[furball]

It's cynics-central here, I see. Hopefully when Kargool and Keizari re-read their posts they'll be rightly ashamed, but hey ho.



I'm crushed by Rasmussen being chucked off the Tour. Vinokourov being chucked out I can cope with (**** Astana), and I even gritted my teeth when Corfidis (including Bradley Wiggins) left the Tour for a peon testing positive.

But Rasmussen, despite the controversy over him missing drugs tests, never tested positive. As an outsider I looked at what riders were subject to - expected to provide details of their whereabouts 365 days a year, 3 months in advance - and accepted that some people will **** up.

I watched the last 50km of Stage 16 with my heart in my mouth - one of the best stages of the entire Tour. Rasmussen's kick to win, pulling away from Leipheimer and Contador, was superb but not beyond the realms of belief like Vinokourov's victories were.


And now that's gone. It doesn't really matter who wins the Tour this year - I think Cadel Evans will have a good enough timetrial to overtake Contador, but who cares. Rasmussen had been holding the yellow jersey since Stage 8 - more than half the Tour - and without much competitive racing to come (aside from the timetrial) I just can't get that worked up about it.


I've really got into the Tour this year after having spent a long time dismissing it as being doping central. It's a great sport, but it's being ruined. Hopefully in a decade's time we'll look back on these Tours as dark days for the sport, but I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel just yet.