Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Danielson out of the tour

The Discovery team for the Tour de France has been selected and they've left out Tom Danielson. Team director Johan Bruyneel said that Danielson had stomach problems and didn't perform as needed prior to the tour. So he went with stronger riders to support Levi Leipheimer as team leader. But I think Montana native son, Leipheimer will have a tough time winning the tour. If Discovery pulls it off, it will because of advance planning and smart choices and picking the right people.

I guess that is the same with life choices.

But Alexander Vinokourov will be a real threat on the Astana team. Without Basso in the tour he is probably the strongest rider with the excption of his teammate Kloden. I've always liked Kloden. At this point none of these guys are above suspicion of doping. If Leipheimer is ever found to have doped then I'm going to have a real problem with the whole thing. I know he is a strong rider from his riding in Montana as a kid before he could have ever possibly have doped. But who knows what is really going on?

5 comments:

Megan said...

When I heard that Tom was out on the radio yesterday (? or was it the day before) I actually stopped what I was doing.

Many Durangatangs was really looking forward to cheering him on. Next year...right?!

But I agree with you, I don't think Levi and Team Discovery has the depth of riders to pull off a win. Nonetheless, I'll be watching!

Diane Lowe said...

The Tour is so fun to watch. I remember watching Lance win his last Tour de France. That was so exciting.

Too bad I don't have cable TV (or time to watch it!). You'll have to keep us up to date Don! :)

I think smart life choices are easy to make if you're not given any other choice; it was just unacceptable in my family to drop out of school, and I've never had many friends to lead me astray. My parents (I think) had the same attitude on drugs. More importantly, they made me think that was their attitude.

don said...

I was disappointed to hear about Danielson too, and also wanted to watch him.

Last year Vinokourov didn't get to ride in the tour because five (if I remember) of his teammates got kicked out for doping and they didn't have enough riders left.

I haven't always made the best choices.

Courtney said...

We can't wait for the Tour. That is one thing my husband and I BOTH enjoy watching!

don said...

I'm pretty excited about it also. I've watched almost every stage since the '96 tour. It's just too bad about the doping. I think this year could be an interesting race. There will be another doping bombshell before the tour starts however.