Why would someone cheat???

Not to be overly dramatic, but I am utterly devastated by the state of the Tour de France. I was loving the drama of the stages. "Vino" winning the time trial this past Saturday, then winning a stage in the Pyrenees on Monday after being dropped off the back of the peloton on Sunday. It's hard for me to comprehend why he would cheat. If you win a stage in the Tour, you're immediately pegged for a doping test. Even if you don't win, if you have a good run, you're chosen. And then they choose others randomly. Why, oh why, would he risk his reputation for that? I honestly don't understand the thought process. If you dope in this day and age in cycling, you're going to get caught. It just makes no sense to me.

Then my Michael Rasmussen gets kicked out by his team for lying about his whereabouts in June when he missed two random drug tests. He said he was in Mexico, but he was really in Italy. Sadly, the first thought is that he was doping in Italy, while practicing in the mountains to help build his blood for the Tour's mountains. Supposedly after ten days, anything he would have taken in Italy would be undetectable, but he would still have the advantage. Of course, nobody could tell you what he could have taken to do that, but it's France, so you're guilty until proven innocent.

Quite honestly, my heart is broken. I have loved the Tour for the past ten years or so and really love watching it and getting into it. I guess I can understand how it happens. One person starts to cheat, other people find out about it and think that if the powers that be aren't going to do anything about it that they need to do the same to compete on the same level. And then it just spirals out of control. It doesn't excuse anything, however, because at some point you need to do what is right, and might does not make right.

Al Trautwig mentioned at the beginning of today's stage (I had forgotten to put in a new tape this morning, so I'm watching now), how there are so many problems in sports today from Barry Bonds and his presumed steroid use (yeah right, if he didn't take steroids why did he refuse to provide a sample for a year?), Michael Vicks' indictments today of dog-fighting, the NBA ref's gambling, possibly on games he himself ref'ed and apparently, steroid usage in the PGA in order to keep up with Tiger Woods (first I had heard of it, but I don't follow golf, really), this is just one more sport under investigation. The difference, that I can tell, is that cycling is serious about cleaning up their sport and making it so that the clean person wins.

I think baseball gives the players union too much power. Why on earth would the union refuse to allow testing unless they know there's an issue? If you're doing nothing wrong, you shouldn't be scared of random urine testing. Right?

This morning I was ready to give up the Tour, but I had to find out what Phil & Paul had to say. They believe the tests - that Vino doesn't deserve our respect and admiration because he doped and that Michael must have been up to something to lie - and since they are my cycling gurus, I decided that the remaining riders in the Tour deserve the attention just as much now as they did before. I feel completely betrayed by Vino & Michael, as I'm sure all their fans do. I've always been a Levi Leipheimer fan, though, so there's no reason to abandon him or the rest of Team Discovery or my favorite sprinter, Thor Hushovd (although Tom Boonen is probably going to win the Green Jersey), so although I feel like crying (yes, I'm pathetic and I know it), I'm going to continue to watch the Tour and hope and pray and light candles that nobody else does something stupid, because I don't think the Tour (or me) can take much more of this.

ESPN is pathetic. They give zero attention to the Tour, generally, but you know they're going to be all over this pretending that they know something and I'm going to want to slap them. Or write a letter.

Oh! Letter writing! Update on the annoying as fucking hell remote control boats. I ran into the Corporation Land guy who was helping me over the forced vacation in the shitty cafeteria the other day (I bought popcorn from his co-worker for the United Way fundraiser for lunch). I'm an idiot and didn't recognise him as he was in a white shirt and tie and when I met him he had been a bit more casual in a polo shirt. And I'm low enough on the totem pole at work that I generally don't get the bigwigs in white shirts and ties saying Hi to me, so I assumed this guy was saying Hi to someone behind me. But he was looking straight at me. He figured out that I'm a complete dumbass and finally said his name. DUH! I felt like an idiot.

Anyway, he told me that the boats should be gone for good within 30 days! The building across the street is being shutdown completely, so the gates will be locked for safety reasons and they'll have to find some other poor people to bother. I told him that if the apartments have a party to celebrate that we'd be sure to invite him. And he said he'd be there.

I think the party will be the residents of the apartment sitting outside on a beautiful day just enjoying the peace and quiet. ;-)