Tour organizers cool to Armstrong return

Obviously, I am giddy over Lance's return to cycling. I despise the organizers of the Tour de France, I blame them for the prevalence of doping in cycling, the organizers are the biggest hypocrites in any sport (and coming off the Beijing Olympics that is saying a lot).

The organizers are quick to point out the suspicions (none confirmed) that dogged Lance during his 7 Tour Victories. I have no idea whether he doped, I dont really care at this point. People have admitted doping in their wins at the Tour, but those people remain integral members of the Tour, while some never were punished (Riis). I am sick of the organizers ruining cycling w/ its weird brand of retribution and history of hazy enforcement. If everyone is playing by the same rules, everyone should be allowed in.

Race up L'Alpe d'Huez Stage 17

Brilliant stage yesterday in the Tour de France- the Queen of Stages indeed- three massive climbs, two dangerous descents, and 6 capable, strong, relatively equal contenders.

Carlos Sastre is not my favorite this year, but I appreciate his efforts and his team- I love Team CSC they are disciplined and have risen to the occasion. Sastre was brilliant and no one could match his efforts up L'Alpe. The mountain is historic in the Tour, fans will always remember Lance's time trial and the manic fans (one of whom always ends up showing up half clothed). Sastre's effort is made more remarkable by the following Top 10 list I found at www.cyclingnews.com
Sastre's time would rank in 17th in the 'official' standings. The top 10 are:

1 Marco Pantani 37'35 (1997)
2 Lance Armstrong 37'36 (2004)
3 Marco Pantani 38'00 (1994)
4 Lance Armstrong 38'01 (2001)
5 Marco Pantani 38'04 (1995)
6 Jan Ullrich 38'23 (1997)
7 Floyd Landis 38'34 (2006)
8 Andreas Klöden 38'35 (2006)
9 Jan Ullrich 38'37 (2004)
10 Richard Virenque 39'02 (1997)

Most of these people have at one point or another been accused of doping, some certainly were doping on this particular climb, is it appropriate to continue to include their times on this list? Without the dopers, Sastre's time would be a top ten climb.

3rd positive test of the Tour

I just knew Ricardo Ricco was too good to be true. Sanuier Duval is too good to be true- of course they are doping. I feel as though I want to puke and cry all at the same time.

I know its my own fault. I shouldnt love something so much that hurts me so much. Please let the real race favorites remain clean...especially the Americans/Australians.

Tour News/Opinion

So, the second positive test in the Tour de France war against doping, I wonder how many there will be? I am thinking three, one for each week.

The Tour has been thrilling thus far and we are only at stage 11 (which is today, no spoilers, I will be watching it this evening). I am lovin' it. I am still naive enough to believe that Cadel Evans is clean and that he has a real opportunity to win since all the cheaters are being weeded out. I like Evans, Van De Velde, Shleck, and Sastre (although in my mind Sastre has not displayed the tenacity of some other riders). Chris likes Menchov, and I must admit he has talent, not failed a blood test (yet) and got caught out last year in the Rasmussen disaster unfairly.

I cant wait till tonight.

Landis Guilty of Doping; Loses Title

The day Landis climbed and climbed and climbed into first place and the winner of the Tour de France in 2006 is a lie. The process has spoken, no one believes his theory of the case, in fact according to the decision of the doping court "Appelant's experts crossed the line, acting for the most part as advocates for the Appelant's cause, and not as scientists objectively assisting the Panel in the search for truth" (sic). I have to believe in the system, sure everything could be corrupt, but even my conspiracy theory brain recognizes its more likely that one person is corrupt than multiple levels of an administrative and testing process are corrupt. I will apologize personally if Landis is an innocent victim in all this. For the moment I know that the fans are the ones being victimized-

That historic day as described in Wikipedia
"On the following day's Stage 17, Landis stunned the cycling world with a 120 km solo breakaway attack that has been called "one of the most epic days of cycling ever seen".[9] The performance earned Landis comparisons to the famed rides of Eddy Merckx. At one point on the course, he was 9 minutes 4 seconds clear of Pereiro. Landis ultimately won the stage by nearly six minutes over Team CSC's Carlos Sastre and took more than seven minutes out of Pereiro's lead. At the end of the day, Landis sat in third place overall, 18 seconds behind Sastre and just 30 seconds behind the Tour leader. The next stage was a 57 km individual time trial, and Landis' strength in time trialing put him well within striking distance of regaining the tour lead. Landis finished third in the time trial of Stage 19, 89 seconds ahead of Pereiro and 3 minutes 31 seconds ahead of Sastre, to reclaim the yellow jersey with a lead of 59 seconds. Landis retained the lead through Stage 20, the procession into Paris, to win the 2006 Tour de France by 57 seconds.." As a sports fan, that day was one of the greatest in sports history- to have it all questioned a week later, I can still conjure up the heartbreak of the day the allegations of testosterone use came out. We fans lost and continue to lose when cyclists dope and sponsors let them.

The Tour starts again on Saturday. Will I allow myself to be victimized again by this event I love so much? My favorites are all gone from the Tour- Basso, Hamilton, Landis, Ulrich, Mancebo, Boonen, Vino, Contador, Levi etc. They are gone- some legitimately disgraced because of doping, others because of the knee-jerk reaction of the governing body of the Tour. Lets face it no one is innocent- even I know my hyperbole surrounding the epic day in the 2006 Tour feeds cheaters, advertisers, sponsors and the sport itself- if that drama doesnt happen- will I still watch? I will, but maybe others will not.

A whole team is out of the Tour because of last year DESPITE practically everything about the team having changed since last year. Astana has last year's winner on it- Alberto Contador- so he is unable to defend his title because members of last year's team (he wasnt on it) got caught up in a doping scandal.

There are bright spots and I hope this is a clean month for the Tour so next year we can begin to put the scandals behind and focus on the REAL drama, hard work and emotion of this incredibly demanding race.

Its almost July so it must be drugs

UPDATE: Boonen will not participate in the Tour this year as a result of his positive cocaine test last month. The governing body ASO states this is not a doping case- then what the heck, let the man ride.
All of the best looking, talented cyclists are out of the Tour this year, my heart is broken.

I am looking at my groups on Facebook, I am in the group called "Cycling dominates my month of July" or something like that. All this talk on the message board about Tom Boonen, who is my second favorite sprinter (Robbie McEwen is my first favorite).

Well Tom tested positive for cocaine last month prior to the start of the Tour of Belgium. Phew- dodged a bullet there. He will not be sanctioned by anyone, the Tour de Suisse may attempt to keep him out of its race, but that decision may be overturned. All of this I found out when I stopped by cycling news. Apparently reading cycling news once every two days in June is not enough. The website doesnt think anything bad will happen to Tom as a result; isnt cocaine a performance enhancing drug? Why wouldnt that be banned. I like Tom, but if he is doing cocaine, might it be possible that he is doing other drugs?

We have our tivo all ready to start the Tour de France, but for now it is mostly the boys catching up on all their favorite Noggin shows, luckily we arent home much.

musings, with no links too lazy

Today I graduated from Leadership Cville. I hope people in our community will consider applying for it. One of the fellows in the last year’s Sorenson Class (documented by Across the Aisle), is this year’s Chamber’s Small Business Man of the Year recipient- Grant Tate. I have had the honor of knowing Grant Tate casually for about a year, I am more familiar with others in his organization Bridge, LTD- Jennifer Till and Connie Brennan. I particularly appreciated his comment (because they awards are always a surprise) “now I know why my brother flew into town” so cute and honest. I appreciate that about Grant and his team.

I celebrated JustChildren’s 10th bday last night at the old Michie building. The program at the Legal Aid Justice Center is remarkable, and involves any educational related legal issues. Congratulations to JustChildren and LAJC.

"Across the Aisle" appeared on PBS last night as I mentioned I was at a bday party so I only had a chance to watch the last fifteen minutes. The program was well done and I look forward to see the whole thing soon.

On the tv front, I haven’t watched General hospital in months- is that progress? I barely keep up with the show online, I also barely watch anything except ten oclock news, Frazier and Seinfeld as I am falling asleep. Although this evening I did get sucked into the Lost finale- I do follow that online, particularly the WaPo’s Lost chats, and btw wtf? This show is unbelieveable. Oh my goodness, that ending was completely unexpected.

Chris is setting up the directv for our annual Tour de France three week marathon. It was nice of the WaPo to write about cycling today- about the performance enhancing drugs and David Millar, reformed doper.

I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea- I look forward to a good night sleep soon, I told Chris that it feels so dumb to expect sleep to make me feel less tired- it just doesn’t, and I have no way of feeling less tired until the c-pap makes an appearance in my house.

Giro starts today in Italy

Danilo Di Luca is the favorite to win again this year. something about that guy I dont trust. Anyway- in the cycling news article- Contador looks to be a favorite, especially since his team Astana has been uninvited to the Tour. In the article, Contador is described as having great domestiques- Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden. Those two are team leaders in their own right so its amusing to hear them described as domestiques.

Astana out of Tour

Tour de France organizers uninvited/never invited Astana to the main event this year. Nevermind the complete overhaul of the team, including bringing Johan Bruneel in and firing all the people in charge last year (including the riders), it was not enough for the organizers. I feel like this is collective punishment, none of these guys have been implicated or tied to performance enhancing drugs. (Chris would like me to tell you however that all of them are guilty of it- in his opinion- his disdain is not just for the Astana team though).

Astana has last year's Tour de France winner Alberto Contador. He rode this amazing race, the Tour last year was marred once again by scandal, Contador's riding was a bright spot. He will not be allowed to defend his title, as Floyd Landis was not permitted last year. I wonder if the ASO (Tour organizers) are planning to do this every year? I guess on the bright side, Lance's 7 wins in a row certainly wont be broken any time soon.

Contador, Bruneel, Levi and others from Team Discovery went to Astana once Discovery stopped sponsoring the team. Cycling once again is shooting itself in the foot. How are teams to get sponsors if for arbitrary, vague and incomprehensible reasons these teams wont be allowed to ride on the biggest stage for the sponsors? Business people are not running the Tour or cycling in general, honestly I dont know that the organizers are fans of the sport anymore.

Levi only has a few more years to win the Tour, being out this year will impact his chance to ever win. Administration is getting in the way of competition- not a good thing in sports.

ABC's worst moments in sports

After the release of the Mitchell report earlier this week, ABC decided to list the top ten worst moments in sports - with no actual basis to define the top ten. Many of these are awful times for sports (Mitchell Report, Black Sox, NHL lock out, etc.). The problem is obvious so I wont belabor it too much, the top ten doesnt distinguish between what sports does to itself and what outsiders do to the sport (Terrorists at Munich in the same classification as the Mitchell Report?). It doesnt make sense. Finally as an avid cycling fan, the failure to mention the 2006 Tour de France or the 2006 Operation Puerto doping scandal prior to the Tour is disingenuous and incomplete or even if cycling is not a sport for Americans so ABC isnt going to include it, why not Marion Jones, this year? For goodness sake, she was just stripped of her medals for her doping. Incomplete and lazy work by the ABC folks in putting this list together.

A sad day for Baseball

I love baseball. It is the national pastime and what a delightful afternoon a day of baseball makes. Today's Mitchell report [pdf] is out and I am depressed again (cycling in the summer, baseball in the winter).
Brian Roberts? How is Baltimore drowning in steriods and they are so darn awful!? Lenny Dykstra? Bigbie, Clemons, Petite, Chuck Knoblauch, David Justice, Mo Vaughn, Miguel Tejada and the list goes on and on. My stomach is sick from this report.

I am reminded of the 1993 tobacco hearings- those five or six executives from the tobacco company stood up, put their right hand up and swore to tell the truth-->then said tobacco did not cause health problems. Liars. Cheaters.

Americans love their heros and I am certainly one of them - not that sports figures are heroic (certainly not now). We love to think if one works real hard, has that much commitment great things can be accomplished, it is fundamentally the American Dream played everyday. The highs and the lows, the drama all of it is awesome. I am really ok though if athletes are good but not record setting- sports is inherently dramatic without cheating.

Are we so needy as Americans to be the best that we drive our sports figures to steroids, performance enhancing drugs?

Man, it is tough to be a fan

About ten minutes ago I wondered over to www.cyclingnews.com to hear some rest day news. Sadly the headline read "Vino positive rocks Tour".
And now I am just bummed. The whole team withdrew- two top ten riders (not vino but certainly doping...right?) on this team are now on their way home.

I have a love/hate relationship with the tour. Love the triumph and hard work, Hate the cheating. My neighbor states the cheating is just as important as training for these riders so he isnt too concerned about it- the deal is not to get caught. Perhaps willful ignorance is best, but I have to believe in clean riders and a clean sport so that my boys will be clean.

David at 4 years old is riding 'superbly' (as Phil Liggett would say) without his training wheels. Andrew has a bike with no pedals but balances so well and he isnt afraid of the downhills. Ben King is this great local rider who has a bright future in the sport. These boys shouldnt have to compete against cheaters, even if the cheaters provide the drama and triumph we want in sports.

VS. the tv station showing the Tour showed an ad for chest/back acne- I know disgusting. Chris said 'that isnt right', in my ignorance I said 'what?' he said body acne is associated with steriod use so we know who they are targeting. I have a sick feeling in my stomach and it is from doping- other people's doping (OPD).

Tour de France et al

Everyone knows I love July for the Tour. The problem with July is surfing the web- I just cant do it when I havent watched the live version of the Tour (that is one reason I will not be linking to anything in this post but see www.cyclingnews.com for all the latest). I went to the NYTimes website yesterday to see the news and found out Steegman won by accident. I hurriedly changed the screen and averted my eyes. I watched yesterday's stage this morning, after I read the Progress' coverage (which was an AP article) and Chris told me to watch it. I am grateful the Progress has had an article everyday of the Tour so far. The Tour in only three days has been dramatic as ever- performance enhancing scandals certainly are an undercurrent- but the drama is awesome.

Robbie McEwen won stage 1, after crashing with maybe 6 miles left to go, he injured his wrist and knee. His team helped him get back to the peloton and then with 20 metres to go he came into the screen and sped to victory. Chris was on the trainer at the time and I was screaming 'it's impossible' I love the Aussie sprinter who also claims Belgium as his second home, so I was thrilled.

I didnt watch the prologue (we were someplace that doesnt get VS, I couldnt believe it, how can people not be obsessed with the Tour? j/k). But since I am obsessed and I have a little device called the Treo 650 I queued up cyclingnews.com/pda live coverage and scrolled down. Apparently I didnt get to the end (typical) so I thought Kloden (Asatana) had won. But Cancellara (CSC) did and Hincapie (Discovery) came in 2nd (he was my pick for the prologue). I do worry about Asatana (mostly that there arent that many A's in that word) and its commitment to a drug free sport- fingers crossed the main GC contender, Vino is clean.

More bad news for Cycling

More scandal in cycling, actually it is just an extension of the scandal. I am repulsed. The Giro d'Italia is on and the headlines are dominated by Landis and LeMond. I love cycling in the news, just not this way and now we are on year two of this public relations nightmare.
What if Landis is innocent? What if Landis is lying? Both are equally horrible for cycling. Do we get Directv this year to watch a Tour fundamentally flawed, one where a winner is not declared for last year?
Sports are so fun, the hard work, the tenacity, drama and heart- it has everything. Cycling has three weeks in July where it all comes together (to be clear, plenty of other awesome races). I want to be part of it, but it doesnt seem to really matter anymore since everyone is a suspect and the authorities are complicit, blind or dumb.

Basso confesses...then he doesnt

AS my faithful readers know, I love cycling and specifically CSC and Ivan Basso (and then Discovery and Basso). Basso was implicated in Operacion Puerto last June right before the Tour de France, which he was scheduled to win. He denied it and denied and denied. This week Basso confessed to the tribunal hearing information on Operacion Puerto in Italy that he is "Birillo" and No. 2. This means Dr. Saiz had blood products ready to be given to Basso to enhance his performance. Basso confessed one day, then at a press conference the next day he stated he never actually used the products to enhance his performance, especially in his great victories (last year's Giro). Lie once, shame on him, believe him twice, shame on me. Who is clean? I dont know. I hope the next generation of cyclists understand the shame this has brought to the sport and are committed to a clean sport.

More cycling

Finally, news about the Tour of Naz. This race is a doozy, OLN sometimes shows highlights of the race- it is a good introduction to the teams and names in US cycling.

Because I rail so often on coverage of cycling (the last news story was a long time ago), I thought a 'cheer' was in order for a small change in Washington Post. I have now twice seen a daily result for two different races, one day of Dauphine Libre and one day of the Giro. I dont think the paper is publishing results everyday, but the little it does publish is much appreciated. Obviously it would make more sense for the paper to publish results everyday when the big races are going on, or barring that for them to publish the results of the races not just one random day in the middle of the race.

Dont mess with Ivan Basso

Finally, Gilberto Simoni has conceded that 'no Ivan Basso did not offer him money to let him win the stage.' Of course the talented Basso would need no such assistance from him. I am disgusted by the mud slung at cyclists who win without cheating.

Basso won the Giro in spectacular fashion, his team was phenomenal and oh, none of them were even remotely implicated in the Saiz affair and 'Operation Puerto'disaster. Simoni is a relatively good cyclist and one I would root for, but no longer.

Is Landis the man to beat at the Tour?

Floyd Landis has won two major stage races in the United States this year, the Tour of California and the Tour of Georgia. Since he apparently isnt racing in the Giro, he must be the man to beat at the Tour de France. Basso, Ullrich and many other fine riders are racing the Giro in Italy in May- will this help them in the Tour?
Landis is not my rider (although he would be good on my Fantasy cycling team- because I am doing that this year for the Tour). I want him to lose- but so far he hasnt. Ugh, it will be a long season if Landis keeps winning.

For all those who say it is great to have such a strong American rider- I do agree. But I will support Tom Danielson (Team Discovery), Dave Zabriskie, Bobby Julich, Christian Vandevelde (all CSC), and probably others I dont know about right now.

Rant on coverage: This is about the time of year I complain about the Washington Post's cycling coverage. Cycling coverage at WP consists of letting its readers know when an Italian court dismisses a case against now retired Lance Armstrong. Two major races have happened this year in the US and the Post has barely a word about it. I am happy that horse racing results have been eliminated from the sports section, but it is time to add a word or two about cycling.

The main reason the Post should cover cycling in its Sports section is lots of people love cycling and follow it. Chris is in his second season of racing- unless you sign up on the first day, the races are always full and hard to get into (all of them). Hundreds of cyclists come out every weekend to race, they drive to far away places to get to the next race. These riders BUY a lot of stuff (ask Craig); they are a great market for advertisers. The failure of the mainstream media has been a boon to bloggers and internet media outlets, but I would love to see a sport I love covered by the mainstream media (even when Lance isnt riding). (Frankly I think it would be pretty easy for WP or other paper to get boxscore type story on the important races of the week from these internet sources therefore the paper wouldnt have to allocate a bunch of resources to covering the events).

In all fairness, I just did a search on WP and a lot of cycling stories came up "AP online" was the tagline, so I dont think they were published in the paper; but it is noteworthy that stories exist in the mainstream internet media.

If its spring it must be steroids

SHOCK! Barry Bonds used drugs to enhance his performance- perhaps that is why he is so surly.
There are no more sports heros- when one cheats, it calls into question everyone's integrity.

Tyler Hamilton

Tyler Hamilton's appeal has been rejected. He has officially been declared a cheat.

My favorite quote "Terry Madden, CEO of the USADA, said it had considered all theoretical explanations for the positive test, including an extortion plot by a fan of another team. "The panel considered each of the excuses and found each to be completely without merit. It is sad that Mr. Hamilton resorted to conspiracy theories rather than just accept the consequences of his doping," said Madden."

I have followed Tyler's website closely, I want to believe him. I am not the type of person who can lie easily, or at all actually, so I have a hard time believing others can lie without batting an eye lash (although I have been a lawyer long enough to KNOW better).

Finally, Richard Virenque was caught many years ago cheating, Virenque did come clean after serving his ban and later won seven King of the Mountains titles cleanly. I can only hope Hamilton can do the same in his attempt to redeem himself.