Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Join me on my soapbox


Well, the Tour de France is finished. Some French newspapers would lead you to believe that it's dead. When "chicken" Rasmussen was yanked out of the race & fired by Rabobank, it didn't really shock me. What will shock me is if Contador can escape detection. Many of the younger cyclists are pointing to Rasmussen, Vino, and Mayo and saying that they're members of the old guard, and the doping mentality is prevalent in that group, but not in their group. I pray that's true, but I find it hard to believe in this time of instant gratification & intense pressure to produce. I do applaud the teams for taking the reins & punishing the dopers. It's sad when we don't have a definite winner at the end of such an epic event, which may be the end result of the 2006 Tour. The 2007 race will be forever tainted by the doping scandal, yet there were moments of extreme beauty. For example, in stage 3, when Fabian Cancellara outsprinted the field & showed the mythical power of the maillot jaune. That's what I'll remember from this race. We can only hope that the sport comes to its senses & realizes that it is endangering the creation of more memories.

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