Wannabe Bike Girl

Before I head off to work, there’s a thread over at Podium Cafe that what appears to be the main reason why this is all happening now as well as what might result.

In the immediate sense that is… because Spanish investigators took their results to Cycling’s governors to preserve the integrity of the Tour.

I think that, as I said in a comment, the Tour can either become a joke or be the best thing. The ASO’s behavior makes me think it’ll be a joke — but I hope I’m wrong.

On the eve of what was supposed to kick of the next generation of grand tours, the new era without Armstrong, the world of cycling is left in shambles. I believe that the ASO has made a huge mistake, even if it comes out that Ullrich and Basso are doping. I don’t know about Basso, but I like to think he’s clean. But Ullrich? To me that’s a joke. If he was doping, he should have been able to beat Armstrong. That sounds kind of flippant, but think about it. We know Ullrich’s talented (he’s even won the tour once) and one of the things that doping does is enhance what the cyclist already has (at least, that’s my impression of it) and therefore, Ullrich should have, under the influence of whatever dope he’s supposed to be using, kick the ass of the other cyclists. Of course, there are those that argue that Armstrong was doping. And that would imply that Ullrich just isn’t strong enough to beat Armstrong, but I don’t buy Armstrong doping because he’s been tested so many times that it’d be impossible (it’s hard to know if he did in the past, but I have no idea).

This guilty until the court finds you guilty thing is starting to piss me off. I suppose, though, that this is the way with sports. We hold our athletes to a high standard and then are surprised and shocked when they can’t actually live up to the standard. David Millar talked about how the pressure was so great, and I imagine that a lot of the less-well known (to those who don’t follow cycling regularly — I recognize all the cyclists, except for those on Comunidad Valenciana) will use the excuse (no matter how valid) that the pressure was just too strong and there was no way they’re perform without it. Who knows? Definitely not me. And honestly, I don’t think we’ll ever know. Some cyclists dope, some don’t (theoretically).

I am just grateful that none of my favorites (none on Astana-Wurth or any other team — and believe me I checked and double-checked) have been named yet. I don’t know what will happen, but I know that the ASO is going to regret what they’re doing.

More (confusing) information at cyclingnews.

The other confusing thing is that who knows if Vino and Astana-Wurth will be racing. The ASO is rejecting the CAS (because the ASO are petulant children who don’t know when to take their hand out of the candy bowl and want everything their way or they’ll throw a fit — which they’re doing now) ruling. I’d like to think they’d at least allow the one favorite who hasn’t been accused of anything.

Someone said this is worse than Festina, I have no idea because I wasn’t watching cycling when it happened. But I hope that isn’t now, or in many ways if Vino (or whoever) wins, it’ll be like Pantani and that’s not necessarily a good thing. I hope the ASO takes their heads out of the sad and starts the tour the way it should. Oh, and T-Mobile suspending Jan Ullrich? Pretty damn stupid. I’ll eat my words, of course, if they prove he doped. But for now I’m not buying it.

he Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected a bid by Tour de France organizers Thursday to exclude the Astana-Wurth team from this year’s race because of doping allegations.

“Despite the number of troubling elements brought out by the media in Spain concerning the team, no official information concerning this inquiry has been revealed by the Spanish authorities,” CAS said in its ruling.

While the allegations definitely upset me, as Astana-Wurth is my favorite team (although I think the links still go to the now-defunct Liberty Seguros-Wurth site), I’m happy that the ASO didn’t get their way. After all, Vino and much of his team haven’t been implicated (yet — though who even knows these days) and they shouldn’t have been asked not to race. The ASO is using the crap reason of protecting the image of the tour, but I’ve got to say that I don’t buy it. After all, French newspapers (tied directly and indirectly to the Tour itself) have been making allegations about Armstrong for months now.

And of course, the ASO is allowing David Millar to race again and they made no such demands of Richard Virenque when he had obviously been doping. So why start now? They’re just, in my opinion, doing more damage by asking Astana-Wurth to leave. I’m glad that CAS ruled in favor of the team. And hopefully Vino will make ASO feel guilty for even considering leaving him out of the tour.

The other “top story” of the tour is that Basso and Ullrich face expulsion. Which, again, I think is crap. I don’t doubt that the tour would think about it, but I don’t think they really will. They’ll have a lot more negative publicity if the kick both of them out, especially Basso because he’s the one most people want to do the double this year. I’m torn, because I love being witness to history, but I’d rather Vino win. I think, even if it should come out that Basso and Ullrich (among others) did actually dope, the more immediate negative effects would be worse if they were excluded.

But, what do I know, right? I’m naive enough to believe that not all riders dope. Sure, some of them do, but I don’t like to think that they all do. Although, time and again, I’ve been told otherwise. I like to remain optimistic, maybe that’s a fault, but I don’t know. None of my boys have been singled out yet — although the Astana-Wurth thing comes awfully close.

I guess we’ll just have to wait until Saturday to see what happens. But, at least Astana-Wurth is racing. And, to me, that’s what’s important.

I’ve spent most of the past week (plus two days) watching the World Cup. My mornings (when I’m not working) are spent watching whatever the first match of the day is (right now it’s Japan and Croatia) and cycling (Tour de Suisse and Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré most recently). If I’m lucky, the cycling finishes after the football match has ended. Depending on who is playing, I’ll pay more attention to the football than the cycling and sometimes the other way around.

Yesterday, though, everything turned out well. Portugal played Iran and I didn’t care that much about the match, so it was just on in the background. I did get to see Cristiano Ronaldo score on a beautiful penalty kick. But what was more exciting for me is the fact that yesterday Alberto Contador made a break off the front of the peloton and managed to stay away (and beat Cadel Evans) and win the 8th stage of the Tour de Suisse. The fact that I was able to see this live was just amazing and a lot of fun.

Not only was it good for me, as a fan of Wünrth, but I’m also a huge fan of Contador, so it was really nice to watch him win.

Spanish team Comunidad Valenciana will not compete in the 2006 Tour de France after organisers withdrew their invite.

This is part of the response. The rest of the article goes into a bit more detail. And, in case you were wondering (like I was) what the implications were for Astana-Wurth (the team formerly know as Liberty Seguros), the Tour is waiting on the UCI. Once the UCI rules, we’ll find out if Vino will be screwed or moving to a new team. In the meantime, we also wait to find out what team will replace Comunidad Valenciana. I’m hoping it’ll be Unibet.

MONTREAL – World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound said Friday that a Dutch investigator’s report clearing Lance Armstrong from doping allegations made by a French newspaper is full of holes.

“They put as fact things that are suppositions, suspicions and possibilities,” Pound said.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Friday threatened legal action as it blasted the UCI-commissioned report which cleared Lance Armstrong of EPO use on the 1999 Tour de France. The report submitted by Dutch lawyer Emile Vrijman this week rejected the findings published in L’Équipe in August 2005.

Just days after Armstrong seemed to have been cleared of all doping charges, WADA sings a different tune. Perhaps they share the same view as L’Équipe does, but who knows. Either way, it looks like cycling is again having trouble with WADA. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) – Cycling’s governing body renewed its feud with WADA on Saturday over Lance Armstrong’s 1999 Tour de France samples.