VeloNews is the leading road cycling periodical in North America. Here are a few of the things VeloNews is reporting:
"Rasmussen appears to be in prime position to claim what might turn out to be a suspicion-laden Tour victory . . .", and
"Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme said Saturday that organizers could have refused to allow Michael Rasmussen to compete in this year's race if they had known that he had missed several random doping tests in the past two years.", and
Another headline says that David Millar has said that Rasmussen has ruined the Tour. Millar was quoted in L'Equipe as saying: "It is unacceptable that Rasmussen did not manage to give notice of his whereabouts. It is understandable he had problems communicating his address from Mexico, but it is up to him to make sure his federation receives notification.
"He started the race knowing what would happen but did nothing to rectify the situation and now we are all screwed, and the Tour is in the shit. He took no notice of warnings from the UCI (cycling's world governing body) though he deserved to be punished.
"He has either been unprofessional or has used the system."
And this one: Pressure building on Rasmussen . . . on and off the bike. Good stuff in there about the Dutch journalists shouting down an effort to broadcast a videotaped message. Rabobank is, of course, a Dutch team. An "increasingly antagonistic media" indeed. Somehow, in spite of all this, Phil, Paul and Bobke continue to mindlessly cheerlead as though there were no controversy.
In today's stage Rasmussen once again displayed no signs of the fatigue that is present in all of the pre-race favorites. One can only hope that somehow, someway, justice will be served at the Col d'Aubisque.
As for me, it was 84 with a dew point of 70 when I got home. In addition there was an early in the day Air Quality advisory, the usual avoid strenuous exercise advice. In addition, thunderstorms which appeared likely most of the day seemed on the verge of breaking out at last. I had a very nice ride. At 19 miles the sun broke through and I got this nice picture of golfing.
The picture is significant not because of the golf, that person visible just behind the flag hit the ball which is about to go off the green and the photo there on the right. Bad shot. No the photo is significant because that hill that the golfers just came down is the local sliding hill. The time I remember the best was Wireless and Julie and Laura but I am pretty sure we were also there once with Sarah Crosby.I am not too sure about this other one but I really liked the orange flowers.
I had stopped to get a picture of the sliding hill. These bushes line the fence right at that point of the golf course. I don't think it came out very well, but you get the idea I am sure: orange flowers.
2 comments:
It's amazing that even when there is drought the Even when there is a major drought the golf courses always look really lush. Nice greenery.
The Tour is still pretty good competition, even though you can't tell if the playing fields are even. Vino has been unlucky. A rest day tomorrow and a chance for Rasmussen to 'splain himself.
Tuesday is Kagami Sensei day in 2 states and the District of Columbia.
Nice fleurs. You don't see orange ones all that often, though there are some nice tiger lilies around. I like the orange jerseys on team Euskadi, or however you spell that. I am off to Traverse. I will likely miss two days of the tour. Don't care. Ras compared himself to Lance in a Velo News interview. The mighty always are the target of the envious and all that crap. Will international bike racing survive this debacle? Probably. But will anyone care? Nope. SS
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