Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Tour De Dope

I'm a casual fan of cycling, meaning I pay attention to the sport when it is convenient and when the Tour de France is in session. I have followed a little bit more since I have frequented Levi Leipheimer's family bike shop in Butte, MT on almost every trip I make to MT. I feel a sort of loyalty to him since I saw him one day and I have met his brother and mom...and since Lance is riding with 70 year olds in RAGBRI in Iowa now, Levi is the only real American hope!

Levi is 4th overall in the tour through Stage 15...he's some 5 minutes behind yellow jersey wearing Michael Rasmussen, who by the way was booed by fans at today's start of Stage 16.

It seems Rasmussen decided to pull a Barry Bonds and forgot to show up for a drug test, may be he didn't study for it, but still that is no reason to skip...FYI Mr. Rasmussen, if you skip a drug test it makes you look real guilty!

So the 2007 Tour has been your typical race, doping allegations, protests by cyclist before the start...etc. Only one team has been sent home for failing the drug test...as Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive.

At least he has a sense of humor...even though his career is facing ruin, Vinokourov managed to joke about his situation. "I heard that I made a transfusion with my father's blood," Vinokourov said. "That's absurd, I can tell you that with his blood, I would have tested positive for vodka."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stupid old man me, put a comment on your previous blog that should have been here. Guess I am not as smart as I thought I was. I must have pulled a Tom or something. Anyway I will try to copy and paste it here:

QUOTE: "and since Lance is riding with 70 year olds"

Tommy, I know you think that age is the end of life or near it, well you may be correct, but don't forget getting there is half the fun too! Some day, (if you don't smart off too much before that) you might enjoy the OLDER years of life too.