Doping and My Picks

Cycling’s not dead, but it’s on life support. Which is a shame, we should be entering a golden age with loads of competitive cyclists all vying for the top spot. Instead, this is the doping era in which every rider is suspect, and every race comes with the caveat of who wasn’t racing.

I’m past the point of outrage. In fact, I think we’re at the point where the cure is worse than the disease. Do I think blood doping is a good thing? No. But I don’t understand why certain performance enhancers are legal and some aren’t. Hell, I don’t know what’s a nutritional supplement and what is a steroid is anymore. I don’t think anyone does.

I think we should just have disclosure. I honestly don’t care who is doing what in any sport. Like I said, I’m past outrage. And I don’t think we can ever expect “clean” sports particularly when the line of what is legal and what is illegal is so murky. Let’s put it like this, the big scandal is over EPO, which is a naturally occurring chemical in the human body. Why should I care if cyclists artificially increase their EPO? Does anyone think they could inject some chemicals and then ride the Tour?

OK, that was depressing. On to my picks:

Yellow
1. Vinokourov
2. Sastre
3. Evans
4. Leipheimer
5. Kloden

I’d like to be cute and throw some dark horse on that list, but who? Jason has Moreau which is a sign of the Apocalypse since we both hate Moreau and spend a good portion of our time mocking him. Who’s left? Menchov? Fochen? Rogers? Those guy tap out as podium contenders. Which is not bad, but its hard to say one guy is going to step up out of nowhere.

Green
1. Boonen
2. McEwen
3. Eisel

I’m just picking Boonen to be different. McEwen has to run out of gas eventually. I like Thor, but people are wising up to the intermediary sprints where he makes his living. And someone has to crack this group eventually.

Dots
1. Rasmussen
2. Moreau
3. Kloden

Rasmussen in a walk. Again. Kloden gets a lot of points doing the heavy lifting for Vino.