Monday, July 06, 2009

Raining on Armstrong's parade

I'm a little cynical about the Tour de France anymore after repeated doping scandals year after year. First I was first naive enough to believe in Riis, Then Ulrich, Then Pantani. Then bla bla bla bla bla bla bla, and then Heras, and Hamilton, Landis, and Vinokourov. Various others. It seems like just about everyone. So I guess I'm waiting for the next bicycle shoe to drop in a drug scandal. I feel a little like Dick Cheney predicting the next attack. Raining on Armstrong's parade the way Cheney rained on Obama's.

The thought of Vinokourov demanding to be back on Astana after serving a two year suspension.. Well it's hard for a fan to really take it seriously. At least it is for me at this point.

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And how did I forget Michael Rasmussen getting thrown out of the tour while wearing yellow in 2007. I knew I was leaving someone out. It's just getting too forgetable.

On the other hand, I find myself drawn to watch it, and I guess it motivates me to get on my bike and get in shape. And I guess I want to see the old experienced guy do well. It was nice to see Armstrong make the split the other day and climb up the leader board. Hey if Longo can continue to win as long as she did, why not Lance?

2 comments:

Diane Lowe said...

:(

But hey! Armstrong is 2nd now! (Or did he creep up to 1st yet?)

don said...

From what I've seen he's in second just behind Fabian Cancellara, who is the Olympic gold medalist in the time trial.

With the split that happened in the field yesterday, Armstrong distanced himself from his own Astana team mate Contador. It certianly isn't over yet, but if Armstrong can climb like he has in days of old, he is in good position to assume leadership of Astana and take his 8th TDF win, and has done it only four days into the tour.

I think we might see Armstrong in yellow after the first mountain stage.

On the other hand if Armstrong can't stay with Contador on the climbs he can easily loose the lead he has.

I'm sure Contador isn't happy. It will be interesting.