Yes, after 24 hours of on-and-off 503 errors, I am finally able to make my last post on the 2007 Tour. The finish, despite the cagey “maybe I will, maybe I won’t” attitude of Cadel Evans, and rumors of a mass protest, was a confirmation win for Danielle Bennati. His Lampre team hadn’t been having the best race, but they dug hard on the final circuits to bring back the obligatory escape attempt, and the Italian turned a botched Quick.Step lead out (Sebastien Rosseler going hell for leather at 400m, while Tom Boonen launching his own sprint about 6 wheels back) into victory.
For GC considerations, yesterday was mostly about “what ifs” – what if Levi hadn’t gotten that 10 second penalty? What if Michael Rogers hadn’t crashed out in Stage 8? For me, the biggest question was what if Contador didn’t have Rasmussen to work with on the stages where he put time into Evans? Could the Australian possibly have bled 23 fewer seconds on one of those long, Pyrenian ascents if Contador hadn’t had the questionable performances of The Chicken to assist him?
That’s the tricky thing with cycling – one doped rider can have a myriad of cascading effects on the entire results sheet. Kind of like how when one moronically oversimplified doping story breaks in the mainstream press, dozens more are sure to follow. While I was pleasantly surprised and even entertained by the Versus coverage this year, especially by a very much improved Al Trautwig, the steady burble of uninformed “cyclists are dopers” stories from the nether regions of the popular press – even from allegedly reputable publications – really rubbed me the wrong way. But as Dirk Demol once said, I will have my sporting revenge.
I can’t help but also wonder, what would have happened without Rassmusen. Maybe Bert would have attacked Evans with Levi or Popo on Evans’ wheel and Bert would have had even more time on Evans.
Nice blog!!
John
Cosmo, beaucoup props for your TdF commentary this year. Your blog is a welcome relief from the usual dross excreted by the MSM. I know you put a lot of effort into this site, and I hope you are able to continue to invest the time necessary to keep it going. Your dry wit and intelligent commentary are very much appreciated. Keep up the good work!
There’s more scope for disreputable, poorly-researched opinion pieces in the “reputable” media yet to come, I suspect. We have opened this Pandora’s box of openly “celebrating” each alleged doping offence as soon as we can, sometimes before they have even done it – and now we can’t shut it. Every sport has its cheats, but some sports cover it up better – no-one wants “cover-ups” per se, just due process. But we seem to prefer hysteria and confusion, rumour and innuendo. Some more due process and fewer leaks would help, but that’s down to the organizations involved and our own “leadership”.
Mayo is the latest to test positive, apparently and allegedly. In hindsight his “best tour for years” was hard to believe. I wanted to believe, I really did. Sadly it gets easier and easier to look for the signs and raise doubts where none existed. Just asking if anyone else rode out of their skin, especially after a bad start opens a minefield. But we are all now asking this sort of question, aren’t we? How do we plug this dyke?!?! Do we simply ignore the problem and say nothing?
Bravo on your coverage and in depth views of the Tour your site has been a most welcome diversion, to the corperate sell outs, so called informative cycling sites, and speaking of Versus I really like Bob, Phil,and Paul, but Al has got to go, remember that blonde then same gal only she turned brunette, and she would go out on day trips a show us where the local cheese came from, she had to go just like OLN (Only Lance Network) had to go! but thank god they at least sho it!!