Thursday, July 26

Le Tour Hit With ANOTHER Scandal

Hopefully the summer is going well for everyone. I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with work. Hopefully then I will be able to get back to blogging more often. But right now I don't have a lot of nice things to say about Republicans and Democrats. And my Mom told me if I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. So I will turn sports.

Talk about not going well. Well it certainly isn't for the Tour de France. Since Lance Armstrong started winning the Tour, I really got into the Tour. I start my mornings with the Tour during it's three week journey. But it is getting more difficult to enjoy what I am seeing. The latest scandal, and possibly the biggest yet, Tour leader Michael Rasmussen has been sent home by his team. The reason?

(CBS/AP) "Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating (the team's) internal rules," Rabobank spokesman Jacob Bergsma told The Associated Press by phone.

The expulsion, which Bergsma said was ordered by the Dutch team's sponsor, was linked to "incorrect" information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director over his whereabouts last month. Rasmussen missed random drug tests on May 8 and June 28.
This on the heels of his stage win on Wednesday which essentially locked up the Tour for him. Rasmussen's exit is just a day after fan favorite Alexandre "Vino" Vinokourov and his team were sent home after Vino apparently had an illegal blood transfusion prior to winning the time trial. The real shame of this is that this Tour has been one of the most exciting I have seen yet.

If there is a silver lining here, it is that Team Discovery Channel(formerly Team U.S. Postal) now has 1st(Alberto Contador) and 3rd place(Levi Leipheimer) in the GC standings. And they have pretty much locked up the team competition. In the way of Team Discovery Channel's eighth GC win in nine years is Team Predictor-Lotto's Cadel Evans. With the mountains now gone, the last time trial, which is a strong suit for Evans, could be the last fight for the Maillot jaune.

Hopefully this will be the last negative to come out of the Tour this year. With the questions still out there about Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis, and the happenings of the last two days, this sport is hanging on by a thread.