So, nothing against Tom Boonen, but his second win of the Tour was probably the least significant development in the cycling world today. I suppose the best place to begin relating the latest developments is last night, when the Danish Cycling Federation officially dumped Michael Rasmussen (who just happens to be leading the biggest race in the world at the moment) from the Danish National Team roster. Reason: three missed dope tests.

This morning, Christian Prudhomme held an overpacked press conference at which he expressed consternation – not with Rasmussen, mind you, but with Denmark, for releasing this information mid-Tour, while the rider in question was in the yellow jersey. And while that blame deflection didn’t send the strongest signal that the Tour de France organizers were concerned with a clean race, it certainly brought up a valid point – the announcement’s timing seemed custom designed to hurt the Tour.

So the Danes fired back earlier today, saying they were only responding to previous comments made by Rasmussen that the public could “trust him”, and that there were no reasons to doubt his integrity. In response to the renewed allegations, The Chicken (as Rasmussen is often called) revised his first, unconvincing response, from an admission of a single received warning, to a complete that disclosure that, yes he had been warned about saying he’d be in Italy while visiting Mexico three times.

And if that in itself weren’t troubling enough (three missed tests in 18 months = 1 positive result), VeloNews up and dropped the big one this afternoon. Back in 2002, a cross-country racer and former friend of Rasmussen’s named Whitney Richards was asked to bring some “shoes” to Italy for the future maillot jaune. While packing, he discovered the shoebox was full of Hemopure, and that Rasmussen, judging from his reaction, totally overpaid for it.

Richards apparently tried to get word out the Chicken’s allegedly ill-begotten wings earlier, but didn’t want himself or the former World MTB champ mentioned by name. That, plus the fact that Velonews Editor Charles Pelkey has personally confirmed Richards received “not a penny” for his story, nor even “a free subscription to Velonews,” puts a serious dent in the accused doper’s defense du jour.

Before this news broke, the big question on everyone’s mind was “Will Rasmussen still be in yellow after tomorrow’s TT?” Now I think the question is: “will he even be at the start?”

So I’m gonna try to be upbeat, because this was a pretty fun event, but I didn’t get my workout in today and that makes me grumpy. Working Man’s “stage race” is a three day event, held over consecutive evenings on the New Hampshire/Massachusetts border. I think a more clever name would be “Criterium Regionál” (misplaced accent for added comic effect) since it more closely resembles the format of that storied French race than a traditional multi-day event. But I digress.

Man, how I love the mainstream press: flat day = boring day, right guys? I suppose it’s ok that they apply the same logic (car starts = car is fine) to auto maintenance, but I really draw the line at fact checking. This BBC story states incorrectly that Patrick Sinkewitz tested positive during the ’07 Tour (he was tested during training camp a month earlier), and that Floyd Landis has been disqualified from the ’06 Tour (the case is pending). I understand journalism is poorly-paid, high intensity work, performed under tight deadlines, but, you know, getting the facts straight is kinda part of the job.

Anyway, today’s stage was anything but dull, with Astana shredding the field in a crosswind, and leaving the darling of France languishing in the rear echelons, along with a host of big name sprinters. Seems Moreau had crashed and was receiving repairs at his team car when Vino’s squad cranked up the pace. Team CSC’s Jens Voigt, who often serves as a spokesman for the peloton, registered his displeasure after the race; then again, he’s been in a bit of a mood, lately.

While no one forecast this GC development (though Cyclingpost did mention the weather might come into play in its daily preview), a race-altering crash in the closing meters is nothing new for the Tour. Today’s tumble was more of a negation, though, as it caught up – but didn’t bring down – maillot vert Tom Boonen, much to the glee of the other points competition contenders, who were stuck back in the cheap seats with Moreau. These dropped riders did, however, have to dodge the ambulance that tended to the victims of Boonen’s crash; had there been a collision, it would have been ironic in all sorts of ways.

So at the end of the day, Robbie Hunter becomes the first South African ever to win a TdF stage, due in part to a friendly tip at the critical moment. Hunter is also only the second ever African stage winner, and first in over 50 years. To be fair, though, Molines’ achievement might be a little more praiseworthy, as it came during the era of National/Regional Teams, meaning there were no top-level European teammates to represent his interests back in the field. Even with the disruption that must have come following the Italian Team’s withdrawal a day earlier, Molina and Abdel-Kader Zapf’s breakaway should be considered one of the gutsier moves in the history of the Tour de France.

Stage 10 – long and hilly enough to dissuade tired sprinters and teams, easy enough that the GC men can coast. So a rest day in all but name; punctuated, as these stages tend to be, by a French victory, and overshadowed, as these stages also tend to be, by a doping story. This had the predictable side effect of killing German TV coverage, despite the previous successes of Sinkewitz’s compatriot and teammate Linus Gerdamann. The yellow-clad man-boy won over audiences with his anti-dope message, with the notable exception of Brad Wiggins, who seems to have changed his adamantly anti-doper stance – I hope Britain’s quest for a Tour winner within the decade has nothing to do with that.

Anyway, the assumed revelation of Sinkewitz’s doping (though let’s not forget, the testosterone limits are a matter of some contention) doesn’t say much for the in-house blood checks at T-Mobile. Apparently, they’re carried out by “independent” organizations like NADA, the German wing of WADA. How exactly anyone working under the oversight of an organization chaired by Dick Pound could be considered “independent” or unbiased is beyond me; at any rate, T-Mobile is paying NADA to do the tests, so the same conflict of interest still exists. And furthermore, why was Sinkewitz’s result announced as a positive test, while Serhiy Honchar was simply let go? Bob Stapleton – a little transparency, please?

Anyway, the idiotic lack of TV attention (the race is being punished for catching cheaters, after all) didn’t keep German riders from motivating and driving on today’s stage. Marcus Burghardt was instrumental in the early race action, and Jens Voigt rode with the breakaway to the line. Still, the amiable German would have rather seen his wounded teammate Stuart O’Grady contest the day. It’s been a rough couple of years for the Australian, and despite a very full palmares, he’s missed a tremendous number of races he could have otherwise won. Let’s hope that, twenty years after his retirement, no one puts him in front of a TV screen and forces him to watch all the events that time and circumstance kept him from winning.

See? What’d I tell you – never trust a Directeur Sportif. Vino’s healed up my foot. If by “healed up”, you mean about to collapse to the tune of three and a half minutes behind a wild-card breakaway. Even the support of a dedicated Borat impersonator couldn’t get Vino’ over the top with the leaders. There is a bright spot for Astana in all this, though; the TdF Network has finally dropped the Kazakhs’ ridiculous remake of “Who’s the Boss?” from daily rotation.

T-Mobile, on the other hand, has had a far less Pyrrhic change of fortune. The squad managed not to lose anyone today, and put a quiet-thus-far Kim Kirchen into the Top 10 on GC, despite the best efforts of a rogue Labrador. Of course, this will still do nothing to quell Bob Stapleton’s incessant whining about rider safety. Maybe he should direct the T-Mobile track squad, instead.

Returning to the topic of trust, though, try not to listen to Chris Carmichael, either. I’ve never been a fan, but his Pez column this past Saturday was a new low. I double-take every time I see the Valverde/Indurain comparison – keep in mind, this man gets paid to teach people about bike racing. Honestly, I can’t think of two riders any less similar. Maybe Backstedt and Rujano.

Valverde did today what he should have done this weekend – attacked to put time into struggling opponents. It was the Spaniard’s jump that finally broke Vino’ – if he’d launched with Moreau on the climb to Tigne, he’d have iced Kloden, Sastre and Leipheimer’s GC threats as well. Of course, with Levi off the back, Disco would be riding for Contador, meaning they might actually have a shot at winning this year’s Tour…

But if trust is to be the defining theme of this post, I guess some of you might argue that I led you astray, too, in insisting there’d be no more GC action until the time trial. But viewed objectively, there really wasn’t too much shuffling in the top end of the race today. With the exception of Vino’, all the big names are still chillin’ in the Top 10, and other than the TT specialist Dane off the front, all within 2 minutes of each other. So even with 110k of chrono remaining, unless someone takes Stuart O’Grady’s advice to heart, puts their head down and tries to win this dang thing, the ’07 Tour may be decided by the lottery of who’s feeling best on Stage 15.

You know what’s ironic? That I was finally able to watch both Stage 7 and Stage 8 this weekend, but not to find the time I needed to post on either of them. There was a lot of that going around this weekend – not quite irony always, but something close. For example, Slate rejected my article pitch, saying they were all set for TdF Coverage; thus far, they’ve run only a single, recycled story, with a new preface that I felt compelled to correct for them.

Continuing the trend, the first active, high-profile rider to confess to doping was rewarded by being stripped of his ’96 Green Jersey, while Astana thanked an uncooperative dope suspect for his “honesty”. The two stage winners during the Tour’s first forays into the Alps were won by riders from Germany and Denmark – the two countries hit hardest by doping revelations in recent months. The day after taking the Yellow Jersey, T-Mobile sent two riders to the hospital and third to the sag wagon. And despite a hilly parcours, inchoate race situation, and the best French hopes in a decade, the only thing blown apart on Bastille Day were fireworks.

They say these are all the the signs of a cleaner Tour, and I’ll agree with that. Heck, if anything, Linus Gerdemann looks like he needs quite a bit more in the testosterone department (I promise – my first and last joke about Gerdemann’s astoundingly boyish countenance). Tactically, though, I could really stand to see things spiced up – as far as GC goes, Stage 7 might as well have been a flat stage with a successful break. Rasmussen certainly put one to the favorites the next day, but watching the group behind told the real tale of the race – Moreau trying to break free, Valverde interested in going but not working, and Contador, Kashechkin, and Schleck just marking for their alleged team “leaders” struggling in the group behind.

Don’t get me wrong – Stage 8 was epic in all the ways that make the Tour’s mountains such a spectacle (much to the chagrin of the riders listed here). But with so many of the big names and big teams waiting for the Pyrenees, it could be a long, boring race until then. Astana’s talking like Vino’ is looking to take back some time, but I think Moreau’s hit it on the head by noting that there’s no overpowering authority in this year’s race to look toward for pace, or to plan attacks against. Like Brad Wiggins, I’m skeptical that any of the big contenders will have the stones to shake things up before the first TT on Stage 13.

You know why cycling has a doping problem? Because the French fans can’t make up their minds. Go fast, you’re a doper. Turn in something other than an inhuman performance, you’re a slacker. Such passive-aggressiveness. No wonder they get into (and then lose) so many wars. At least the rest of the world seems has reached consensus that “slow” is preferable to “on drugs”; Matthias Kessler – fired. Michele Scarponi – mandatory vacation. Mazzoleni – pulling a Harriet Miers, but you know he’s gonna get it soon. And while some riders have been treated a bit unfairly, the fact that others are being cleared would seem to suggest that the baby-with-the-bathwaterism of last July has subsided deeply.

Anyway, today’s stage was only the second “stock” sprinters’ day in this year’s Tour. Brad Wiggins got in a little workout, while Tom Boonen finally snapped his two-year winless streak in cycling’s greatest race – and retook the lead in the Points Competition to boot. As much as I applaud Boonen’s hardnosed approach, if your bike does this in the final KM of a race I’m in, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t contest the sprint. It might also be worth noting that this is the second incident perpetrated by Boonen’s rear wheel in this year’s race.

Boonen’s win is something of an afterthought, though, as the eyes of the media have shifted to the hills. Well, at least partially. Me, I’m ready for a Bastille Day showdown. Not only is every Frenchman born with the innate desire to win a Tour stage on July 14th, but Vino’ is peeved that the pace exploded after his crash, and that the commisaires got in his way. Forget what pottymouth Kim Anderson says – CSC put time into him like it was their job. In fact, just ignore everything said by a DS from here until the end of the Tour; Valverde is too young to win? Kloden remounted his bike and rode over a two categorized climbs after brekaing his tailbone? If anyone out there thinks they can capitalize on those weaknesses, I’ve got $12 MILLIONS US DOLLAR in a Nigerian Bank account for them to transfer, too.

Another new day, another unique finish, and another unquantifiable sensation that this is shaping up to be one heck of a Tour. Stage 5 (which stared in Chablis) wrapped up with an uphill kick coming off a Cat 3 descent, that still managed a staggering 49mph burst at the line. Even in 53×11, that’s 130rpm, so I’m guessing stage winner Pozzato, who seems to have thought ahead, had equipped something a little bigger. Still, at those speeds, is it any wonder the autobus managed to lose ten minutes over the final 12k?

Yes, it’s amazing how hard 8 teams can power le Tour when there is suddenly a GC shake-up underway. Though it certainly wasn’t Alex Zulle on Passage du Gois, Vino’ probably ain’t so happy about his little tumble today; I think he should have seen it coming. These “taste of the mountains” stages have a way of utterly reshaping the race. The Kazakh should be more surprised that neither Kloden nor Kashechkin was sent back to help him – are seeds of doubt planted by wily rival Directeurs Sportif taking root in the Astana team car?

In other Tour news, numbers of sunburnt, Lance-Fan Americans (the cancer stick is really a nice touch) are apparently way down at this year’s race. While I’m hesitant to take the word of anyone who calls the drib-drab ’05 Tour the “ride of a lifetime”, I think the relative dearth of gawking Yankee Doodles could be a very good thing for the American image abroad. Why? Well, here’s an American wire story on yesterday’s tour stage. And then here’s an actual news story on the same. Who would you rather hike up Alpe d’Huez with – someone who’s read the first article, or someone who’s read the second?

Finally! A normal sprint stage, won by a sprinter, animated by a decent break, carried out at a reasonable pace, and taking place entirely on French soil. It’s like were in the first week of the Tour de France, or something. Still looking forward to getting a peep at this one, just so I can see the awesome lead out by Hushovd’s teammate Julian Dean, who will no doubt be the least comfortable rider in the peloton when he hits the steaming French Alps in that all black kit. Still, from a fashion standpoint, it’s an improvement for the Credit Agricole team; remember what Kirsipuu’s CA kit used to look like?

It wasn’t such a great day for everyone, though. The folks at Campagnolo are probably a little bummed that their cool and pointless proto group got all scuffed up in a late-race crash. Personally, I think it was the Bike Gods taking revenge on the Cofidis team mechanics for leaving the cable stops on an electronically shifting bike. While I’d never hope for any specific rider to come to grief (except maybe Virenque), I do hope that Shimano’s fugly new carbon cranks (with their ludicrous Q-factor) suffer a similar fate; maybe they could get ripped off the Gerolsteiner team car at a drive-thru or something.

I may never have been madder to be stuck at work than I was today – and lets keep in mind I had to try and piece together the 2003 race while listening to the old streaming OLN voice feed. I mean, yes, the yellow jersey occasionally wins flat stages, and short-effort TT guys do pull one over on the sprinters from time to time – but to have the maillot jaune pop free of the peloton in the final K, eclipse a waining break, and hold off the sprinters by a wheel on the line? The headline at Pez sums it up perfectly – what a way for the peloton to finally enter France.

Maybe it’s all part of being Swiss, but man, does Cancellara have versatility or what? At the ’04 Roubaix, had the savvy to make the first race-cracking move, and followed it up by hopping into the winning break. His attack at the same race in ’06 was so decisive and perfectly-timed that only a rogue freight train kept the remainder of the event interesting. Uncowed by the strongest classics racer in a generation, he took Boonen to the line in a 4-up at E3, and even mixed it up in a group gallop to defend his jersey a the Tour de Suisse. Oh, yeah, he’s the world TT champ, too.

Dynamic abilities aside, Cance may have also been aided in his efforts today by the reassuringly slow pace. Even for a 230km stage, 36 kph is downright…human. Could all this talk of a clean Tour finally be coming to something? Or was it just the after-effects of a hundred bumps and bruises, brought on by Erik Zabel’s untimely twitch? I’m skeptical that the absence of Thomas Vaitkus alone could have sufficed to pull so much wind out of the peloton’s sails, so here’s to hoping that the sport has finally put the drug-friendly attitudes of the 1970′s behind it.