"The Secret" in Cycling, Armstrong, Disco, and Suisse

So how many of you out there are down with The Secret? Well, I’ve got proof that it works. Wasn’t it just yesterday I questioned CSC’s team anti-doping program in light of Bjarne’s recent confession? And then today – boom – CSC announces that all its riders have been clean thus far. Not too shabby, eh? And of course, CSC’s announcement itself employed The Secret, too – they, after losing a sponsor earlier this year, wanted the universe to make their title sponsor continue. Mission accomplished, I’d say.

Lance Armstrong certainly knows The Secret. He demands that the universe not take doping allegations against him seriously, and behaves as if the object of his desire were on its way. I do find it a bit unusual that Armstrong’s managed to rail against this book before I’d even heard it was going to come out, but hey – can’t let the universe know what you want too quickly, right? Especially with at least five former teammates either confessed, convicted or charged as dopers.

If I were Big Tex, though, I might try asking the universe for something slightly different than I’ve been demanding through most of my career. After all, the frenetic doping denial thing is kind of out of fashion at the moment. And the allegations made against Telekom sound an awful lot like those leveled against Postal, but until some more riders confess, I guess we’ll just have to assume Armstrong was clean, unlike the confessed dopers he was so thoroughly trouncing.

I could go on, really, about how Postal/Disco’s reluctance to play along and questionable hiring practices might be hindering their sponsor hunt – but I’d rather talk about racing. Especially when golf ball-sized hail is involved. It must have damaged the helmet of stage winner Erik Thomas Dekker, forcing him to don an ill-fitting replacement. However, the real action was further back, as the overnight leader, CSC’s clean-testing Frank Schleck, lost 1:21 on the day – quite a bit for a supposedly less difficult stage. Schleck now sits third on GC, behind the Caisse d’Epargne’s other Russian, Vladimir Efimkin, and Saunier Duval’s José Angel Gomez Marchante; the real fun starts tomorrow.