I Share His Feelings July 25, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France , add a commentThe Summit (CO) Daily New (Devon O’Neil) sums up my feelings on the Tour de Farce:
In parting, just to take stock: We’ve got an entire sport (cycling) teetering on collapse yet again, we’ve got a superstar NFL quarterback charged with killing animals for money, we’ve got an NBA referee facing a game-fixing probe, and the greatest record in sports is about to be broken by a steroids user.
Thank heavens for college softball (I would substitute college football).
HT: Trust but Verify
Tour de Farce: Rasmussen Out — What the Heck is Going On? July 25, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France , add a commentTour de Farce leader Michael Rasmussen was removed from the race by his team after winning Wednesday’s stage, the biggest blow yet in cycling’s doping-tainted premier event. “Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating (the team’s) internal rules,” Rabobank team spokesman Jacob Bergsma told The Associated Press by phone.The expulsion, which Bergsma said was ordered by the Dutch team sponsor, was linked to “incorrect” information that Rasmussen gave to the team’s sports director over his whereabouts last month. Rasmussen missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28. The 33-year-old rider, who won Wednesday’s stage, had looked set to win the race, which ends Sunday in Paris. But Tour officials had questioned why he was allowed to take the start on July 7 in London, England.
“We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme told the AP. The leader of cycling’s governing body applauded the decision. “My immediate reaction is, why didn’t they do this at the end of June, when they had the same information,” Pat McQuaid said. “The team decided to pull him out; that’s their prerogative. I can only applaud that. It’s a zero-tolerance policy, and it’s a lesson for the future.”
With Rasmussen out, Spanish rider Alberto Contador of the Discovery Channel team moved into the race lead. “It’s in no way a celebration on our end. It’s the third piece of bad news,” said Discovery Channel spokesman P.J. Rabice. “It reflects badly on our sport.” After the Tour’s upbeat start in London, when millions of spectators lined the streets, bad news - nearly all of it related to doping - quickly claimed the spotlight.
On Tuesday, star cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov was sent home after testing positive for a banned blood transfusion, and his team pulled out of the race. Wednesday, it happened again when the Cofidis squad confirmed its rider Cristian Moreni of Italy had failed a doping test, prompted the withdrawal of the entire squad. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the 104-year-old Tour ever had lost its leader in such fashion so close to the finish. “In the very old history of the Tour de France, I don’t know, but the recent past - never,” said Tour spokesman Philippe Sudres.
Landis: BONK! July 20, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Uncategorized, Weblog, Tour De France, Breaking News , add a commentThe Tour de France proved today it remains unpredictable and one of the world’s great sporting events. Today’s stage 16 — 120 miles with tortious mountain climbs — witnessed the agony and the ecstasy of high athletic drama. The agony was wrapped up in the bonk of Floyd Landis, who went into today wearing the maillot jaune. Landis bonked with 2.5 miles to go, falling out of the peloton and eventually finishing an astonishing 10:04 behind Rasmussen. This has now left our great American hope in 11th place in the GC, more than 8 minutes behind Oscar Pereiro, who regained the yellow jersey. I could not believe my eyes as I watched Landis just drift off — I kept yelling “Floyd — just finish strong and live for tomorrow!” — but somewhere along the way, he ran out of energy and with that, probably dashed his hope for the title
What can possibly happen after this? I am not sure how much my heart can take — we now have had eight different leaders in 16 stages. But I fear the Americans are off the podium….can Floyd make up 8:08? Can Levi Leipheimer finish strong on tomorrow’s stage and move up from 9th?…Hold onto your seats folks!
