Donnie’s Blog

Well isn’t the Tour de France getting interesting now. And here I was worried about it being boring. First Alexandre Vinokourov gets sacked for doping on the individual time trial, and his entire team Astana is kicked out of the race. Then Michael Rasmussen gets pulled from the race, by his own team Rabobank for lying about his whereabouts in the time leading up to the TDF - after wearing the yellow jersey for 9 stages! And now team Cofidis has been kicked out of the tour because one of their riders tested positive for testosterone use.

Personally I think this is all just great. The riders are completely mad about cheaters; they all detest Vinokourov and they completely distrust Rasmussen. The race administrators are putting the fear of god into everybody by imposing harsh penalties on whole teams when one person blows it. I don’t know if it’s accurate to say that pro cycling had the most athletes engaging in illegal performance enhancing practices, but they are clearly the most serious about getting things under control. The people in charge and the people actually in the race are equally committed to wiping out even the slightest hint of questionable behavior. This is great, and I think it’s the only way that pro cycling can have any chance of establishing a truly clean sport.

Plus, it makes all those flat stages much more interesting because you never know who is going to be left in the Tour each day, and it’s just fun to hear the commentators rant about doping and the athletes who have been caught.