I just KNOW how excited you all are that the Tour de France is starting tomorrow, July 1st. I also KNOW that your excitement about the Tour is only second to your excitement about the World Cup semi-final matches that are coming this weekend (Go England!!).
We began watching "Le Tour" back in, like, 2000 or 2001. Lance had already won a couple of times by this point. It was out of pure curiousity that we tuned in to OLN to see the race. Not really knowing anything about the sport of international cycling, we were immediately hooked. The event is grueling, to say the least. These guys race for at least 23 days straight (with only 2 rest days for travel purposes). They race flats, they race up the Pyrenees mountains, they race up the famed peaks of the Alps, they race eachother and they race the clock. It might not be the most interesting thing to watch when they are out riding a 100+ mile flat course, but when they get into the mountain stages.....it's pure drama. Last year, we decided to travel to Paris for the finale of the Tour. It was a spectacular sight to see at least 100 cyclists fly by at about 30+mph on the cobblestones of the Champs Elysees.
This year, 2006, was to be the first year without Lance. It was going to be a very exciting race for us Tour fans. Huzbend and I have picked our favorites over the years and now they were going to have to fight it out for the honor of wearing the Yellow Jersey. That was until this morning, when the news hit.....
"TOUR DE FRANCE BANS TOP RIDERS FROM RACE"
"DOPING SCANDAL STRIPS TOUR OF FAVORITES"
WTF!?!?!?!? Je ne comprends pas!!!!!
How freakin' disappointing. ALL of the favorites, and I do mean ALL, were implicated in a wide range blood doping scandal that started with a doctor in Spain. The Spanish Cycling Federation recently released a list of cyclists supposedly linked to this doctor. As a result of this, even though they are supposedly clean now, the riders will not be allowed to compete in the Tour because of their potential involvement. Some of these guys have already raced, and WON, this season. In order for them to do this, they would have to have been clean when they raced.
I was really looking forward to watching this year. It was going to be a fight to the finish between these guys. They've been drooling over the top spot for, like, 7 years now. It was their chance. I mean, I do understand the teams had to take action against the implicated riders. The teams have sponsors that they need to please. The sponsors don't want to be connected to illegal play. I see their point, I really do. But, it just stinks for the fans.
So, this means NO:
Jan Ullrich - my favorite rider. He's been on the podium at the finale almost everytime we have watched. He was the main competitor of Lance and this was gonna be HIS year!
Ivan Basso - Italian hunk rider. He was to duel it out with Ulle.
Alexander Vinokourov - had to drop out of the race 'cause you need at least 6 on your team to race. 5 of his guys were kicked out due to the scandal. That means he has no team.
There are still some guys that we can root for though. There's a crop of American riders to keep your eyes on. Now that these other guys are out, they have a great chance of being top rider. I'm sure you'll hear about Levi Leipheimer of Gerolsteiner, Floyd Landis of Phonak, Bobby Julich and Dave Zabriskie of CSC, and also there's Big Georgie Hincapie of Team Discovery.
Oh yeah, and don't forget about this up and coming new rider from Team Scallywag. He's sure to show us a good bit of riding:
