This weekend the world’s toughest sporting event, the Tour de France gets underway and as always I will be as hooked as ever.

Drug scandals year-after-year has put a lot of people off but although I often threaten it, I cannot help coming back for more in the hope that a clean race will put the spotlight on the great things about the event and that will save the sport in the eyes of the passive on looker.

The race is quite unique this year. There is no prologue time-trial to get the event underway, there is just the two time-trials and the Tour will go up a mountain pass that will take it higher than it has ever been before. The race starts in Bregagne, circles France in an anti-clockwise direction, goes through two mountain ranges, only leaves France when it dips into Italy for a day, and as always finishes up in the heart of Paris.

The first week is going to be an interesting one, with no prologue the sprinters will really be battling it out through the first week to get hold of the coveted yellow jersey before a time-trial or mountain stage takes it away from them. Both time-trials are reasonably short in distance and so the Tour will likely be decided in the big mountains and not against the clock.

Last year the Tour started in London, had a stage in South-East England, passed through Belgium and various other countries before reaching Paris, but this time we will be nowhere near North East France and Belgium, instead heading down the West Coast of France, along the bottom and up the middle into Paris.

Of course the route is one thing, the profile is another but the main talk before the race won’t be about that great stuff that makes the race the toughest in the world. No, the talk again will be about whether the race will be clean, what riders are suspicious, and the fact that for the second time in two years the winner of the Tour is not back to defend his title.

In fact, not only is last years winner not here, Rasmussen who likely would have won until he got caught, Vinokorov a one time fan favorite and Levi Leipheimer, the third place man from last year, all will not be entering this time around. Of course the reasons for reigning champion and 2008 Giro Winner Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer missing out isn’t that they tested positive but joined a team who were rigged with drug scandals in 2007 and so barred from this years event.

Cycling Deserves a Break

Make no mistake about it; Cycling gets a harsh break from the media in many circles because of its problems over the last ten-years.

Indeed. Ten Years — that was when the Festina scandal occurred during the 1998 Tour de France that started in Dublin that year. That was the catalyst for a decade of problems for the sport with top rider after top rider testing positive — you’ve all heard the theory that when a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil it causes a Hurricane in America? It ripped the sport apart, it was a slap in the face of its dedicated fans, and now, the cycling authorities finally believe they are getting on top of the problem and putting things to right.

But does cycling deserve the bad press it gets because of the drug scandals?

Absolutely not.

No, cycling has all these problems because it tests more than any other sport in the world and its testing procedures are far more stringent than any other sport. Can you imagine this level of testing in something like the NFL or MLB? Half the players in the league would be booted out and various players would miss seasons because their teams were banned from competing. Can you imagine the Premier League if it tested this hard? I am almost certain you would have scandals, problems and a media outcry of epic proportions. In fact, it doesn’t bare thinking about.

Is it a good thing for our sanity that our other favorite, high-end professional sports authorities are probably too scared to go to cycling’s levels to expose the real truth?

Cycling should be praised for its hard-line stance, for leading the fight within the sporting world against performance enhancing drugs. We cannot have it both ways:
Cycling cannot sit back and turn a blind eye to the problem only to have people criticise its testing procedures and so it does not deserve to take criticism from people because of the number of positive tests for being the leading sport in trying to expose the cheats and clean its sport up.

Hopefully that will remain my only rant on doping for this Tour de France. Hopefully the athletes we all hope to be clean — and hope is all we can do in this day and age — come to the fore and put on a master class of cycling that leaves us talking about the right side of the sport for the first time in many many years.

So, Who to Support?

I tend to try not to support anyone in the event these days, though I usually give in to that idea in the end. Anytime I have supported someone they either end up testing positive, join a team that are banned from the race or have some other cloud of doubt, suspicion or scandal around them. Such riders I have supported over the last number of years include, Jan Ulrich, Floyd Landis, Alberto Contador and Tom Boonen. None of them will be here this year so maybe I’ll cheer on Cadel Evans, Valverde and sprinter Mark Cavandish. You heard the cursing here first!

Where is the winner coming from?

If you mean ‘come from’ as in what team, then that is a very hard question to answer. This tour is as open as any there have been in the history of the race. One of possibly ten riders could come out victorious.

If you mean ‘come from’ as in their country of birth, and you’re looking to stake some money on the event then you might be worth your while looking at the Spanish entrant to the event. Last year the top ten overall included six Spaniards — Contador, Sastre, Zubeldia, Valverde, Astarloza and Pereiro — with only Contador not riding this time out.

With 2008 turning into the year of Spain (Nadal in the French open and potentially Wimbledon, and the nation winning Euro 2008), then one of them might be worth looking at.

Roll on Tomorrow.

So that’s a rough look at were we stand heading into the 2008 Tour de France and my thoughts on it. If I get the chance I will continue the preview with a list of the teams and their star riders, with a list of who to look for in the sprints for the green jersey, the king-of-the-mountains contenders and also the British Riders.

So, sit back, book a few half days off work for the mountain top stage finishes, place your bets, get ready for long hours in front of the TV, dream of riding up Alp D’Huez without actually having to go through the pain of doing it, stock the fridge full of cold beer and raise a glass to the 2008 TdF and pray for a clean one.

Category: Pro Road Racing » Tour de France, Tour de France Preview |

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