Speaking of which, this year's Tour de France will be interesting. The route (though old news) includes a first-time-ever mountain finish the day before the final stage. Stage 20 will finish atop Mont Ventoux...a stage Lance has never won, let alone coming at the very end of the Tour and after a 3-year retirement!
Also, the team time trail is back! This action-packed display of just how fast a team of professional cyclists working together can go is not to be missed.
Overall, it will be a tension-filled, nail-biting season. With Astana boasting FOUR top contenders for the Tour (Contador, Levi the Wheelsucker, Kloden, and Armstrong), the contention for team leader will be ferocious. Not to mention Garmin-Chipotle making the rounds abroad, Hincapie not riding in support of Lance since he's on Team Columbia...should be fun.Doping controls will no doubt be so tight the riders will be dehydrated from constant urine-sample donations, and low on blood from hourly blood samples. I will not be surprised to see riders peeing into cups and having blood taken while actually riding! And no doubt there will be some who fail the test. Some legitimately cheating, others just the victim of crappy French laboratories and loose-lipped bastards. Yeah, I don't like how rider's rights are routinely violated. "Joe X failed his A sample test. Sure I'm not supposed to tell you until he also fails the B sample test and the rider and team has been notified...but I'm French! I'll do what I want! Rider careers be damned, I am an important Frenchman! Bow down to me!!!!"
Uh...ok...I'm not bitter. Hopefully the governing bodies in question (you know who you are, and you also know who you are) will be better behaved this year. It will certainly be a first. I especially enjoy this quote, from Dick Pound, speaking of Floyd Landis' failed test in the 2006 Tour de France: "Pound declared 'I mean, it was 11 to 1!' referring to the testosterone-to-epitestosterone level. 'You’d think he’d be violating every virgin within 100 miles. How does he even get on his bicycle?'[13]" Now there, ladies and gentlemen, is a man of refinement, sophistication, and sensitivity.I know I will be glued to the TV/computer for the 2009 Tour Down Under. How about you?
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