Some people out there must have a sense of humor; after all, these are sold out! And I’m pretty sure Dick Pound couldn’t have bought all of them (though he does work three, very highly-paid jobs…). If the Onion were more up on its cycling (kind of surprised they don’t read Cyclocosm, really) they’d have known not to single out just Lanids. After all, Ivan Basso was banned from the Tour before Floyd even had a chance to allegedly besmirch it. And how is dear Ivan’s case proceeding? Combine the mastadonic slowness of most anti-dope cases with the molassesean pace of pretty much any publicly-funded exercise in Italy, and you get the idea. There’ll be plenty of time for the tifosi to make up their own minds about it.
There was, as there tends to be this time of year, also bike racing today. In the French-speaking part of Switzerland (“Romandie” a pitifully uninformative name for Anglophones), a German outfoxed and outsprinted two Spaniards riding for a French team. Yes, Marcus Fothen danced by his late-escape companion Francisco Perez to take the stage, while a few meters back, Perez’s Caisse d’Epargne teamamte Joaquin Rodriguez took the group gallop. Long story short, if Perez had just sat up and refused to launch the sprint, Rodriguez would have won, and they’d both be drinking champagne this evening. Hopefully, for Perez’ sake, Rodriguez (who is not your average domestique, BTW) is up on his Pez toolbox tips.
Outside of West Switzerland, there was more Euro racing, involving a guy who, very strangely, isn’t scheduled to testify before any Olympic Committees anytime soon. I suppose some would call it good news, then, that he lost. I’ll go so far as to say that it most definitely isn’t good news that he’s not as forthcoming as Michele Scarponi, but I’m sure a couple of lawsuits will turn old Paco around. Gotta love the new T-Mobile for that suggestion, especially when Rolf Aldag has such earnest responses to questions about doping during his time on the team. I mean, that’s an airtight explanation! But, strangely, I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before…