Charactor in question

Jim put up a really good post yesterday that basically covers what I wanted to say today after stage 18 yesterday. I'm not quite as skeptical of the riders being clean, though once again I'm likely being naive. I prefer to believe things have changed, though still, we're seeing riders fall.

Basically, I've been a fan of Contador since the 2007 Tour when he showed up as an inexperienced young rider who was expected to earn the white jersey of best young rider but basically was not seen as a threat to the overall. It was cool to see him tearing people's legs off (though slightly dampened by his inability to beat Rasmussen, and only winning after Rass was kicked out of the tour) with such a punch.

Last year I was dissapointed when the Astana team was left out and was impressed when Contador went off and won the Giro and theVuelta a Castilla y Leon and Vuelta a Pais Vasco. The total domination of the "secondary" races showed he deserved a shot at the tour and this year I was excited to see him in action again at the Tour.

As I've mentioned before, I've never really expected anyone to beat Alberto in this race but I was excited about the prospect of a possible podium sweep and even better a top 4 or 5 sweep. How incredible a show of domination would that be?

Contador apparently has other plans though and showed the world the huge gapping hole that exists in his character. Chavendish, who early on in the tear and this race was an unstoppable power who had the respect of millions of people seems to have done the same. Thor on the other hand has just added to an already towering reputation and list of accomplishments with his incredible and silent answer to Chav's BS.

I for one hope to see LA and Kloden attack the crap out of the remainder of the race to try and get back on the podium. I know it can't happen but it would sure be nice to see. Lance has also earned a bit of respect in his willingness to obey team orders and ride forTHE TEAM as opposed to his usual high ambitions.

Just keep simplifying it...

Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski rides a 1 x 10 setup on his Gary Fisher Superfly. Pretty cool, though somewhat surprising considering. Doesn't appear to be treating him too poorly though. May he'll keep moving in this direction and start rocking the limited edition Superfly SS next season.

Too bad it was my rear derailluer that busted and not my front even if there's no way I'm picking up Sram XX anytime soon.

Le Tour or the ultimate game of chess

The Tour is well on it's way now and boy has it been exciting. I followed yesterday's events on VeloNews' live coverage feed and found myself breathing heavy for that finish; and that was just reading the updates!No matter what you think about the condition of pro cycling or Lance Armstrong, you'll have to admit this is and will continue to be an exciting year for this race!

Most estimations I've read about this year's tour, and more importantly the Astana team including Lance, race favorite Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer AND Andreas Kloden pit Lance and Contador against each other with the likely end result of an implosion of epic proportions. They paint Contador as a brooding angry child who, when he does not get his way will throw a tantrum and recklessly fight against his own teammates. Lance on the other hand is just the same old Lance who won't lay down for nobody and will never give up his fight for total domination.

One theory I haven't really seen is that the TEAM Astana really has some things figured out here. They're playing up the rivalry by not playing it up, allowing the rest of the world to grow the speculation into the frenzy that it has become. Yesterday's break and tact full or lucky (whichever you prefer) riding by Lance therefore is suddenly a balls out attack on Contador. The world sees the pot beginning to boil.

Now how about what's happening within Astana for real? Well they've got 4 guys in the top 10 going into a team time trial they are likely to win, possibly to win big. Bump up times 4.

Then, here come the mountains and Astana has 4, count 'em 4 GC contenders lets say all stacked up right in the top 7 or 8. All 4 can climb, all 4 can attack, especially if the teams hopes aren't resting on their shoulders for the remainder of the tour. Bruyneel can send whomever he likes up the road and the rest of the contenders will be forced to react. They can't chance giving Levi a free shot up the mountain, even if he isn't the strongest rider on Astana. The team has enough fire power to make things work.

Maybe I'm naive but maybe they're playing this stacked set of cards a bit closer to their chests then people really realize. I'm not saying Contador would be happy to give up the overall on the strength of his team, but when the rest of the big boys have to respect your 4th big boy as an honest threat, it seems to me you should be sitting in a pretty sweet little bit of comfort.

I can't WAIT to watch this thing unfold. Be it I'm completely wrong and Lance and Alberto fight it out to the end or the two play to team to thie finish, taking 1-2 with Levi and Andreas sitting prety just behind within the top 10.

Got Bike Lust?

Check it. OMG!

Twitter

Apparently LA is all over twitter these days. I don't have an account and to be honest I don't think I want one, though in reality this makes me want to get one just to follow what the guy says in getting ready.

This is a pretty cool thing to see no matter what, an entire team, one LA is riding on no less spending a day goofing around instead of hard training.

And one more oggling over Lance, I like the sound of this: Domestique

That would be very cool to see and would certainly explain Contador sticking around.

World's Scariest Bicycle Race

Imagine racing the tour de local with all the regular characters. There's a break up the road gunning for the win and you're chasing hard to catch them before the finish. Suddenly the pace car leads you right, up a ramp and now there are cars speeding by you as you ride along the damn freeway. Meanwhile, the break group crosses the line and you're left with your thumb (and possibly a car) up your butt.

Ok, so they didn't win the race, just took the stage and leaders jersey... But still, in a pro peloton, how f'd up is this?

A deeper look into the sport

Being still new to cycling I often forget how little I know about the sport; both current and even more so historically. I never followed professional cycling even remotely up until five years ago when a college girlfriend got me into the Tour. Even then though I only watched the tour and still had no idea about the world of pro riding aside from what Phil or one of the other announcers said about it; I checked my overall standings on Yahoo Sports for pete’s sake! I can’t really say that that has changed too much now either, though I do like to get a peak in on what’s going on in the world of the greats and definitely never pass up an opportunity to watch any cycling event on screen. I can’t really say this bothers me too much though either; I’ve never been a huge stat junky and aside from following up on my college sports teams here and there I don’t stress too much about the world of professional sports in general.

Occasionally though, something is brought to my attention that makes me question my lack of enthusiasm for the inner workings of the sport. While right now things are tainted by the doping scandals and bad publicity I am certain there are still a number of underlying sub-plots and emotional stories to go along with the great riders. Today reading the last two posts from BKW was one of those occasions. The two points of view are starkly different, though in the end they both portray the same sense of awe and inspiration on the inner clock-work of the sport of cycling. In my eyes it’s these kinds of accounts that make all the other shit worth it.

A final word

Just to put it out there now; I will not be discussing this year’s tour anymore on here. I will still watch it and will still follow what is happening, but I am no longer excited. The tour no longer matters, it is the dopers and who will be caught and what it will mean in the long run that matters now. I almost wonder if the tour now views this as a purging year (years?) and has decided to blow things up this year and make it big enough and serious enough so that they can begin to recover and at least appear reasonable in the eyes of the fans.

Anyway, despite the fact that I could never get behind Rasmussen and would not have cheered much for him if (when) he won, I don’t like that he was pulled. The is no pride in victory left for Contador at this point; here we are left feeling that he was beat and would have to settle with second and now all of a sudden a move like that puts him in yellow. It is just winning by default; like winning through a forfeit it means nothing but a win in the record. You didn’t necessarily deserve it, you were just there. The live coverage writers at cyclingnews.com and velonews.com are right when they mention the lack of meaning in this tour any more. It will never be remembered as the epic battle that it should be; it will be the tour that Vino was kicked out of and that the team pulled out their own man while he was almost the definite winner of the tour.

Sad, but I am now almost viewing this as a joke myself. If it weren’t for the frown on my face and anger in my heart, I’d laugh.

A tarnished image, a bleak future

The thing that hits me the hardest with this "doping scandal", and the latest one the most is this.

It's not the drugs or the fact that the riders are using them. It's that Pro cycling is considered a joke because of it to so many people. Whether they understand how truly grueling and difficult professional bike racing is or not (and I certainly can't claim to; I've only just a sliver of a taste from my Cat V sufferings) they won't respect these riders and they won't respect bike racing. It made me so sad to see this break out and now to read the after math of people giving up on pro cycling and losing faith in their heroes. Shoot, I had the utmost respect for Vino, and quite frankly I still due, even if it's a bit diminished after this; he is still an incredible rider and and can do things on the bike that I can never dream of. Doping is the wrong message and a doper is a bad role model, but what about Michael Vick.

While Vino's career and perhaps even his future in the world of cycling is over. It'll be telling to see when Vick is allowed to start playing again and when his endorsements will fall back into line. Playing time this season would certainly not surprise me.

Along another vein, Mike over at GamJams.com had an interesting take on the possible fall out from the latest tour disaster. While it sounds rosey and great I think I'd have to lean towards the ideas of my club that less is better, even if we all wish we could get the same great deals on our gear a lot of the other clubs get.

On the other hand I would think with a drop off in sponsorship of pro racing there will be less money to go around no matter what the marketers want. The following drop off in interest in bike racing, which of course has already started, will only lead to a drop off in sales for the companies that were sponsoring it. Those Lance wanna be "Fred's"

The guy on the Colnago, which probably should be recycled to an owner who will ride the thing hard and fast, like it deserves to be ridden, will have the highest end Campy special edition gear that he could afford, based on the sale of his eldest child’s kidney, or a little bit of creative billing to one of his more unwary clients.

everyone loves to complain about make the sponsorships possible. Not saying these guys don't suck to deal with sometimes, but we should be thankful to them for at least supporting the sport and bike riding in general. I'll cheer for them over Michael Vick or massive gas guzzling SUV's any day. Shoot, I'd rather cheer for them rather then half the doped professional athletes America has to offer. These guys get away with it because the governing bodies believe/know it's good for the sport (or at least it's popularity) to let the power hitters dope and build excitement. I mean what reasonable SUV driving, overly self indulgent, super size eating slob wants to see a game where it's all natural; no home runs? c'mon now that's just boring. Just imagine all the records lost, and shucks, we'd have to be in awe still of Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth. Where's the fun in that?

Apparently the French Media and the and the rest of the drug busters crew don't give a damn about America's (or Germany's for that matter) interest in cycling.

Sorry, the bumbling rant is now finished.

Dear Leader on the Hot Topics

Dear Leader, aka Scott has recently written a couple of posts on the Racing Union Blog that touch near and dear to my heart. The first follows the national spectacle of horse manure that is Michael Vick. I wanted to write about this, to share my displeasure, disgust and outright hatred towards this entire situation but the words simply would not come. I could not say anything that was not already said or more importantly that expressed my feelings even remotely strong enough. Scott has posted an interesting and accurate post on the topic here. Spend a moment and read this.

The second is in response to the Vino situation. Another well written post that puts a diferent spin on things then you're going to see in the media, and in my eyes a substantially more accurate one at that. Read it here.

The War on Doping

ASO's CDU, counter doping unit reports.

"We have started a war on doping, and unfortunately in war there are losses, but it is out of the question to quit," Clerc said. "There was never a question the Tour would stop. Then the cheaters would win."

That was VeloNews.com quoting Amaury Sports Organisation president Patrice Clerc following the Vino doping fallout. See the article here.

Sounds a lot like Bush and his war on Iraq, only here there is certainly no winner should the tour be canceled. Cheaters are cheating to win, not cancel their races.

What would Vino do(pe)

It's somewhat telling to see how little this registers on the major media outlet's radars. Yahoo has given it a headline at the bottom of the headlines while the Washington Post hardly blinks.

I feel like David Millar right now; I just feel like crying.

I guess it answers mb's question in the comments of my post yesterday "What would Vino do?"

The adrenaline rush of Le Tour... Why it's still worth it.

Well, the first two days of the 2007 tour have certainly not dissapointed. What incredible performances we've seen already! First Fabian Cancellara's prologue smashing performance was absolutely incredible. Let me just say the blood was pumping.

The today as I rooted for Millar I couldn't help being dissapointed as he died before the final climb and waited for the peloton but then when two of the last three were caught he managed to salvage the polka dot jersey with a second place on the climb. On the other hand Stéphane Augé's heroic solo effort to hold off the peloton was incredible as well.

The to take the cake, we get a glimpse of pure experience and confidence as Robbie McEwan somehow came back from well off the back with 10 and even 5 miles to go and blasted through and then out of the front of the pack to destroy the rest of the sprinters. My blood is still pumping from that one. Watching him in the chase I thought for sure his chances were gone for the day but he definitely showed some grit and determination along with some incredible bike handling skills in making it all the way through the rest of the riders to take the win.

If this doesn't make the tour worth watching (drugs or no drugs) then you must not be human!

Or, for another take: Go Clipless has some more compelling (or in my eyes scary) reasons for why you should watch the tour. You best be out there boosting those ratings!

Keeping it real with the 07 Tour

So, the Tour de France starts (finally) tomorrow morning with the prologue in London and will be shown on Versus (the old OLN). It seems Versus has taken a bit of a different approach to advertising the tour this year here in the US after a serious drop off of viewers in the first post Armstrong race. As much as this Wall Street Journal article says this new direction is a bad thing I find it refreshing that someone is actually coming straight out and addressing the issues that all of the potential viewers are thinking and talking about anyway.

While baseball continues to try and ignore the never ending drug debates and conspiracies (including letting the ah Bonds keep playing to take over the all time HR record in the next few weeks) Versus is out there addressing the subject and trying to salvage what dignity they can from the taint. Don’t get me wrong, I would have and still will be watching as much of the tour as possible and I really don’t care about the drug scandal that much. (I care about the baseball scandal because I think Barry is a jerk and I just don’t think he should beat Hank Aaron for that record).

The way I see it is that it’s a shame that some of the greatest cyclists in the world today will be unable to compete in the premier cycling event because of this whole thing. (Though I also respect that in cycling something is being done about it unlike in baseball with jack a** Barry). As for the advertisement campaign, they’ve got nothing to lose since anyone who might be interested in watching the tour certainly knows about the “scandals” and most likely has their mind made up about whether they’re going to watch it already. If nothing this could be a little fresh breath of air for people seeing that the cyclists are signing an oath stating they won’t take anything during the tour. Granted a person’s word is only so strong but at least it’s a start.