Mucho apologies to any of you who logged in last week only to discover that my vacation prevented a Friday update last week. There are a ton of stories to update, but I'll commit to trying to update a few things over the next week as I will have daily blogs next week as the Tour winds down.
But since I was in Southern France last week watching the Tour de France, i figured that would be a good place to start. The 95th Tour de France is spinning along, and similar to previous years, is noteworthy only for the doping stories. Since 1996, the year that Bjarne Riis "won" the Tour (only to be later stricken from record books when he confessed to taking EPO from 93-98) although the riders who finished 2nd and 3rd that year were alleged/confessed dopers Jan Ullrich and Richard Virenque. So there is no official winner that year. Then came the Lance Armstrong years, with all the allegations and suspensions that came with them. In the past couple of years, the "big" names all seem to get involved in doping scandals, with Top-5 guys like Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Iban Mayo, Alex Vinokourov, and Michael Rasmussen all being banned or dismissed from the Tour. Still, the 2008 Tour promised better testing, and several teams have undertaken their own in-house drug testing.
However, the cyclists don't seem to be getting the message. This year, another one of Lance Armstrong's former lieutenants on the Blue Train of USPS/Discovery Manuel Beltran (now with Liquigas) tested positive for EPO. This was noteworthy because it adds to the list of former Armstrong teammates who have now tested positive. The list also includes Frankie Andreu, Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, and Roberto Heras. Then a second Spanish rider tested positive for EPO.
Then on Thursday the biggest name yet when Riccardo "The Cobra" Ricco tested positive for EPO as well. The 24-year old Ricco was one of the biggest stars this year, with 2 mountain stage wins and lots of good quotes about how he dreamed about winning the stage at Alpe D'Huez (next week). His dismissal was followed up by his team, Saunier-Duval, pulling the entire team out of the Tour. Today, the team fired both Ricco AND Stage 10 winner Leonardo Piepoli for "ethical reasons" and the sponsor decided to pull out of future cycling sponsorships. Whoops. So a team that won that won 3 of the first 10 stages of the tour, had both the polka-dot and white jerseys at some point this month is now in shambles...so sad.
That's not to say the Tour is in any more trouble than in the past. Cheating has been an issue since way back in 1904, when the 1903 (1st year) champion was found guilty of hitching a ride on a train during one of the stages. The event has seen the faces come and go, but the grandeur of the peloton and the epic climbs and stages will always overcome the scandals which seem to come every year in July. The people of France come out to support the event, and not just a particular racer or team. Every day brings a new hero or winner, and that will allow this event to prosper for years to come.
By the way, Cadel Evans continues to lead this years Tour by one second over Frank Schleck. American Christian Vande Velde is third (38 seconds)with pre-race faves Denis Menchov (57 seconds) and Carlos Sastre (88 seconds) still in the running. Lots more on the Tour next week...enjoy the Alps this weekend guys!
Another cycling story from France. Last week Jeannie Longo qualified for her 7th Olympics in Cycling. She is a 49-year old 12-time world champion who is still a podium contender in both the time trial and road race disciplines. 7 Olympics takes her back to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Crazy...
Over to the Canucks...this week we found out that Perdita Felicien is officially out for the Olympics. Despite missing the Canadian Olympic Trials, Perdita was given a couple extra weeks to prove her fitness. But the broken bone in her left foot still hasn't recovered. So she is now aiming for the 2009 Worlds and the 2012 Olympics. Too bad for Canada since that eliminates one of our best medal hopes. The womens 110m hurdles still has Angela Whyte and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep as contenders.
The Canadian Track team is almost complete. 29 athletes qualified at Nationals - including medal hopes Tyler Christopher (400m)and Gary Reed (800m). A few other athletes can still qualify if they attain qualifying standards by July 22nd. So hopefully we can increase our numbers by a few...however, the high standards did mean that only one longer-distance runner (Edmonton's Megan Metcalfe in the 5000m) qualified. Edmonton actually is very well represented, with Tyler Christopher, Angela Whyte, Brian Barnett (200m), and Tim Barrett (Race Walking) joining Metcalfe as Olympians calling Edmonton home.
Last Olympic story for today. The Blade Runner, Oscar Pistorius, is officially out for the Olympics. He won his court battle to be allowed to compete, but missed the qualifying standard of 45.55 seconds (400m) by 0.7 seconds. He still hoped to make the South African team in the 4X400m relay, but today they picked the 4 athletes to make up their team, all of whom have faster times than Oscar. So he will go to Beijing for the Paralympics in September, where it is expected he will dominate in the sprint events.
This weekend also includes Ironman Lake Placid, where Desiree Ficker will attempt to get her season back on track. Last weekend included LifeTime Fitness Triathlon, where Simon Whitfield won his biggest race this year (and $60,000!) by outrunning Andy Potts by 3 seconds. He also set a course record which speaks highly of his training going into Beijing. Fellow Canadians Brent McMahon and Paul Tichelaar also picked up pay cheques for finishing 6th and 7th. Emma Snowsill easily won the womens race by 2.5 minutes and also won $60,000.
Ok, see you on Monday...
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