Le Tour 2006

Copyright Société du Tour de France.
I love the Tour de France, I think it comes from growing up in Belgium. The Belgians are crazy about cycling, I knew who Eddie Merckx was when I was five years old. I was especially looking forward to this tour, because no matter how big a Lance Armstrong fan you are, it gets little boring watching the same guy win seven times in a row. Kind of like being a Cubs fan except in reverse. I thought this year was going to be exciting, until the day before the start. Then Operation Puerto and the number one, two, and three favorites were pulled out of the race, and another favorite could not compete because his team couldn't field the minimum number of riders. It would be like suspending the two starting quarterbacks the day before the Superbowl for gambling on football. Huge huge story, and potentially crippling to the Tour de France, because the story has yet to be completely heard. And it may result in Tyler Hamilton (and possibly others) getting a lifetime ban from professional cycling. The good news is that no American (other than Hamilton) or Team Discovery riders (including Lance) were implicated, and it opens the door for the American GC (overall) hopefuls like George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis. Alejandro Valverde crashing out of the Tour on day 4 eliminates one more of the top contenders.

Who I'm Rooting For:
1) The Americans
2) Team Discovery
3) Norwegians (Thor is the only one, and it looks like he's out of the race for the green jersey because of yesterday's relegation for irregular sprinting)
4) Belgians (Tom Boonan is a favorite because he rode with US Postal in 2002, although he doesn't look as unbeatable in the 2006 Tour as earlier this year and in the 2005 tour)

Read more in my series on the 2006 Tour de France:

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