Galaxy's apart I played football this morning at 11am as temperatures exceeded over 100-degrees. The heat-index, which shows how hot the air feels based on actual temperature and relative humidity, was supposed to be closer to 110F and my it was fookin' hot. It can only be described as sitting on the runway at an airport in some tropical place amongst some huge jet engines. The weather extremes in this city will never cease to amaze me.

Today in Paris Lance Armstrong collected his 7th consecutive Tour de France. "Not only has he won cycling's legendary race more than anyone in history, he also has made his country pay attention to an event that might as well have been taking place in another galaxy," wrote today's Chicago Tribune. This is very true and quite possibly if it wasn't for his remarkable recovery to beat 50-50 odds on his survival after testicular cancer spread to his brain and lungs, he may still not be that well known in this country outside of cycling fans.

52 million LiveStrong yellow bracelets around the world are testimony to his bravery. Shame is he would rather be silent on the persistent allegations that performance-enhancing drugs played a part in his success.

What he did say was that "an individual can never dictate his own legacy. What people decide it is, it is. I'm a kid from Texas who learned how to ride a bike fast and overcame a life-threatening illness to come back and win the hardest sporting event in the world. I will let other people write on the tombstone."

Talking of different galaxy's, the Addicks drew 0-0 in their 4th pre-season friendly at Griffin Park yesterday. From what I read, looks like Mr Spector is impressing fans. Good to know. Not sure what I make of Jeffers antics but Curbs seems unperturbed. "There was a bit of an altercation, and it was best that he came off - but I don't mind my players being a bit feisty,"

A quick look around at today's transfer gossip, tell's of Birmingham and Middlesbro joining the rather uninterested queue for penalty-miss culprit Jason Euell. One snippet I read was that Boro may offer J-F Hasselbaink in exchange.

Those hard men from Italy have reversed their decision to pull out of their English tour. AC Milan blamed confusion. I reckon they will be able to get away without using the tube particularly as Simon Jordan has told them "they are not going to be anywhere near the West End." Very true Simon, very true.  ¶ 23:57