TDF - It Was Too Good to be True

Yesterday, I posted about Alexandre Vinokourov's amazing wins in Saturday's time trial and on Monday's stage from Foix to Loudenvielle.

Today, the news comes that Vino has tested positive for homologous blood transfusion after Saturday's time trial. He was immediately dismissed by his team and his entire team has dropped out of the Tour.

At this point, I can't help but think that this is going to ultimately affect many of the other teams' sponsorship, media coverage of the race and many other things. I had hoped that we could make it through this year without any huge scandals.

One man is not going to bring down the entire tour, but he did just make life far more difficult for the entire professional cycling community. I can see the effects of this rippling down to the developmental teams, making it more difficult for talented riders to progress.

Racing News - Friday September 21st

Stage 18 : Luis Perez Rodriguez goes out with a bang, closing out his 13 year career with a stage win in his home country. 4 riders dropped out before the start of Thursday's, the most notable of which was World Chamion Paolo Bettini. 24 riders tried to make an early escape today, but were captured by the peloton at 40km. Soon after, another group of 19 riders broke away. Even that group splintered, and we ended up with a group of 12, consisting of chasers and breakers at the 56km mark. Some of the notable names in the break were Menchov, Sastre, Evans, Sanchez and Mosquera. Chasing closely behind (38 seconds back at 76km) was a 10 man group containing Efimkin and others. At 93km, the second group was caught be the peloton, while the leaders extended their advantage to 2 minutes and 45 seconds. The leaders cooperated well over the final climb and kept their lead. With 13km to go, Rodriguez put the hammer down and quickly pulled out to a 26 second lead. He managed to keep ahead al

The Fixed Gear Revolution Goes Upscale - The Opera Mercurio

Pinarello has extended their Opera brand with 3 new Luxury models. The Mercurio is a singlespeed city bike with butted aluminum tubing and interchangeable dropouts so a derailleur can be added if you so desire. This bike may just make you the envy of all the hipster kids down at the local coffee shop. Even if it doesn't you'll have fun getting there and can arrive in style. Other Luxury models were also announced: The Caravaggio, a sloping tube model with an 8-speed internally geared hub and a Brooks saddle The Artemisa, designed specifically for women, with a mixte frame, 26 inch wheels and a 3-speed internally geared hub. Check out the Opera line at: http://www.operabike.com/home_eng.php

Bicycling News Digest - August 2, 2007

All the news that's fit to sprint.... Patrick Sinkewitz admitted to using testosterone gel during the Tour. T-Mobile has fired him and the German police searched his house . Jonathon Vaughters continues to build his Slipstream team , with an eye on obtaining a wild card entry to the 2008 Tour. David Millar is coming over from Saunier Duval-Prodir and Dave Zabriskie and Christian Vandevelde are joining from CSC. Stuttgart will still host the 2007 World Championships after receiving agreements for addtional doping controls. USA Cycling names its team for the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup event in Beijing. Great photo gallery from the Tour on ESPN's web site Until tomorrow, keep the rubber side down.

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