Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are among a slew of riders that will not be competing in this year's Tour de France due to Spanish doping allegations. This really breaks my heart, as Basso is one of my favorite riders. I was really hoping he could pull the Giro-Tour double this year. I sincerely hope that he is not guilty.
Having the two top contenders suspended from the Tour puts a severe stain on the race and on cycling in general. I'm sick to my stomach about this.
In lieu of my usual, jubilant pre-tour post where I pick the top contenders and the dark horses I will only offer two predicitons:
1. Floyd Landis, Alejandro Valverde, and George Hincapie are my new favorites to win. I would have mentioned Alexandre Vinokourov but it looks like at least half of his team will be suspended, and we all know that you need a full team to defeat a well organized machine like the Disco train.
2. Whatever the outcome, this year's results will be marred by this scandal. This race will always be remembered as the battle of the titans that could have been. So sad and confounding.
Go George. fuck, man.
Posted by: Will | June 30, 2006 at 09:10 AM
a: This could be a great tour with the absence of cheats
b: This could be a terrible tour if they didnt actually cheat and there is a refuse to race like the festine affair
c: The Tour says fuck it and lets everone dope and it turns into xfl
Posted by: CHOMPS | June 30, 2006 at 09:43 AM
All of those results are depressing.
a: That means two cyclists that you and I and every other cycling fan in the world respect are guilty!
b: If they are innocent and they miss out it will be a terrible travesty. This could be Ullrich's last serious year to go for the win and Basso's best opportunity for the double.
c: Then the greatest and most beautiful race would be reduced to a third rate wrestling show. This scenario would only be cool if the leaders of each team wore different lucha libre masks and hit each other over the head with their bikes before each race.
Posted by: Jonah | June 30, 2006 at 09:48 AM
Outrageous, but it is wide open now and some young shits are going to ride like they can win. This could produce a crazy tour.
Following the XFL comment, full contact cycling would be pretty cool, huge commercial potential.
Posted by: Chris | June 30, 2006 at 12:28 PM