The Tour at the end of last summer was a pretty wild watch, full of ups & downs sometimes depending on who you were a fan of. But the drama (which really begun at the Giro, honestly) didn't stop in Paris. The leadup to the Olympic Games was scarred in a way most fans & spectators weren't really keen on, all due to the emergence of the CERA/EPO urine test during the tour.
But what we didn't find out till later was that even amidst the positive controls at the tour, there was still reason for hope in the doping daily news. Turns out there were a couple prominent folks who were, possibly even to their own amazement, still beating the urine screens day after day of (targeted!) testing.
Beijing passed with only a single positive for EPO (a spanish female cyclist) but all the while, in the cycling world the talk was of a newly developed bloodtest for CERA that could detect much smaller traces and would be applied to stored samples from the tour in over a dozen riders' cases where there had been suspicious results.
Contador and Leipheimer dominated the Vuelta while a cloud lingered over the entire CSC team & other rumored riders. Lance comeback rumors began circulating after his impressive 2nd in the
Leadville 100 MTB race. Promptly, he confirms the comeback news and the speculation about he and Contador battling for Astana team leadership may or may not contribute to dominating back-to-back mountaintop stage victories in the highest Spanish peaks for 'Bertie coinciding with the announcement
News breaks of more confirmed CERA positives from the Tour blood samples.. first it is Michael Schumacher who won both timetrials, and later in the same day the surprise accomplishments of moutainking Bernard Kohl are defiled. Left in the cold are the new teams who just signed them away from the defunct Gerolsteiner.. Quickstep drops Schumie like a brick and Silence-Lotto is forced to cancel their contract with Kohl, likely to the dismay of Evans (though they did get Dekker from Rabobank which should please him.) Finally Piepoli's guilt is confirmed as well, though this is an afterthought by this point. Ultimately the tests are concluded without incriminating anyone from CSC, although the words continue that values are suspicious and that a test for blood transfusions is on the immediate horizon.
We're now at the beginning of October, and WADA is screaming at the IOC about the EPO blood test and new cyclists found guilty, and so we get an announcement that the 500+ blood screens
(all athletes) from Beijing
are to be retroactively tested with the new technology. Far as I can tell, no word on that since..
So we've got Lance promising to spread the word about the risks and treatment options of cancer worldwide on his bike, part of a dominating team which as a result finds itself in complete turmoil Also, we get news that Vino wants to un-retire after serving his (1 year, hah) ban for blood doping at the 07 tour, and seems to think that the Astana folks owe him a roster spot.
So Lance at first responded to the Bertie victory in Spain by concluding that he'd, for the first time ever, ride the Giro as his primary target of the year while Contador could take back his pride in France. But that calm doesn't last long as the '09 Tour presentation made it very clear it will be a race designed for domination by a strong team. So now he and Johan are doing press moments emphasizing that French officials need to show respect to Lance before he will feel comfortable riding there again, but seemingly hinting that the golden boy is having difficulty imagining himself skipping Paris.
About the route? The team time trial is going to be back this year.. it is only around 40km but they have removed the limitations on time gains that kept it from being such a watershed stage in the last few years it was included. The prologue is back this year too, but is a 15km affair with a dragging uphill grade the whole way that will draw out much more than just a few seconds between the leaders.
The mountain stages are fairly tame with no back to back killers and only 3 true summit finishes. They have also rotated the final time trial earlier into the last week, before the Alps, so instead of being the final deciding factor, the specialists will have to take time and then try to hang on through the mountains. The most interesting result of this is that we get to see a Mt. Ventoux summit finish on the day before Paris. Given the lack of ITT miles and general softness of the climbing schedule, we should see a really tight race all the way & it should all still be up for grabs at that point. The only real question is just how the Astana politics will pan out, as they will almost certainly dominate the team TT and as a result, ultimately control the entire tour.
Other team shakeups? Sastre leaves CSC to head up the new Cervelo Test Team along with names like Hushovd and Simon Gerrans. CSC is left with the Schlecks but also re-sign Cancellara through 2010. Frank is embroiled in controversy over a E7000 payment he dropped on Fuentes a few years back, but ultimately the Luxembourg federation seems uninterested in going after him. As mentioned earlier, Silence signed Thomas Dekker away from Rabo & also Kohl to shore up their line of up&coming talent and to support Cadel, but now Kohl is gone and though he recently denied it, there are still rumors of Popovych leaving the sport. Basso is back with Liquigas though they've said he won't start the 09 Tour, but more likely go to Italy.
The reaction to Lance is pretty volatile across the board, but the road will be interesting to watch next year as the fallout from this one settles & the sport tries again to claim itself fresh and anew. If anything, around here I'm mostly just hoping it means we get to see the Giro on TV
More as it comes...
Cheers.
