Viva La Tour

If you have have not been watching the tour this year then you have missed one hell of a race! This has been one of the most exciting and interesting tours that I can remember. Even if you are jaded about the doping allegations in this year's tour it is hard to not enjoy the event for what it is...the greatest bike race in the world. The race is so close at this point it is difficult for anyone to predict who is going to be the clear winner. (For the record my money is on Cadel Evans)and that is the key factor in why the race is so exciting every time I tune in. Who knows what today's stage is going to bring?

If you have been watching the tour over several years then you might have noticed some marked changes in the way the race is being ridden. In the Armstrong years the field seemed much less matched. The Peleton would often breakup, especially in the mountain stages, and there were always a two to three really strong riders (Armstrong, Ulrich, and Basso for example) who would completely dominate. But this year a quick look at the time gaps shows that there are a lot of riders in contention for the overall GC and it will be interesting to look at the final average speed of the Tour and compare that number to previous years. I am going to go out on a limb here and predict that it will be less.

If you take these factors into consideration then it points to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the doping control is starting to become effective. Maybe we are seeing more contenders in the Peleton because it is becoming more of a level playing field since fewer riders are doping. Could this be the case? I hope so. Not taking anything away from the specialists in the race like sprinters or climbers but for the most part all of the pro riders are excellent athletes in top physical form and it seems to me that at this level there should be less time separating more riders than having on a few select "heads of state" dominating in the overall GC. Even the slowest rider in this most elite of the cycling events is several orders of magnitude stronger than the average club rider or Cat 4-5 racer. They all train in very similar manners and each team is run pretty much the same way so it does not really make sense that only a few riders would dominate the event (excluding the amazing Eddie Merxckx-who openly admits to taking amphetamines by the way) This is a very encouraging observation for the sport of cycling and might be the first indicator that things are finally moving in the right direction.