"It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Mark Cavendish!" and Other Super Hero Stories from the Tour

I just posted this on twitter: @pa451 - "No one rides a bike like Fabian Cancellara. And... No one rides a bike like Thor Hushovd."

I liked that thought - the idea that there are all sorts of fantastic riders among the 198 cyclists in the Tour de France peloton who are fantastic in different sorts of ways. Kinda like a super hero team. I thought I'd elaborate on some of my favorite cyclists and their superpowers.

Note: I'd love to give you specific stages from specific years that typify these guys, but I'm no Tour encyclopedia and I feel like looking all that up wouldn't be worth the effort, especially on July 4th weekend. I'm writing this from the cottage with all sorts of other stuff I could be doing but, you know, when you get the itch to write about pro cycling, you gotta scratch it.

Note 2: None of these guys (except for Sammy, but not really) are considered overall contenders. I thought we'd look at a more eclectic group today.

Name: Fabian Cancellara
Alias: Fabulous Cancellara
Superpower: Time-trialing - In a solitary time-trial, Cancellara can get around a typical road course faster than any cyclist on earth. See for example, his 4 World Time Trial Championships, his 2008 Olympic Time Trial Championship, and his 7 Tour de France stage victories, most of them individual time trials. See also, today's team time trial when he almost single-handedly dragged his boys on Leopard Trek, including overall contender Andy Schleck, to 3rd place.
Secret Power: Stealing stage victories on a sprint when you least expect it. He almost did it again yesterday, when the race was splintered by a couple late crashes leading to a select battle on a tough up-hill finish. Cancellara attacked out of nowhere on the final stretch, but got caught back.

Name: Thor Hushovd
Alias: The God of Thunder
Superpower: Sprinting - He's won two green jerseys in the TDF. That's the award you get when you accrue the most points across the entire race. You get points by placing high in sprints, mainly at the end of flat stages. Usually sprinters are big dudes who can throw their weight onto the pedals to achieve a quick acceleration. Thor is a big dude. Hence the speed.
Secret Power: Climbing - For a big fella Thor can get up and down the mountains quite well. There are usually sprint points available at a few spot in the middle of the stage, placed there by organizers to keep the race interesting. Often, Thor will give the slip to the other sprinters (none of whom can climb like him) on the hillier stages to go rack up green jersey points on a breakaway.

Name: Jens Voigt
Alias: Good ol' Jens!
Superpower: Super-domestique - Every tour contender, from Lance to Alberto Contador to Jens' longtime teammate Andy Schleck, needs a great supporting cast around him. Cycling is a team sport. Drafting is critical along the windy plains, and pacing is key in the mountains. Also, someone needs to go back to the car to pick up water bottles and it's NOT going to be the guy using every ounce of energy to be the fastest around France. That's where the domestiques come in. Jens is a super-domestique because he can climb almost as well as the best, and sprint almost as fast as the best. Also, he's super affable, even at the super-old age (for cycling) of 39. The commentators love Jens, and so do I. Yesterday, late in the race, with the speed kicked up to catch the breakaway, Jens was sent back to the team car to pick up 14 water bottles. Try picking up 14 rocks and then sprinting as hard as you can next time you're on your bike. Jens does it with a wink and a smile.

Name: Mark Cavendish
Alias: Manx Missile (He's from the Isle of Mann, on the southern tip of England.)
Superpower: Sprinting - No one accelerates like the Manx Missile. Absolutely no one. He makes winning stages look so easy; he's snagged an absurd 15 in only 3 years of racing in the Tour.
Secret Weakness: Mountains - He hates 'em. In fact, he dropped out of the Tour in his first year to avoid the Alps. He's also never won the Green Jersey, finishing second last year.

Name: Mark Renshaw
Superpower: Lead-outs - Renshaw is the Robin to Cavendish's Batman, only if Batman let Robin go into the warehouse and fight the bad guys for a couple minutes, softening them up before Batman joined the fray at the very end. If you want to consistently win sprint-finish stages in the tour like the Manx Missile, you need a great launcher who sets an absurd pace that you can draft behind and then explode out of. Renshaw can probably bike faster than just about everyone in the race. But he's content setting up Cavendish.

Name: Thomas Voeckler
Nickname: Le Chouchou
Superpower: Pleasing the sponsors - Bursting on the scene in 2004 by somehow dragging himself through the mountains fast enough to hold the Yellow Jersey for 10 stages, Voeckler can be counted on to do something to catch the eye of the cameras at some point during the race. Whether it's getting involved in breakaways, or launching an absolutely futile attack in the mountains against superior climbers, he'll find a way to get attention. The French love him. And you know what? So do I.
Trademark: His spidery pedaling style - His climbing form is horrible and endearing. He looks like he has ants literally in his pants, knees flailing, head bobbing in misery. Golf fans, you know how you can tell Jim Furyk from his swing without even seeing his face? That's Voeckler's pedaling style.

Name: Samuel Sanchez
Nickname: Samu, Sammy
Superpower: Climbing - I wanted to highlight Sammy because he's the leader of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team. That's the unofficial team of the Basque region of Spain. They're in the tour every year, easy to spot in their orange tops and black bottoms. Sammy and his teammates are all either Basque or connected enough to the Basque region to be on the team. That makes Euskaltel-Euskadi WAY closer to a national team than any other team in the recent tour, including the US Postal Service which employed numerous non-Americans to lead Lance Armstrong up and down mountains. I tend to route against the Spanish in everything. (I'm not sure why, come to think of it, but it's true.) But you have to love the Basque riders. All they know how to do is climb up mountains very fast.
Secret Power: Winning Gold Medals - Actually I'll amend last comment...Sammy won the 2008 Olympics Road Race, which takes strategy and more all-around skill besides climbing. Sammy is in the awkward position of being too good a cyclist to win a TDF stage - the top contenders will never let him escape - but not quite good enough to finish on the podium - he finished 4th last year. Alas, he's already 2:36 behind this year. It didn't help that Euskaltel-Euskadi finished dead last in the team time trial this year. Like I said, all they know how to do is climb mountains.

The Mesmerizing Tour de France

Just got back from "Inception." (Don't worry. I won't spoil it.) It was great fun. Fresh, thrilling, and dazzling. Well-acted, and well-written (for a Blockbuster, at least). It has almost nothing to do with what happened in the Tour de France on Monday, but it does deal with a few elements of human existence and emotion typical to epic stories - in fiction and sport. Teamwork. Dreams. Complication. Guilt. Regret.

The outcome of sports dreams is much more black and white than the dreams of characters in great fiction. I lived to see Syracuse win a National Championship in basketball. It was a dream come true. Fans of the Netherlands (and Bills and Cavs) may never live to see their team reach the pinnacle. It's either/or. Win or lose.

The road to the decisive end is not quite as neat in sports. Syracuse would have lost the 2003 title game if Kansas had hit even a decent percentage of their free throws. IfArjen Robben finished one of his two breakaway chances, the Dutch would have hoisted the World Cup, though few would have been convinced they were the best team in the tournament. If Scott Norwood doesn't miss the field goal, the New York Giants lose to the Buffalo Bills.

Even worse is when the decisive result is seemingly affected by external forces. The most notorious outside force is, of course, officiating. What if... What if Frank Lampard's tying goal is properly spotted by one of the officials against Germany? What if that momentum carries England through that game, and into the rest of the tournament? I'll always believe it was a massive moment. Maddeningly, they missed it.

How about the Joba-bug game? Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS. Yankees in Cleveland. The wind calmed down in northern Ohio just long enough for a bunch of bugs - some kind of swarming gnats or something - to mess up the dominant Joba Chamberlain. The Indians picked up a tying run that inning just before a breeze came in and blew the bugs away. Cleveland added the winning run later. As an unabashed Yankee hater, I was delighted. But to be on the other end of that debacle must have been brutal.

Part of the beauty of races like Tour de France is that outside factors have a minimal effect. The officiating is relatively minimal. (Well, Mark Renshaw might disagree, but it's true.) In fact, we never even see the faces of the referees in the Tour de France.

If they have an effect at all, outside factors effect all Tour riders equally. Phil Mickelson bemoaned the weather on the first day of the British Open this week because his round coincided with a rough patch that other golfers missed. If it pours on Thursday's massive mountain stage in France (as is forecast) every rider will have to deal with it.

Rasheed Wallace once said, "Ball don't lie." I think it lies a little. Wilt Chamberlain's stats were impressive, but when it mattered, Bill Russell beat him more times than not. There's room for debate there. You know what really doesn't lie? Clock. Clock don't lie. It don't lie about Usain Bolt on the track. It don't lie about Jason Lezak beating Alain Bernard in the pool.

It don't lie in the Tour de France. It don't lie in each stage, such as Monday, when Thomas Voeckler rode away in his unique, herky-jerky style to a minute and 20 second victory over everybody else across a tough route through the Pyrenees. It DEFINITELY don't lie in the individual time trial stages, which Fabian "Spartacus" Cancellara has won multiple times. And it don't lie in the overall standings.

Except when it does, and that's why doping is so distressing to fans of the Tour de France. It's even more distressing than in baseball, where performance enhancing drugs ruined hallowed statistics, but don't really make us seriously question the World Series results of the past. Over time, I think baseball fans will learn how to factor in the steroid era as they debate the great questions in baseball's past. What wasn't debatable, before PEDs and blood doping, was the clock in the Tour de France. Lance finished the route in the shortest amount of time for seven straight years. Unbelievable! Spectacular! Ugh, but he might have cheated. But everyone was probably cheating. But still...

And now (finally) we come to Monday's events on the Port de Balès, where the themes of great stories, great sporting moments, and life itself coalesced in a moment of drama. A moment of complexity, not clarity.

Teamwork. Tour leader Andy Schleck's team had set him up perfectly for an attack on the final massive climb of stage 15.

Dreams. For thirteen out of fourteen stages, Andy Schleck had appeared to be at least equal to two-time Tour winner and pre-race favorite Alberto Contador. Only on the short-but-steep final climb on stage 12 had Contador managed to cut into Schleck's lead by ten seconds. On the longer, more typical, more endurance-testing mountain stages of the tour, Schleck seemed to have an advantage. But Schleck can't beat Contador in the time trial on the penultimate stage. Monday offered an opportunity for Schleck to gain time on his rival, to take one great step towards the Yellow Jersey of his dreams. And he was feeling good.

Complication. Towards the top of the final climb, the Port de Balès, Schleck attacked. He burst ahead, and only Contador's tireless teammate, Alexandre Vinokourov, was able to immediately match the acceleration. Contador was, for a moment (and such moments tend to be decisive in the Tour de France) left behind. Schleck moved away, but then his rear tire bounced off the ground, and his peddling was abruptly taking him nowhere. He looked down and found his chain had disengaged. At the exact same moment Contador dug into his peddles, rode up behind Schleck, and then flew past the tour leader as Schleck hopped off his bike to fix the problem.

(Important note: Contador was still behind Schleck when the chain came off in a clear position to see what had happened. He would have been staring at Schleck, his sole rival, as Schleck peddled away. When the chain came off Schleck's bike, Contador, a professional cyclist, must have known what had happened.)

Guilt. Other great Tour de France riders would have stopped and waited for Andy Schleck. I am certain of this. Lance waited for his rival Jan Ullrich in 2001 when Ullrich went off the road. (And that incident wasn't directly caused by any of the aforementioned "outside factors.") Ullrich waited for Lance in 2003 when a spectator's bag snagged on Lance's handlebars sending the champ crashing to the road. Lance would have waited. Jan would have waited.

I was furious at Contador as he peddled away. I was even more bitter when Andy couldn't catch up, despite a valiant effort. So I twittered, "Contador is a coward. Say what you will about Lance, but he would have waited for Schleck." And I felt vindicated for my feelings as I read the vast majority of reactions from pro cyclists and learned followers who seemed to agree with me.

But then I went and saw Inception, and when I got home I found this. And then I felt a little bad for Contador, because Contador feels guilt. That's the only explanation for that video. As much as I want Contador to be a bad guy, he clearly isn't. He's a brilliant cyclist who was caught up in the moment of competition and didn't have enough time to realize what the right thing to do was.

Regret. I guarantee you Contador wishes he had waited. He wishes he could win the Tour without the blemish of the events on the Port de Balès. And you know what, if I can get past my own affection for young Andy Schleck, I have to admit that Contador probably was going to win the tour without the 39 seconds he picked up Monday. His time trialing is just too good for Andy. At the same time, in the moments when Schleck pulled away from Contador before the chain came off, it seemed that Andy could do it after all. And as commentator Paul Sherwin remarked on the Versus coverage, it's possible that Contador attacked out of his own growing sense of vulnerability to Schleck.

In the aftermath, confronted by questions from observers of the Tour, Contador regretted what happened. (It's unfortunate that he couldn't help but grumble about the stage to Spa in his YouTube apology. Schleck's team sort of slowed down the race to allow Schleck to catch back up to the main field. It wasn't as big a deal as Monday's incident.) But there is no going back. The race continues. Schleck is in a difficult hole. Tuesday's stage should be fascinating. Thursday's stage should be unreal.

It always seems more satisfying in sports when the result is decisive. Alas, on stage 15 of the 2010 Tour de France, clock did lie. My instinct was to lash out with frustration at Andy's bad luck and anger at Contador's lapse in sportsmanship.

But on reflection, whether Schleck makes the time back or Contador rolls on to a comfortable victory, stage 15 was a great moment in sports. The moment the chain came off Schleck's bike was a moment of truth. Not a moment of decisive - Contador is a dick/Andy deserved to win - truth, but a moment of complex truth. Schleck may or may not have gained time on Contador if the chain hadn't come off. He tried to fight back and failed. He might still beat Contador, but he probably won't. Schleck lashed out in bitterness after the race, but eventually twittered "**** happens" and seemed to be calming down. Contador rode off. He should have stopped. Part of him knows this and regrets it.

There will be a first place and a second place celebrated when the Tour ends on Sunday. But in a way, I prefer this moment right now, between stage 15 and 16. Contador is a great cyclist, probably the best in the race, and yet he is being heavily criticized. He might go on to win. He might crash. He might get caught doping. He might stop at the finish line and give Andy back the 39 seconds. He might burst into tears. He might post another YouTube video lashing out in anger. Schleck is a great cyclist, perhaps the best in the race, yet he caught a moment of terrible luck (possibly a mechanic's error, maybe Andy's own peddling error). He might fight back. He might fall off the mountain. He might smile and shake Contador's hand then kick the crap out of him on the road. He might punch Contador in the face. Fascinating stuff!

Life goes on. We make decisions in split seconds. We work for and dream of things that ultimately we can and can't control. Endings aren't as decisive as we might like. The race goes on.

Tuesday in the Tour de France

Well, everything changed Tuesday on the slopes of the Col de la Madeleine, the final, massive climb of the stage - 25 km up, and then a crazy decent down the other side. Andy Schleck attacked and only Alberto Contador was able to match him. Eventually they managed to build up a nice cushion of time on everyone else. The 2010 Tour, it seems, is going to come down to those two.

Meanwhile, Cadel "Cuddles" Evans popped and lost time to just about everybody in the top 10. That puts Andy Schleck in yellow for now. But remember: he needs more time to make up for his weak time trial that will cost him time in the penultimate stage of the Tour. He'll try to get that time in the Pyrenees.

The battle for third place is also interesting. Cuddles could bounce back. American Levi Leipheimer (Lance's teammate and the new "leader" of the team) rode well and certainly has a shot. About a half-dozen other riders are also in the mix.

It was a fabulous day, worthy of the famous Cold de la Madeleine. The Tour at its most fascinating.

MAQM: Tour de France

Me Asking Questions from Me: the Tour de France

Q. What's up with Lance? I hear he's basically finished?

Yup. He got mixed up in three crashes, falling hard on the second and banging his hip. That one occurred at the worst possible moment, right at the bottom of a significant climb and just as the top contenders were ramping up their speed. Lance never recovered.

Q. Ah, I see. What about all those Floyd Landis allegations?

I feel like Landis is the Jose Canseco of bike racing. Eventually, we'll realize a lot of what he's said is true. Actually, Landis might even be more vilified than Canseco ever was (at least in America) because Lance has so many high-profile supporters amongst the media. (See: Reilly, Rick; Caple, Jim)

For the record, I think Lance doped. I think practically everyone was doping though. So I also think Lance was as brilliant a rider as his seven victories would suggest. A cheater, yes. But I'm kind of over that. I'm disappointed in him, but I don't despise him. (sigh) It's complicated...

Q. Do you think the race is clean now?

Clean-er. Like baseball. Actually, significantly more clean than baseball. The Tour de France is powerful enough to mandate some pretty strict vigilance over its riders. Blood tests. Biological passports. The works.

Q. Cool. So if Lance is toast, I guess I don't have to pay attention to the Tour de France anymore, eh? Unless...are any Americans in contention?

It's been a rough ride for American cyclists. Tyler Farrar has had a great year winning individual stages with his sprint ability. Unfortunately, he broke his wrist early in the Tour. He's still riding, and even finished second in Friday's stage, but he's still not 100%.

Another American rider, Christian Vande Velde, a podium contender who finished fourth overall in 2008, crashed out of the Tour last week with broken ribs.

The best American podium contender left is actually Lance's teammate, Levi Leipheimer. Ultimately, Lance is going to find himself in the same position last year, when he was a super-domestique helping Alberto Contador to victory. In eighth place, Leipheimer is 2:14 behind the leader.

Q. Who is the leader?

That would be Australian Cadel Evans. Cadel is the reigning World Champion, but he's had a frustrating history in the Tour de France. He finished second in 2007 and 2008 (when he was the pre-race favorite), and then raced miserably last year. He's definitely on form this year.

Q. Anything else I should know about Cadel?

His nickname is Cuddles. It's ironic. He's a bit of a grouch.

Q. So is Cuddles the favorite now?

Wellll... coming into Sunday, everyone agreed that Spanish rider Alberto Contador was the clear favorite.

Q. Oh right! Contador! He won last year, right?

Right, and in 2007. He didn't race in 2008 because his team, Astana, was banned from the race for doping violations. (Contador was never implicated. He joined the team after the violations occurred but before the ban was announced.)

Anyway... as I was saying before you RUDELY interrupted me... Contador was the clear favorite coming in to Sunday. His team controlled the race through the Alps almost the whole way. However in the last kilometer of the final climb Andy Schleck raced away from him and Contador couldn't catch back up. In 2007, Contador ALWAYS caught up. In 2009, Contador ALWAYS caught up. So this was a blow to his perceived invulnerability.

Q. "Andy Schleck." That's fun to say!

I know! The Luxemburg rider is my favorite. His older brother and key teammate Frank crashed out of the tour a few days ago, but Schleck's team is still strong. On Sunday he gained 10 seconds on Contador and Evans. That might not sound like a lot, but every chunk helps. Schleck is not as good a time trialist as those two, so he'll have to be leading by a nice margin going into the individual time trial on stage 19.

The larger significance of Schleck's late breakaway on Sunday is he seems to be riding the mountains well - better than anyone else. The mountains, even more than the time trial, is where the Tour is won.

Q. So Schleck is going to Schleck his way to victory?

Actually, it feels as wide open as any tour. Steady Evans in first, gangly young climber Schleck 20 seconds behind, Contador 1:01 back. And those three might not make up the final podium. Quiet Russian Denis Menchov lurks in fifth. Leipheimer is back there in 8th. Solid Michael Rogers is in 10th. 2008 Tour winner Carlos Sastre is in 12th. And potential contenders Ivan Basso and Bradley Wiggins are both within 2:45 of the lead in 13th and 14th. Anything could happen.

Q. Neat! (Not really..I'm just humoring you.) So what else is going on in this 3 week bike race?

The third stage went over a series of cobbled roads. That type of surface is common in the one-day classic races, but aside from a few random patches here and there, is rarely seen in the Tour de France. In fact, a few riders complained. Andy Schleck even said it didn't belong in the Tour de France. Ironically, Schleck rode great while Lance had an unlucky flat tire on a stage he was expected to excel in.

Q. Didn't I hear something about a fight between two riders?

Yup. A couple cyclists were pushing on the road, and mixed it up right after the stage. Here's the video:

http://www.examiner.com/x-2490-Endurance-Sports-Examiner~y2010m7d10-Video-ugly-Tour-de-France-fight-leads-to-fines-and-more-questions

Q. Ha ha! He whacked him with his wheel!

Speaking of getting whacked, the riders are about to get pummeled by the famous Col de la Madelaine on Tuesday, which should further sort out the contenders. Contador, Schleck, Evans, and perhaps others will cross swords.

Q. Wait, I'm watching this video again... ha ha ha! That's hilarious!

Wednesday is the final day in the Alps, although the climbs aren't quite as substantial. Sunday, the race returns to the mountains - the Pyrenees. That stage ends with two brutal climbs. Monday is tough as well. But Tuesday...WOW. Tuesday is the hardest stage of the Tour. Two first category climbs (the lower the number, from 4 to 1, the harder the climb), followed by two hors categorie climbs. "Hors categorie" means beyond category; it's the toughest possible climb. To go 1, 1, H, H...that's ridiculous.

Q. Why didn't they just have categories 1 through 5 and make 1 the hardest?

...um...these go to hors...

Q. I see.

This is one of the most mountainous Tours I can remember. Stage 17 tacks on a couple more first category climbs before the race returns to lower ground. Sometimes there is a team time trial or more individual time trial. This year, only the short prelude stage and stage 19 are time trials. So if Schleck is riding well in the mountains, his time trial deficiency might not be insurmountable.

Q. Schleck it up, Schleck!

I agree. Anyway. I'll try to check back in with you in a week when the race is in the Pyrenees. And feel free to come by and watch some of the race with me!

Q. Ummm... Paul... you realize you're talking to yourself right?

Yes. Well... I will continue to watch alone.

Q. Go Schleck!

Go Schleck!

Tour de France Predictions

Am I the only American giddy about the World Cup wrapping up AND the Tour de France rolling out at the same time? Wait, don't answer that.

Here are some predictions for the bike race that you probably won't watch, unless I force you to come to my house and view it. Honestly though, I highly recommend throwing it on at some point, even if its just in the background. With the beautiful scenery and colorful, flowing pelaton, it's the most visually appealing sports event in the universe. There is no better sport to take a nap to!

Stage 17/ (the famous) Col du Tourmalet Winner - David De La Fuente: With teammate Contador's victory in the bag by now, de la Fuente breaks away on the ride up to take the stage.

Stage 19/Individual Time Trial Winner - Fabian Cancellara: "Fabulous" Cancellara is a brilliant time trialist as well as a likable fellow.

White Best Young Rider Jersey: Andy Schleck - The 25-year-old Luxembourg rider becomes the first since Jan Ullrich in 1998 to take the best young rider award for a third time.

Polka-dot Mountain Points Jersey: Sami Sanchez - The Tour seems to be staying out of Spain this year, but Sami will bring home some laundry.

Green Sprint Jersey: Mark Cavendish - his, unless he crashes. He'll also win the most stages again.

Lance: Top 5, but without his young legs and doping (yes, I think he did), he won't challenge for the top.

Third Place: Denis Menchov - The Russian always seems to crash, so maybe he's due for a good year.

Second Place: Andy Schleck - My favorite, the best rider on the strongest team (Saxobank), and the runner-up last year, but still won't be good enough to beat Contador.

Winner: Alberto Contador - The Tour winner is rarely a surprise, so I'm going with the heavy favorite, even if his mountain-climbing ability raises suspicious eyebrows.

A Different Approach to Fighting PEDs in Sports

Having merely skimmed this Bonnie Ford story from ESPN.com, I feel like I should strongly recommend it to anyone interested in PEDs in sports. It's about a very interesting - and I must say surprising - development in cycling. Teams, in particular a new American team, are taking the initiative to fight doping by operating with 100% transparency and submitting to testing above and beyond that required by the laws of the game.

Imagine if, say, the Toronto Blue Jays came out and said they were going to self-impose strict anti-steroid and anti-PED rules and testing with an aim at being a 100% clean franchise. What if they vowed to cut anyone on their team who tested positive to a test. What if they intentionally signed only players who had never had a sniff of suspicion. Wouldn't you root for that team? That's what this American cycling team, Slipstream, is going for.

I think their paradigm works better in cycling, because of the way a team can be built from scratch. It's not out of the question that a brand new team will be invited to participate in the Tour de France.

I'm excited to root for Slipstream, and intrigued at the direction cycling is headed as it cleans itself up.

P.S.

[Was going to make this a comment but felt it was too important to hide down there].

Just finished the article. Fascinating stuff. One major thing I came away with is a change in my attitude towards the US Postal/Discovery cycling team. Zabriske said he wants Slipstream to be "Not Discovery". Former Discovery members have an "ax they have to grind" with Discovery. And though it's not specified in the article, I would bet that the anonymous cyclist who called his old team "dirtbags" was a former Discovery rider.

Which leads me to believe, for the first time, that Discovery was not the most talented team, just the best team at cheating. (No positive tests.) In turn, for the first time, I think Lance might have doped.

Tour de France v. American Pro Sports

Great column from Jemele Hill today. She says exactly the point I'm trying make, exactly what Tour de France veteran commentator Phil Liggett believes: that the Tour de France is at the forefront and very possibly the downslope of the anti-doping curve.

The key point:
"There is no way American sports are any cleaner than cycling. In fact, if our sports were held to world anti-doping standards, the cycling's scandals would seem mild by comparison."

Accepting that, though, brings us back to an older topic of discussion in the Sauna: do Americans care? A lot of people care that the most hallowed record in baseball is going to go to a player who, by the Tour's standards, would have been banned from his sport a couple years ago. Far, far less people seem to care about PEDs in football.

To the flip-side then: why do Europeans care so much about cycling being clean? To understand that you have to understand the sport. I've said it many times before; the physical suffering these cyclists go through - in the Tour de France, in the lesser Tours of the cycling year, and in their off-season workouts - is incomparable to any other major pro sport. The effort IS the sport. That's why millions line up on the roads of France to cheer them on. That's why the camaraderie of the peloton is such a beautiful thing. These guys are a couple hundred Forrest Gumps 6 out of 7 days for three weeks. If they dope, they are cheating on the very thing that they are admired for. They are cheating the suffering. It doesn't hurt Barry Bonds to hit a home run, HGH or no HGH. Football hurts, but that's not the main reason why Americans love football.

Look at it this way: the best games in most major sports almost always involve exciting finishes, but the best Tour de France stages are also the least exciting at the end. The most exciting stage finishes are the flat ones, when half a dozen sprinters are battling in the final seconds. But the most famous stages are in the mountains, and the most famous rides are made by individuals who suffer for four hours but manage just a little bit more pace than everyone else.

Vinokourov and Rasmussen and the others suffered, but they did something illegal to manage their suffering. So the very specific thing they are admired for is diminished.

Two Notent Notables

• For a shorter, better editted, MUCH better informed wrap of the Tour, here's Bonnie DeSimone of ESPN.com. I wasn't a huge fan of the first two or three of her articles that I read, but I like her realism here. Here's another of her articles on one rider we can trust.
  
• My newest thought on Beckham is that if there is one thing that is true time and time again is that Americans are suckers for individual stars. I don't think there are only "non-soccer fans" and "soccer fans" in America. I think there are a lot of people in the middle who sometimes bash soccer but every four years they get swept up to varying degrees in the World Cup if the games are on at a reasonable time to watch. Those are the people I think the MLS is going attract via television for Beckham games. If they turn on ESPN, and David Beckham is on screen, they are going to watch much much longer than if he wasn't. Of course, I haven't managed to watch a single Beckham game yet...

P.N.N. I didn't want to make a whole new post about this, but Iban Mayo tested positive for blood doping. Mayo is known as an inconsistent cyclist. A few years ago, in the first Tour I watched, he was a top contender. After that he never came close again, but would have occasional excellent stages. I suppose that might be a sign of a doper. Certainly inconsistency was Vinokourov's profile this year, and Landis's last year.

A Week in a Day: The Last Week of the 2007 Tour de France

Prelude: This is quite long and thorough. I've bolded some of my main points for those of you who don't want to slog through the whole thing. As always, thanks for reading.


Thanks to the miracle of TiVo, I've got stages 15, 16, 17 and 18 recorded and ready to roll. I should have 14, 19 and 20, but something got messed up and I just spent 30 minutes on the phone with DirecTV trying to figure out why it was saying TiVo was inactive and unable to record programs. The solution? The same one for all computers: reset the dang thing. When in Rome...

Here's what I know:
Michael Rasmussen was kicked off his team or something.
Something happened with Alexandre Vinokourov too, I think. Chris left a message and started to say something about Vino and I took the phone away from my ear.

That's it. I did well to keep my head in the sand. Even for the Tour de France, it's difficult. There is a story in the sports page every day, and I've been trying to check box scores for my fantasy team without seeing the Tour headlines. I only logged online 3 times in the last week, again for fantasy purposes, and haven't been on ESPN.com once in that whole span.

So here's how this is going to work. I'm going to watch each day, hear what the news is from my favorite four cycling analysts, watch the stage and write a reaction for each stage. I'm recording the repeat of stage 20 tonight so the only day I'll miss was 19. Might be decisive, but usually the tour is decided by then. We'll see.

Ironically, Barry Bonds is one home run away from tying Hank Aaron and that game is just underway. Last night I watched Dontrelle Willis shut him down and finally came to grips with my true feelings about the whole thing. It makes me absolutely sick. This is THE record in all of sports, and Barry doesn't deserve it. I'll be much more excited about A-Rod getting to 500. Still, I'm keeping an eye on the Yahoo! boxscore since I can't have ESPNews on because even now I almost saw what happened in the Tour. Barry just grounded out in his first at bat.

Off we go...

Pre-Stage 15...

When last I watched, in Stage 13 Vinokourov just rode himself to a win in the Time Trial. Rasmussen rode the Time Trial of his life to keep the yellow jersey back to the mountains. Here's one thought I had about Vino that I never jotted down. Last year, Floyd Landis was caught doping on Stage 17, a day after he had cracked and dropped out of first place. That day he rode the ride of his life, won the stage and got yellow back. He was desperate. I think he went all-or-nothing and doped on that one day. He knew he was going to have surgery on his knee after the Tour. This might be his only chance to win. Whether it was the endorsements he was interested in or possibly just the glory, I don't know. But I think he took a calculated risk and got caught. The one rider in a similar situation this year was Vinokourov. Who knows how beat up he is. He was the pre-race favorite. Everything went wrong when he crashed. If anyone had that all-or-nothing motivation it was Vinokourov. For all I know, whatever Chris was talking about when he mentioned Vino, it might not be doping at all. It's just a similarity I noticed that I thought I'd jot down here.

On Rasmussen... I think it was a little stranger and stupider if he doped. Here's the two-time king of the mountain winner. He had a clean, friendly image until that silly diary thing. Why risk it all to win the tour? Maybe it meant that much to him to win the whole race. If he did. I don't even know. But that's what I'm thinking.

Just saw what happened in stage 14, Alberto Contador beating out Rasmussen for the win and moving into 2nd place overall. I really like Contador. I think he might win this thing. He's got a flippin metal plate in his head! That's Lance-esque. And of course, my new favorite, Popovich, did the early damage to set up Contador.


Stage 15 - Vino and Contador star

Beautiful video of this race. The Hors Categorie climb towards the end of the day came up through a fog bank into a crystal clear sky at the summitt. Unreal. I'm not into naps, but if you are, between the colorful flow of the peloton and the scenery of France there isn't a better sport in the world to nap to. Great race by Vino. I wish I hadn't had that inkling that something was up with him because I would have enjoyed it much more. He's got a lot of heart, whatever is pumping through it. Contador is superb, gaining time again on all the contenders except Rasmussen. Team Discovery remains well placed. And Yaroslav Popovich had his role in the days battle, as did old George Hincapie. Tip of the cap to Rasmussen for sticking with Contador, but what a difference a week makes. I just don't have the same good feelings for the guy after hearing he got the boot.

Happy day! Barry didn't homer. Long live Hammerin' Hank!


Stage 16 - Vino Out and the Penultimate Battle on the Mountains

Instead of the standard musical montage with highlights from the previous day, Al Trautwig opens things up with a monologue about doping in sports...segueing into the news that Vinokourov was doping.

From there, into a panel discussion with the other hosts. Paul and Phil say its a good thing that the cheaters are getting caught. Al continually reminds us all how silly we feel for cheering for Vinokourov, a cheater. Bob calls him stupid. I agree with it all.

What a waste of talent. I don't know what the details are, but I wonder if my Landis-theory holds true, if he turned to doping as his last hope. The silliest thing is every stage leader gets tested. Floyd got caught in the standard stage leader test last year, and now Vino gets caught after a stage victory.

Still no bad news about Rasmussen though... Tomorrow maybe? This had to happen. The more high-profile cyclists who fall, less who will dope and the more good guys will rise to the top. And I'm still hooked on the Tour and I still think this year is cleaner than any of the recent races.

Last word about the pre-race show: poor old Phil Liggett looks so sad. He's shell-shocked about Vino. He so wants the race to be clean. He just said that he hopes Contador catches Rasmussen today so I wonder if he suspects something about the Dane.

Today is a mother of a race with an uphill finish on an Hors Catagorie climb. Really interesting start to the race. Most of the field waited at the start in an organized protest in support of a clean race. Very poignant. Rasmussen didn't wait, but as the yellow jersey holder he has to go to start the race. I'd like to see something like that in baseball, like the Players Association organizing a one-day walk-out to protest PEDs. It's all symbolic, of course. But there is too much camaraderie in sports for whistle blowers so I'm not sure what else can be done, besides individuals coming clean about their own usage.

There is always a lot of writing on the roads of the Tour in support of riders and teams. Just noticed "VINO" and "RASMUSSEN" with a circle around them and an arrow pointing at a drawing of a red syringe.

On the first mountain, Rasmussen lost his lead in the King of the Mountain competition to the enjoyable new kid from Columbia, Juan Mauricio Soler. He's trying to pull a Rasmussen-'04 and win the polka dot jersey in his first Tour. Memo to Vino: training in the high altitude Andes is a legal way to dope your blood.

But the stage not surprisingly came down to the beast at the end. And after one relative down year, Team Discovery is back in charge. When they dropped the hammer they lost all of Rasmussen's teammates and were left with Popovich, Contador and Leipheimer (all Team Discovery) surrounding Rasmussen with Cadell Evans and Soler the only two other passengers

From there, Leipheimer attacked as Popovich dropped back, his job done. Rasmussen defended, Contador and Evans followed, but Soler was dropped. If doping was out of the picture, the 2007 Tour would have been decided among these four over the final 5 miles of steep uphill climbing.

Contador and Leipheimer started taking turns attacking. Rasmussen should have let Leipheimer go because he had several minutes on the American. But with miles to go he wasn't going to take that chance. At the 5km mark Rasmussen found himself leading the way up the hill, but with the two wolves from Team Discovery toying with his heels. Again, I wish I didn't know about Rasmussen's fate because at least for a while I could enjoy Rasmussen's climbing brilliance.

Never seen this before: Rasmussen was surprisingly whiny about the television camera motor bikes being too close to Leipheimer in first, so much so that he brought on some rare criticism from Phil, who told him to "just get on with it." For several minutes he was complaining and waving at the motorcycles. Bizarre.

With 1km to go, it was Leipheimer, Rasmussen, Contador in a row. Suddenly, Leipeheimer dropped off leaving the top two to fight for the stage. Just as suddenly Rasmussen shot off the front, cracked Contador and rode away. Phil Liggett all but declared him the Tour de France winner.

It must have been the best moment of Old Spider Legs' life. But stage winners always get tested for doping...


Stage 17 - Rasmussen Out as the Tour Gets Flat Again

No opening montage...straight to an Al Trautwig monologue. So! No positive test for Rasmussen. Rabobank tossed him out voluntarily because of a number of times where he wasn't where he was supposed to be. "Guilty by association," says Trautwig. "They're quite right to throw him out and may he never ride again," says Liggett. A complete reversal of his dismissive words towards the whole Denmark/Diary thing that started this all. "It's actually the teams and the organizers of the grand tours that are fighting the problem more than the international federations," says Sherwin. Roll says its cycling's darkest hour but Liggett suggests in a few years it might be cycling's finest hour. Sherwin, who I respect most out of the four, says he started to get suspicious after Rasmussen's time trial. Liggett implies that cyclists can go dope when they're training in the mountains, wait 10 days so it clears your system, and come to the race clean. Finally, Sherwin gives some observational evidence that Contador, Leipheimer, and Evans are clean.

Cofidis is out as well! Christian Moreni tested positive in stage 11. I've barely heard of Moreni, but it's sad that one guy can pull a whole team out. As Barry Bonds has shown, guys are more likely to dope on their own rather than as a team. It's easier to get away with it. I'm much more suspicious about Vinokourov's team, Astana, because of the performance of their top guys in the time trial. But at the same time, I do agree with the policy of punishing the entire team. Let's take baseball again. What if teams were docked 5 wins if a player tested positive for PEDs? If you can bring your team down by cheating, you're less likely to do it for the same reason that clean teammates don't turn in dirty teammates. At the same time, the full-team punishment encourages teams to self-police and kick out suspect characters like Rasmussen. Bottom line: if the Tour treats possible dopers like Rasmussen as guilty until proven innocent, that makes it easier for fans like me to believe that the cyclists are innocent until they're declared guilty.

It's fascinating stuff, really. And still Phil Liggett and I think the race is mainly clean. Says Liggett during the stage, "The system is working. We are catching the cheats. It doesn't matter how big a name they are; we're getting rid of them." So let's get on with the cleanest stage yet...

No yellow jersey. How terribly sad. Dennis Menchov the -1 jersey wearer of Rabobank just retired. Liggett speculates he's been mentally beaten by the Rasmussen affair and says he should have been the team leader in his own right but instead drove Rasmussen up the mountains. He killed himself for a phony. Imagine how you would feel.

HISTORICAL INTERLUDE
Here's Wikipedia's article about Michel Pollentier who got caught trying to give a phony urine sample after winning a stage at the famous Alpes d'Huez. There was no yellow jersey the next day either.
END HISTORICAL INTERLUDE

The tour is going to come down to the individual time trial of Stage 19...which I don't have recorded. If Cadell Evans lays down a monster he can take a well-deserved yellow. If Contador holds him off, he's a well-deserved winner too. Leipheimer is an outside shot to jump by both of them.

Today's stage saw a rare successful breakaway (they're more likely to succeed after the mountains have tired the peloton out). At about 10 miles to go things got interesting when the boys in the breakaway started to attack, chopping the group from 8 to 4. But in the 4 was one stellar sprinter, Daniele Bennati. The other three tried to attack before the final sprint, but Bennati nailed them back each time and in the end, the bottom line was he was fastest. There was also a race out of the peloton for ninth place because of the points available to the green jersey competitors won by the best sprinter this year, Tom Boonen.

Stage 18 - Normalcy, whatever that means

Hooray! This one started with a highlights montage instead of an Al Trautwig monologue and Phil Liggett doesn't look like he spent the night sobbing. Much better. Paul Sherwin notes that sprinters have very rarely been implicated in PEDs and doping. Flat stage = sprinter stage = a stage for the good guys.

For the second time this Tour, a cyclist hit a dog. This time the incident was a bit more serious, as one rider who was in the breakaway had to drop back to the peloton due to his injuries. The dog, again, was fine. Amazingly though, Sandy Casar, the cyclist who actually hit the dog and tore his shorts to reveal an ever-growing bruise won the stage with a clever attack across the inside of a divided bend in the road. The three chasers actually caught him but never finished him off and the veteran, a familiar name even to me for several second place finishes, gets his first ever stage victory. As for the green jersey, Tom Boonen grabbed a close 5th place to seal the deal. Well done, Belgian Bullet.


Stage 20 - Conclusion (What did I miss?)

"A time trial for the ages has made this one of the closest Tours in history..." Trautwig in the opening montage. Whoa. Usually the green jersey is still up for grabs but the yellow jersey is sealed up. This time the 3 boys at the top are separated by only 31 seconds. Leipheimer won the time trial stage. Evans was faster than Contador but not by enough! The 24-year-old wore yellow this morning... is he still wearing it tonight?

First off, is Contador clean? Rasmussen had a steady, endless stream of energy. Contador climbed like we all climb on our bikes. Short burst standing up...recover...short burst...recover. His bursts were faster than everyone, but someone has to be fastest. Plus he's 24-years-old and he's got that metal plate in his head from surgery after a brain aneurism that you've got to think gives him a mental edge over pain just like Lance had (he read Lance's book while recovering). Both Contador and Leipheimer were set up by strong teammates. As for Evans, he rode defensively in the mountains, grinding out every second to stake his position on the podium. He emptied his tank every day, unlike, it seemed, Rasmussen. One of these guys won the Tour. I really hope they're all clean. I think they are. I'm cheering for them. What else can I do?

Even with the race so close, the last stage had the same mood as it traditionally does: relaxed and festive. The stage is very short, so 23 seconds is a lot of time. Still, there are a couple of time bonuses along the way at 2 different points, and the stage win gives a big time bonus. If Evans grabs all of those and a couple more seconds, he could do it. If he somehow sprints away from Contador, that might do it too. But there is a tradition that no one will battle for the win on stage 20. The war is over. Stage 20 is the triumphant march home.

23 seconds is longer than you think. Evans isn't just racing Contador. The big sprinters will be lining up for the win. Discovery will be surrounding Contador and guiding him past Evans. The speeds for the final laps around Paris are always very high, preventing breakaways. It's just not that realistic. That's why I'm sitting here watching Evans...do nothing.

In the end, Daniele Benatti won another stage. Contador wins the 2007 Tour de France.

So there you go. There's a lot of cynical thoughts out there about the tour that I haven't even begun to wade into. Honestly, I feel more cynical about the sports where PEDs would be helpful but few signs of them have cropped up (NFL). And despite the cheaters there remains a distinct difference between cycling and other sports. When you ride in the Tour, you spend hours suffering alongside your fellow competitors for 21 stages. You make friends and a few enemies. But there is a camaraderie in the peloton unlike any other sport. Vino and Rasmussen are out of that peleton. I'm not naive enough to think cyclists won't dope because of the camaraderie, but I do believe it is a significant deterrent that all other sports lack. That is, I believe in peer pressure. And I think peer pressure is a greater force in cycling than in other sports. Getting caught doping destroys your team and alienates you forever from your fellow cyclists.

Congratulations to Alberto Contador, Juan Maricio Soler, and Tom Boonen. (I think.)

Tour Favorite goes out with a bang

I just logged on to The Sports Sauna and discovered a link to Mom's the Word, a maternity clothing store, on the google ad bar above my last Notent Notables post. There are no words.

A few thoughts from the Tour as I sit down to watch today's TiVo'ed stage.

First off, Michael Rasmussen was cut from the Danish cycling team for being two days late in turning in his June diary that all cyclists now need to keep to account for their whereabouts at all times. This is ridiculous. We know its ridiculous because even the Tour de France says its an overreaction by the Danish cycling authority. It is not going to affect the current yellow jersey holder's status in the tour, but as it stands right now we won't see Rasmussen in the Beijing Olympics.

---

Yesterday's stage was fascinating. You can usually predict the way flat stages are going to play out: an early breakaway gets reeled in just in time for the sprinters to battle it out over the final kilometers. The top contenders and their teams are usually content to let the sprinters and their teams control the race. But yesterday I saw something I've never seen: Team Astana put the hammer down in the middle of the race, whipping up the pace for their Tour contender, poor old Alexandre Vinokourov. Vino crashed a week ago. He's got stitches in his knees and one of them might be septic. I'm not a doctor, but I don't like to hear the word "septic" to describe any part of the body.

But there was Vino, rolling along in the 10th fastest stage in the history of the event (measured in average speed), with his boys leading the way. The strategy, it seems, was to let the high winds of the day slice up the field. Normally of course, the peloton protects everyone from the wind. If the winds are heavy and hitting the the peloton from the side, you've got to make sure you stay in the peloton. When Astana whipped up the pace, gaps formed in the peloton and quickly stretched wide open. The one significant casualty of the move was the French rider, Christophe Moreau. He never caught back up to the front and dropped out of 6th place overall.

Most amazingly, with a few kilometers to go and the sprinters lining up for the finish, Vinokourov tried one last ditch effort and, his heavily wrapped knees pumping furiously, broke away from the pack. For a moment, it seemed like he might win the stage and get the small time bonus that comes with a victory. But just as quickly the peloton pulled him back and he was done. Alexandre Vinokourov will not win the Tour de France, but as Neil Young says, its better to burn out than to fade away.

A Few Notent Notables

• I finally read the comments to my All-Star game post and put up a response. If Justin and Chris and anyone else wants to continue the discussion, I'll add more. Here's the direct link. I stand by my broader list of All-Timers. Even if Ichiro doesn't make the HOF, he's someone I'll talk about for the rest of my life. But I do like Justin's unique classification of Manny Ramirez in the "Manny Ramirez" category. He's not quite on par with some of the other guys on that level, but you can't put him down a notch either. He's so quirky, we'll never forget him. He's the best RBI guy of the past decade. He's Manny Ramirez.
• I'm trying to cut back on the amount I post about PEDs, but I figured I should weigh in on the latest cyclist to test positive. First off, I've watched every single leg this year (with TiVo I can knock them off in an hour and a half) and many stages from the past three years and I've never heard of Patrik Sinkewitz. Second, I think his positive test is very overblown which is bad but also good. It's bad because it's getting the most coverage I've seen of the Tour on ESPN.com. It's good because one positive test is causing such a strong backlash from cyclists and media. I'm even more convinced that this is the cleanest Tour in 20 years. The punishments for doping are so severe and the damage to a riders reputation is so great, I believe most cyclists will decide its not worth it.
• What a great weekend for the Sports Sauna! The British Open, David Beckham in the MLS, and the Tour de France hits the Pyrenees. Alas, it's also going to be quite a busy weekend for me so I probably will only catch the Open live.
  

Don't Believe What You Read, Levi Leipheimer Won't Win

If you're not watching the Tour de France, but casually following it, you might be under the impression that Levi Leipheimer - American and leader of Team Discovery - is right in the mix for the race.

I think Versus is really hoping Levi will be competing for the yellow jersey. I think Levi believes he has a chance, as does Team Discovery. But I also think Team Discovery now knows they have a better chance with Alberto Contador, the brilliant 24-year-old who finished 4th to Levi's 7th in today's inconclusive yet illuminating day on the final stage of the Alps.

I don't even think Levi is the second best rider right now for Team Discovery. That title belongs with Yaroslav Popovich, the Ukrainian holdover from the Armstrong days. Popovich, still only 26, could probably be contending for the King of the Mountains competition if he wasn't pouring out his sweat for the greater cause of Team Discovery. Today, that meant getting an early breakaway going and staying out ahead so that when either Levi or Contador decided they felt strong and could attack, he would be there to spring them onward. I love Popovich, and you would too if you had seen the huge grin he wore as he dragged himself to the line in 13th place after leading or riding far ahead in 2nd for most of the race. He gave up his own chance at the stage to boost Contador's chance for the entire Tour.

But back to Levi, who is 33-years-old by the way. Granted, I've only watched him in action on the Tour de France and only for the past couple years. But I have never once seen him attack. I've only seen him defend. (By defend, I mean he'll react to a surge by another contender to not let them escape.) He doesn't seem to have the killer instinct of Lance Armstrong, or the heart that Floyd Landis showed last year, even if he was doping.

On Sunday, the French rider Christophe Moreau, another seasoned veteran at 37, showed tremendous heart by attacking repeatedly. He would have done major damage to several contenders, including Leipheimer, if the half dozen other contenders who stayed with him on the attacks had gotten organized and worked together up the final climb. That would have solidified the gap they had built up. But Moreau kept attacking and that little group never got organized. The commentator Phil Liggett said that it takes brains as well as heart to win the Tour de France.

Levi Leipheimer is the flip side of Christophe Moreau. Levi is all brains. He doesn't have the gusto to go for an attack. Perhaps he also doesn't have the legs. But Contador seems to have the heart and the legs.

If I'm Team Discovery, I set up Contador later this week when the Tour moves into the Pyrenees and let him attack, with support from Popovich and hopefully George Hincapie if the latter regains his missing form. They support Leipheimer too, but Leipheimer is the backup plan, shadowing the front pack that Contador will attack from.

One thing that could change that strategy is if Levi lays down a monster individual time trial on Saturday, the day before the Tour returns to the high mountains. He's an excellent Time Trialer, supposedly. But the Tour de France brings out the best in a lot of riders. I've seen nothing to believe Levi can take his game to another level.

"...the aerodynamic reality of the peloton..."

That's Phil Liggett, the veteran Tour commentator explaining why yesterday's breakaway didn't succeed. Fantastic! Phil's the best.

As usual, I'm watching today's stage on TiVo. (Don't tell me what happens!) They just previewed the last 1 km, and it looks like a deathtrap. Two quick 90 degree turns over horrendous cobblestones that could be icy slick if wet.

Today they interviewed Fred Rodriguez, a lesser American cyclist who crashed out of the Tour last year and was in the big crash yesterday. He was blaming the Tour organizers for not looking out for the safety of the riders. Yesterday's crash, as Phil Liggett pointed out, was caused by a rider's error, not by a bad road. But if the road was wider, it wouldn't have caught so many riders and plugged up the entire peloton.

Phil just mentioned that today, on the tour's longest stage, the average speed is significantly lower than they've seen on the tour in recent years. I actually believe the massive crackdown on doping heading into the Tour might have worked. If someone said this was the cleanest Tour in 20 years, I'd believe it. The message that the Tour has sent to riders: you get caught doping in this Tour, expect no mercy whatsoever.

Allow me to put on my "reckless blogger making unfounded accusations" hat on for a moment. What if the Tour is making these finishes a little more dangerous to grab the attention back of casual fans turned off by all the doping? It will be interesting to see if there are more crashes this year. Of course, even that proves nothing.

I want to repeat that: USA 2-1 Brazil

You beat Brazil in soccer, at any level, that's a huge statement. I'm thrilled that ESPN is covering the U-20s and showing a fair amount of highlights on SportsCenter. That's where I caught Adu's goals. My dad, a casual USA soccer fan, was talking about his spin-move goal for a couple days. And we managed to catch the stoppage team of the Brazil game. INTENSE. Go USA. My brother and I are lightly tossing around the idea of driving up to Toronto on Wednesday for the game, if there is any chance of getting tickets.

Anyway, the reason I signed on to post was to mention how tough cyclists are. I was just watching Stage 1 of Le Tour (Robbie McEwen is unbelievable) and caught a three man crash at the back of the peloton. Most of us have fallen off our bike. But the next time you're in a car going 25 to 35 MPH, think about what it'd feel like to jump out of the car onto pavement. Then think if you jumped out tangled up in a bicycle. Then imagine a couple other bikes and humans falling on top of you. Maybe you land on a curb or a metal crowd barrier. Sucks right? Well guess what. You still have to get right up onto your bike, catch up to the peloton and ride another 100 miles. Not to mention the fact that sitting on a bicycle for several hours is rather uncomfortable, though I think these pros get used to it.

Tour de France starting

I don't know about you (though I can probably guess), but I'm excited about the Tour de France starting. The vacuum at the top has left a wide open tour this year, especially where the yellow jersey is concerned.

Everyone's old favorite climber, Michael Rasumussen, is back. If he improved his sprinting a bit he could challenge for yellow. But I'll just be excited if he wins a mountain stage or two.

Team Discovery is loaded again, and you might recognize some names. Without having read anything, I'm not sure who their number 1 is. Maybe George Hincapie. But Yaroslav Popovych should be entering the prime of his career.

The one lock: Robbie McEwen for the Green Jersey for the sprint title. He's the Tiger Woods of sprinters, at least the past couple of years. He can just take it to another level and his timing is immaculate.

They're riding around my stomping grounds for the Prologue tomorrow in London. I'll be watching.

2203.4 miles to go...That's Seattle to Dallas.

cycling Stuff

Ivan Basso "widely acknowledged his responsibilities" in the Spanish cycling doping case and is cooperating with investigators, according to an AP report today. This is big. To put this in perspective, if Lance Armstrong is Barry Bonds, and Jan Ullrich is Mark McGwire, than Ivan Basso is Sammy Sosa.

Unlike Sosa, however, I've always liked Basso. Ullrich, on the other hand, was never that likable as his career wound down. He was icy with the press, and in his last few years on the Tour de France there were always one or two other guys on the T-Mobile team that seemed like they might challenge for the lead if Ullrich hadn't been standing in the way.

Basso was different. He was the one guy who went head to head with Lance and won a stage or two, which was nice, because Lance had everything under control anyway. I was pretty excited when Basso joined Team Discovery, even with all the doping allegations swirling. After all, everyone's doping in cycling.

And that's just it. If Basso was doping, that leaves three possibilities for Lance: A) He was doping better than Basso, B) He was doping the same as Basso, but he was a better cyclist. C) He wasn't doping. He was just that good. For the record, I'll begrudgingly admit that B is most likely, but I still think there is a chance that C is true, too. People really ARE out to get Lance, and nothing has really stuck on him for the long haul. The point is, chances are Lance really WAS that good.

Of course, that's no consolation to the (I'm totally, recklessly guessing) 10 or 20% of the riders who don't dope.

In the end, I like Basso for coming forward. He's the first big named cyclist to do it. Come to think of it, he might be the biggest name in sports to come clean. He's at least as big worldwide as Jose Canseco. I'm ready to forgive! Come on people! Admit it! You're on stuff! Go get 'em Ivan.