Tour 2006 Preview

Can you believe it??? The two favorites to win the 2006 Tour de France are out of the race. Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso haven't been proven guilty yet but were named on a list of riders released by Spanish authorities late Thursday that were alleged to have contact with Eufemiano Fuentes, the Spanish doctor at the center of a suspected blood doping ring.

A total of 9 riders have been dismissed, not by the Tour de France organization, but by the individual Team Directors. In my opinion, the Team Director's decision to let their best rider go is a Tour death sentence for the team. These guys must be dam near positively guilty and unfortunately for them, close does count in hand grenades, horse shoes and the Tour de France!

FYI...a good article on Blood Doping http://www.slate.com/id/2107096/

So where's the silver lining? The Tour is once again wide open for an American rider to be standing on the podium at the finish; George Hincapie (Discovery and MY PICK), Floyd Landis (Phonak), Dave Zabriskie or Bobby Julich (CSC) and Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner). The action starts today and I can't wait. Let's beat the French at their own game once again!