winning basket in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.He was like, Mom, did you see Alanas shot? Coale said. If you get a chance, tell Alana that Sherri and Colton Coale are watching, and we are really proud of her.Even after an emotionally difficult loss like Game 4, Beard still spoke positively about the Sparks having another chance. About staying in the moment.Hold on loosely ... but dont let go. ' ' '