Tour de France 2009: The Official Game pedals onto Xbox Live

Forget about watching the seemingly infinite amount of stages roll by as Lance Armstrong attempts to win his eighth yellow jersey in the world's most famous bicycle race. Do it yourself! And by yourself we mean using nothing more than your fingers and thumbs when Tour de France 2009: The Official Game comes to Xbox Live today for 800 ($10) . Who needs all that real legwork anyhow?

Cyanide Studios, the brains behind the recent Blood Bowl and the popular-in-some-other-country Cycling Manager series must have been quietly working on this in their spare time, because it caught all of us off-guard, including Xbox Live's Major Nelson. But why not release this game just before the actual Tour de France, instead of smack dab in the middle of it? We may never know.

You can play two players locally, and race up to four simultaneously on Xbox Live using one of the official teams in the current race. We just wish they would have included a drug testing minigame or something -- you know, to add some realism. Catch all the pedal-pumping power in the preview trailer right here.