jaunthie | Well, crap

fisherbear and I enjoy watching the Tour de France every year, and this year has been no exception, although we (like cycling fans everywhere) have been dismayed at the rampant drug-use and blood-doping problems in the sport. Landis and his (admittedly questionable) positive test last year was bad enough; his rides were fabulous, his stage 17 attack epic, and to learn that all that might have been the result of doping...very disappointing. But this year...

the rider currently in the yellow jersey (Michael Rassmussen) is up to his ears in controversy for missed random tests pre-race (two misses each from his own federation and the international federation; three missed tests from either is an automatic DQ) and an unproven assertion from a former rider that he was involved in blood-product smuggling;

a rider from T-Mobile (Patrik Sinkewitz) - a team that is desperately trying to clean up its act after many problematic years, a team that has been held up as a model for other teams because of its new, stringent internal testing - had an initial positive for testosterone on his A sample, resulting not only in his suspension, but T-Mobile threatening to withdraw their sponsorship (they'll decide Saturday);

one of the Tour's biggest names (Alexandre Vinokourov) just got test results with a positive A sample for illegal blood transfusion, resulting in not only his immediate suspension, but "invitation to withdraw from the Tour" for his entire team, including the #5 GC contender, Andreas Kloden.

The Tour will go on, say the organizers - but even they must be feeling pretty blue. It's really sad, particularly for those riders and teams (hopefully the majority) who don't cheat, and who are working hard to clean up their sport. You can't clean up a mess without initially making it worse, but this is really messy.

And my baseball team is sucking wind.

Oh well. Maybe my copy of HP7 will arrive today, and I'll have something else to read while the rest of the stages play out in the background.