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The ride of his life

I can't think of a better phrase than Phil Liggett's classic line "the ride of his life" to describe Levi Leipheimer's time trial win today in the Tour de France.

By winning the time trail, Leipheimer pretty much assured that an American will be standing on the podium tomorrow for the ninth consecutive year. Granted, it most likely will be for third place rather than first place, but it's still a nice place to be.

Barring unforeseen circumstances -- and there have been plenty on this Tour -- Leipheimer's Discovery Channel teammate, Alberto Contador, will be on the top step of the podium. Discovery Channel has all but won the team title.

Watching today's stage has caused me to reassess what I said Wednesday about the Tour de France and bicycle racing.

One, there is still plenty of glory to be had in cycling at the highest levels. While much of the media will remain focused on cycling's serious doping problem, anyone who can ride 34.52 miles in 1:02:44 as Leipheimer did today deserves all the glory he can get.

And while the doping scandals still may have an impact on events such as the Tour of Missouri, the presence of the Discovery Channel team cannot do anything but help the stature of that event. The Kansas City Star reported this week that Leipheimer likely will participate in the Tour of Missouri.

While the Tour of Missouri doesn't have a title sponsor as of today, it still has plenty of other sponsors, and organizers will be busy in the coming week revealing details about the route. Here's a schedule for the press conferences:

Kansas City: Monday, July 30, 11 a.m.—Country Club Plaza, 810 Zone, 4686 Broadway
Columbia: Tuesday, July 31, 10 a.m.—the Henry County Courthouse, 100 W. Franklin
Springfield: Tuesday, July 31, 1 p.m.—Jordan Valley Park, 635 E. Trafficway
Branson: Tuesday, July 31, 4 p.m.—Branson Landing on Branson Landing Blvd.
Lebanon: Wednesday, August 1, 10 a.m.—Lebanon City Hall, 401 Madison Blvd.
Columbia: Wednesday, August 1, 2 p.m. – Convention & Visitors Bureau, 300 S. Providence Jefferson City: Wednesday, August 1, 4:30 p.m. – Convention & Visitors Bureau, 213 Adams
St. Louis: Thursday, August 2, 11 a.m. – St. Louis Union Station, Grand Hall, 1820 Market

While there are plenty of problems that cycling has to solve, I'm confident the sport will overcome them.

Labels: cycling, racing, Tour de France, Tour of Missouri

Roger 1 comments links to this post 12:09 PM

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Tour de Farce

Already, media outlets are calling this year's Tour de France the Tour de Farce because of the recent doping scandals.

Now that Rabobank has yanked Tour leader Michael Rasmussen from the race because he lied to his team about his whereabouts, you can expect to hear or read that phrase over and over again the next few days.

In case you missed it, here's what The Associated Press reported tonight:

"Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating (the team's) internal rules," Rabobank spokesman Jacob Bergsma said.

The expulsion, which Bergsma said was ordered by the Dutch team's sponsor, was linked to "incorrect" information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director over his whereabouts last month. The Danish cyclist missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico. But a former rider, Davide Cassani, told Denmark's Danmarks Radio on Wednesday that he had seen Rasmussen in Italy in mid-June.

Late last week, Danish federation officials announced that Rasmussen had been ejected from that country's national squad and would not be representing Denmark at the world championships or at next year's Olympic Games because his missed the tests.

Even before Rasmussen was yanked from the Tour, respected cycling reporter Samuel Abt of the International Herald Tribune said, "Let no one mistake it: This (Wednesday) was one of the blackest days in the 104-year history of the Tour de France."

Abt cited the removal of Alexandre Vinokourov and Cristian Moreni from the Tour, the protest staged by dozens of riders at the start of Wednesday's stage and the jeering Rasmussen faced at the start and end of the phase.

Yet, Abt was stunned by the normalcy of the atmosphere that surrounded the Tour on Wednesday. He writes:

In short, life went on placidly in the Tour de France on Wednesday, just as it has gone on despite the Festina Scandal in 1998 and the ouster of a dozen riders before the start in Strasbourg last year.

If nobody cares enough to get mad, do they care at all? The possibility of more doping scandals depends on the answer.

And here's some commentary from Australian sports commentator John McCoy of the Brisbane Times:

"Been watching the Tour de Chemist?"

Question put to me by a mate in a half joking, half serious manner. But the truth is that one of the world's great sporting events, now more than 100 years old, and famous for its stages, has recently gone through some unfortunate public perception stages ... disbelief, disillusionment, disgust and now derision....

I love cycling, its history, traditions, champions. There are few, if any, events which in the past have epitomised strength, determination, extraordinary fitness and good old sheer guts like the Tour de France. The great modern sporting tragedy is that it's now the Tour de Farce and may never recover its deserved glory.

As an avid cyclist myself, I have experienced similar encounters from my colleagues at the Belleville News-Democrat. One colleague even accused Tour de Donut participants of "donut doping."

I can't help but think that the newest scandals will make it more difficult to convince sponsors to back events such as the Tour of Missouri, and it probably will take years for the sport to recover from the damage that has been done.

Fortunately, there's still plenty of glory to be found in cycling. I hope I'm wrong, but just don't expect to find it at the highest levels of the sport, at least for now.

Labels: cycling, racing, Tour de France

Roger 1 comments links to this post 11:29 PM

Monday, July 16, 2007

News and notes

Today's post consists of some bits and pieces from the cycling scene:

TOUR DE DONUT: Congratulations to all the winners in this year's Tour de Donut, which was run Saturday in Staunton, Ill. A round of applause goes out to all the winners, and you can see all of the actual times and doughnut bonus adjusted times at the ride's Web site. As you know, I consider the people with the best adjusted times as the champions of the Tour de Donut, and special credit goes out to Anna Witt, who defended her title in the Women's Under-50 division by eating 16 doughnuts for an adjusted time of 1 hour, 13 seconds.

ITS TRAIL: Speaking of Staunton, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today reported on the efforts of the ITS Trail Committee to build a trail from Staunton to Benld. The trail would link a proposed Madison County Transit trail from Worden to Staunton to the existing Gillespie-Benld trail. The long-term goal is build a network of trails that would connect St. Louis and Springfield, Ill.

The Macoupin County Board supports the project, and county government will act as the committee's fiscal agent for expected future grants.

"We've seen what the trails have done in Madison County," County Board Chairman Andy Manar told Post-Dispatch reporter Terry Hillig. "It's an issue of improving the quality of life and health, and it has the potential for countywide impact."

TOUR DE FRANCE: Today was a rest day after Michael Rasmussen grabbed the yellow jersey with his Stage 8 win Sunday. Tomorrow should be a interesting day with climbs of the Col de l'Iseran, the Col du telegraphe and the Col du Galibier. The first week of the tour was slower than in recent years, and experts have various theories about why -- headwinds, cyclists saving themselves for the Alps and a reduction of doping.

TOUR OF MISSOURI: The Associated Press reports why the state of Missouri is putting so much effort in promoting the Tour of Missouri on Sept. 11-16.

The bottom line: marketing.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

Life after Lance Armstrong has been anything but smooth for pro cycling, which this time of year is normally celebrating the annual Tour de France. Instead, the sport is struggling to preserve its public relevance, financial footing and athletic integrity amid increasing allegations of a rampant culture of cheating.

So what in the name of Floyd Landis is the Show-Me State doing rolling out the red carpet - not to mention more than $1 million of taxpayer money - for the inaugural Tour of Missouri, a six-day, 600-mile stage race that will bring some of the world's top riders here in mid-September?

For Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, the answer is simple: a global marketing bonanza the likes of which Missourians have never seen.

"This is the greatest opportunity we have ever had to brand Missouri to a national and international audience," said Kinder, who is also chairman of the Missouri Tourism Commission.

Labels: Tour de Donut, Tour de France, Tour of Missouri, trails

Roger 0 comments links to this post 12:33 PM

Friday, July 06, 2007

Tour de France 2007

For the second straight year, the Tour de France will open without its defending champion.

Last year, of course, Lance Armstrong didn't return after winning seven consecutive Tours. This year, the race opens without Floyd Landis, who is out because of doping allegations stemming from last year's race.

Frankly, the doping revelations that have shaken the cycling world leave me a bit ambivalent about this year's race. Will I follow the race? Yes. Will I follow it as closely as I have in previous years? Probably not.

It's good to see that all 189 cyclists who will begin the race Saturday with the Prologue in London have signed the International Cycling Union's anti-doping charter. That means they promised to submit DNA samples to Spanish authorities for the Operation Puerto probe. Cyclists also had to agree to pay a year's salary on top of a two-year ban if caught doping.

Despite the pledge, I expect fewer Americans will be watching the Tour de France this year on the Versus channel, although it is still planning many hours of event coverage. Six Americans are racing this year: Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie of Discovery, David Zabriski and Christian Vandevelde of CSC and Christopher Horner and Fred Rodriguez of Predictor-Lotto.

As usual, I won't be doing much commentary on the Tour. The news sources listed on the right column of this blog do a much better job of putting the Tour in perspective than I can hope to do.

Let the racing begin -- and the doping end!

Labels: cycling, racing, Tour de France

Roger 0 comments links to this post 1:01 PM

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

"Wired to Win" coming to St. Louis

"Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France," the IMAX film about the legendary race and how the human brain wires itself to handle the demands of the grueling event, is coming to St. Louis.

Beginning June 15, the movie will be shown at the Omnimax Theater at the St. Louis Science Center. The movie's Web site says the film will remain at the theater until Jan. 3, 2008. The film already has been shown in numerous theaters around the world since 2005, so it's finally making its way to St. Louis, but the timing actually may be good: The Tour of Missouri bicycle race, which will be Sept. 11-16, is a sponsor of the St. Louis screening, along with Big Shark Bicycle Co., Trailnet and Johnny Mack's Sporting Goods.

The film's Web site has all kinds of goodies, including desktop photos and podcasts, but I've posted the movie's trailer below in case you don't have time to visit the site:



The movie tells the story of Australian Baden Cooke and his French teammate Jimmy Caspar as they compete in 2003 edition of the Tour de France. "Just to finish in Paris, they will need to avoid danger, stave off crushing pain and fatigue, control their emotions, seize fleeting moments of opportunity and stay highly motivated. It's the brain that controls all of this," the film's Web site says.

By the way, there's no truth to any speculation that "Tour de Donut: Gluttons for Punishment" will be shown along with "Wired to Win."

Labels: cycling, movies, racing, Tour de France

Roger 1 comments links to this post 3:57 PM