Tour de France Ranting
Imagine this hypothetical situation:
The San Jose Sharks and New York Rangers are about to play each other in the Stanley Cup Finals. Now imagine the day before Game #1, a 200 page report comes out in an NHL steroid investigative report. Let’s say this report named 50 NHL players, 4 of which were about to play in the Finals.
Let’s say Thornton and Cheechoo were named as well as Lundqvist and Jagr. Hypothetically, the NHL has a policy that prevents any player under investigation to play until the issue is resolved. Even if the players didn’t do it and there was no clear cut evidence against these players, they can’t play and if their team wins, their name can’t go on the Cup. So four of the best players in the Finals are unable to play - imagine how it would impact the game.
This is how I feel about the Tour de France…
Yesterday, a 200-300 page report from a Spanish doping investigation was “released.” The report named 50 cyclists, 13 of which are participating in the Tour de France. Three of those nine cyclists placed second, third, and fourth in the Tour de France last year. Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were the top contenders for this year’s race and will be UNABLE to race this year. They train all year for this 23 day race and the day before it starts, they are informed they are not allowed to race.
Now, if they really did dope up, shame on them. They deserve their punishment. But if they didn’t, how much does that suck? This was probably Ullrich’s last year, a chance for him to earn his second Tour de France victory (his last came in 1997).
So the cyclists who came in first through fifth will NOT be racing in the Tour de France so this year’s race is wide open and the three Americans (Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, and Levi Leipheimer) have a great chance to win this thing.
Last Year’s Results:
1. Lance Armstrong (Retired)
2. Ivan Basson (Disqualified due to Report)
3. Jan Ullrich (Disqualified due to Report)
4. Francisco Mancebo (Disqualified due to Report)
5. Alexander Vinokourov (His team withdrew after 5 teammates were implicated)
So here’s hoping that George Hincapie with Team Discovery takes advantage in this year’s race.
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