Tour de France Wrap Up
July 30th, 2007 |I love watching the Tour on the teevee. The attacks, the sprints, the mountains, the doping scandals. I love the whole thing from start to finish. Now I am totally depressed that it’s over. So let’s relive the good times and look back at the race this year.
1st GC Alberto Contador: Quite young to win the Tour. Is he connected to Operación Puerto or not? He was kept out of the 2006 Tour since he was a member of the scandal ridden Liberty Seguros team. After being cleared of all charges he was picked up by the Discovery Team and here we are. But his record setting climb up the Plateau-de-Beille along side Michael Rasmussen on stage 14 has led some to speculate that he may not be so squeaky clean after all. I guess we will wait a few weeks and see if his victory is secure.
2nd GC Cadal Evans: Second in both time trials and up there every day in the mountains, Evans has to be happy with his race this year. It appears that both Evans and…
3rd GC Levi Leipheimer: …have adopted the same tactic of limiting their losses to the pure mountain goats on the uphill finishes while trying to put them away in the time trials. It does not make for the most exciting racing but the fact that the podium spots were only separated by 31 seconds proves that this tactic has some value. One or two longer time trials and one of these guys could have the race in the bag.
Good rides: Carlos Sastre, Haimar Zubeldia, Michael Boogerd, Chris Horner
Not so good: Alejandro Valverde, Iban Mayo, Frank Schleck, Thomas Dekker, Christophe Moreau
Green Points Jersey Tom Boonen: He hauled himself over the mountains, he won a couple of stages, he won the green jersey. Ho hum. I don’t know, I guess I was looking for BooBoo to be a bit more dominant in the sprints but, for the second year running, he and his Quick-Step team did not appear to be 100% on the rails.
Mountain Jersey Mauricio Soler: A real stand out this year. By no means indestructible, he showed some moments of weakness on the climbs, but Soler put together a real impressive string of rides in the mountains and was a deserving winner of the mountain prize. I guess we will see if he is a one race wonder or if he will be able to repeat his success.
Scandals: Look at the riders that were involved. Vinokourov, pro since 1998. Moreni, pro since 1998. Rasmussen, pro since 1995. These guys came into professional cycling during the time when doping, especially the use of EPO, was rampant. The fact that they were either caught or, in the case of Rasmussen, simply dealt with by their team is a positive sign as far as I am concerned. As Tom Boonen stated:
The guys who cheat have to get out, that’s easy. The controls are getting better and that’s why they get caught. Now they [Tour organizers and UCI] know where and what to look for. It would be more worrying if they have no positive cases.
There are always going to be cheaters in professional sports, there is never going to be 100% completely clean cycling. But the hope is that the “old guard” of riders who used performance enhancing drugs during the mid and late 1990’s is being replaced by a younger generation who realize that the tests are indeed getting better and who want to improve cycling’s overall image. It is tempting to give up on cycling when the last two Tours have been so rife with controversy, but I really do see it as a positive sign for the sport.
20 Responses to “Tour de France Wrap Up”
I don’t think there’s an “old guard” or a “new guard” vis-a-vis doping. It’s part of the culture of the sport, and once a neo-pro signs that contract, he’s a part of the culture too, feeling the same pressures the older riders are feeling.
Want to have some real fun? Look through all of Lance’s podium pictures from ‘99-’05 and count all of the riders on the podium with him who have been popped or heavily implicated. It’s amazing…how he never got full-on popped himself (and, of course, how Al Trautwig continues to believe that a clean riders beat all of those big, bad dopers year after year…).
“I guess I was looking for BooBoo to be a bit more dominant in the sprints”
Oh good. For a while there I thought you were serious when you were saying that The Booner would never win another Tour stage.
I agree with Smithers, I really enjoyed this years tour. I thought the racing was interesting (as much as it can be, come on it’s bike racing) I thought the versus coverage was better than ever (despite Al Troutpig, I’m learning to tune him out). And the drama of the doping, dog hitting, crashing, is like my kind of soap opera. What am I going to watch tonight to put me too sleep???
3 stage wins, with two for Boonen and the Green that is not a good performance? The leadout train of Quickstep was the best part of the last week of the tour. Shit buddy what would constitute a good performance for QS and Boonen?
Shit buddy what would constitute a good performance for QS and Boonen?
Probably just being on another brand of bike would do it.
I’m not bitter though.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,2204 9,22163308-5001023,00.html
Contador’s being accused of doping. Apparently, his name was listed among the Puerto docs. No new evidence.
But his record setting climb up the Plateau-de-Beille along side Michael Rasmussen on stage 14 has led some to speculate that he may not be so squeaky clean after all
So — have we passed the point in the sport that from now on any good performance will be questioned?
I’m not saying that given the climate today that the speculation is not warranted… but let’s say the sport was hypothetically cleaned up. Going forward — does it mean that that anytime someone has a great day, breaks a record, or has a stage or race that is memorable that it will immediately be assumed that they guy is a cheat?
Sounds like the perfect tour will be a real snoozer because no one will want to do too good for fear of being labeled a cheat. I realize they are a ways away from cleaning up the sport but it sounds like if/when they get there - it could be pretty boring.
Well, those QuickStep guys are pretty good at winning those *specialized* world championships.
I’ll echo Tuffy’s sentiments… or cynicism… take your pick. If the new controls aren’t just singling out riders at random to make examples of them, and really are a shade better at catching cheats than the Keystone Kops, then it’s just a matter of time until the dopers get better at it.
Despite the scandals, I think this year’s tour was great, especially in the mountains. The if-not-always perfect riding of Soler and Contador was great, and I loved how Astana, even if they did not finish, rode with a lot of pain and flashes of anger.
Quickstep’s “leadout train” in the last week of the tour?
Do you mean the one that let breakaways win? (ala stages won by Bennati and Casar)
I would disagree with the perceived “strength” of the Q.S train in the final week. I realize, at that point, it’s a lot of effort to bring those stages down to bunch sprints, for the win - but if they were strong, they would have done it. A fair number of those lower-placings sprints looked fairly chaotic and it didn’t seem like Boom Boom and the Flemish TGV, et al, were really “killing” anyone. (particularly with big names like McEwen and Freire out of the mix, along with Hushovd continuing to be off-form).
Letting Bennati go, in particular, was a real questionable manuever.
I’m pretty convinced that Q.S and a lot of the other sprinter teams fried themselves in that frenetic first week. A lot of the stages ended in genuine breakaways (add Vasseur’s win to that list).
Boonen did good, albeit against a field of rediuced sprint competition, but there was quite a bit of room for improvement.
does it mean that that anytime someone has a great day, breaks a record, or has a stage or race that is memorable that it will immediately be assumed that they guy is a cheat?
No, but if said rider breaks a record that has been held by one who is a known cheater, what might that tell you?
Sounds like the perfect tour will be a real snoozer because no one will want to do too good for fear of being labeled a cheat.
Kloden has already said as much. I doubt this would actually ever be a problem however. I am convinced that clean riders have nothing to worry about. The testing works. Just don’t fail, or miss, the test.
Probably just being on another brand of bike would do it.
I thought they were on another brand of bike.
Think Miracle-Whip could come out with some Mayo with extra EPO?
http://eurosport.yahoo.com/30072007/58/tour-de-fra nce-mayo-positive-epo.html
why does no one mention the pink elelphant in the room?
soler looks like the spittin’ image of a certian local cycling celeb.
(gotta beat kruse in comment war).
soler looks like the spittin’ image of a certian local cycling celeb.
Super Rookie?
Vino’s B sample has come back “non-negative” and he’s been fired. And Mayo’s now been caught positive for EPO.
Sigh.
soler looks like the spittin’ image of a certain local cycling celeb.
Super Rookie?
i said celeb, not wanker.
guess again.
but, it’s pretty freekin obvious.
Donimator?
Soler = Deweth Dicketh?
scotterob is GENIUS!
dewey dicketh is soler
smithers, give the man a prize or something.