Wheels Off for Good
That’s it.
I’m done.
No more Tour de France for me. No more professional cycling races of any kind for me.
With two top riders out and under suspicion of doping, with teams dropping off all over the place and scandalized, I’m not one whit interested anymore in what happens in the sport. I’d rather put my energy behind professional wrestling. It’s more legit.
Pathetic, all of it.
I like what British rider Bradley Wiggins said. He rode with Cofidis, which quit the Tour on Thursday after Italian rider Christian Moreni got sacked over suspicion that he used testosterone.
“It makes you think about your future as a professional cyclist,” Wiggins told the British newspaper The Independent. “You ask what is the point, I could do better things with my life.”
Me too, Brad. So long, pro cycling.
July 26th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I’m with you; it’s lame. And to think I used to be impressed with Armstrong’s seven or so wins. Not so impressive when you see it was stolen glory.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Does everyone think Lance doped? I’d love to hear what Holly and others think. I really don’t know but I suppose he did.
When I lived in Reno, Greg LeMond won the Tour (he’s from Reno originally) and the whole town went nuts. First time I’d ever heard of said event.
I could never get hooked on the event, however I am impressed with the ordeal they go through. I just think they should do it legit.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Lance was tested before,during and after various stages of the race. It all came back negative. Loooooong after his last race,all of a sudden the French press got a “sample” and it tested positive. Please. What many people found hard to believe is that someone could come back from cancer so strongly. Why? Just because it was something THEY could not do?
July 27th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I used to defend Armstrong–tirelessly. Given the past couple of years of doping scandals on the Tour, I’m no longer so sure. I absolutely believe the Tour de France is the toughest sports event in the world, and anyone who wins it drug-free (I think, I hope, some still ride it that way!)would have the world’s worship.
Salt Lake City’s Dave Zabriskie had to drop out early because of a bad knee. I’d still like to believe he rides clean. But as I wrote in the post, I won’t be around from now on to find out. I’m through watching, reading, caring about the Tour de France. If the cycling world can right itself, I may be back. But it’s going to take years. I’m not a terribly patient sort.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Holly,
More calm…..Our local lad Levi Leipheimer is #3 and is clean (I hope). Next year`s Tour of California is gonna start here in Santa Rosa, a big event for the North Bay.
SF hero Barry Bonds is headed for a fall…feds are going to indict him for perjury and tax evasion. His personal trainer is in jail for refusing to testify before a Grand Jury and ex-girlfriend Kimberly Bell will be featured in Playboy (Oct.).
In Kimberly`s words:
” If I`d had more self esteem I would not have been with such a rotten man ”
Barry promised her a house (tax-free)…hope Playboy pays well…
July 27th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Death Throes
By Renaud Dely
Libération
Thursday 26 July 2007
Dopers will dare anything! That’s even how they can be recognized. So did the presumed cheater Rassmussen fly over the Pyrenees yesterday just as he had previously soared over the Alps. Guignol is in yellow and big Barnum follows his lead. Obscene. The Tour must stop. This cycling procession has turned itself into a parade of the absurd. If the organizers were really serious about saving cycling, they would have to stop the competition and decree a pause of several years, the time to take care of these former-athletes-turned-dopers. That a racer as mediocre as the Italian Moreni, who rides about two hours behind the top level, should also be caught with his hand in the cookie jar illustrates the extent of the problem. And the death blow was scheduled for Sunday on the Champs-Elysées, when a new imposter from Copenhagen intended to inscribe his name in the liars’ Hall of Fame.
Nine years after the Festina affair, cycling continues in its endless death throes. Even some television commentators are beginning to realize that and strive to contain their enthusiasm. And that’s saying something.
Yet it would be hypocritical to blame the racers only. If they lapse into doping one by one, it’s also because television, sponsors and multiple commercial interests egg them on to become sideshow freaks. For anyone who claims to be a journalist, it has become totally inconsequent to continue to publish ratings devoid of any meaning and to narrate an epic that is of interest only to a few scientific types in search of new materia medica. Only the legal record of arrests, interrogations and investigations still deserves to be chronicled.
July 27th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Wow. That Frenchman can write! I’ve always loved how the European press gives us the unvarnished version. Thanks Larry O.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I love the SF Giants. Used to go to SF to watch games…even loved Candlestick Park, with swirling winds and fog.
But I have NEVER liked Barry Bonds. Pre allegations, post allegations.
Hank Aaron wasn’t doing steroids…I suspect.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Bonds hit #754 last night, fittingly a solo shot. There is a real chance he will do jail time.
For a dose of clean sports I`m gonna make my annual pilgrimage to Zion…watch Utah play that meat factory from Lotus Land (UCLA).Hope the Utes are at least competitive.
July 30th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
So what does it even mean to be “clean”? I was under the impression that there is some level of “acceptable” doping in the Tour. Am I wrong?