The Tour de France 2008 is proving pretty unmissable, for both good and bad reasons. No out and out front runner, but with some out and out speed, a few dopers and a faction rearing up before us there is no knowing what's coming next. It's certainly more exciting than Lance getting delivered by US Postal to Paris every year... At least we think so anyway.
Highlights so far though:
-Team Columbia's Mark Cavendish winning a couple of sprints, adding further weight to both his claim to be the fast sprinter alive and his head. Expect both to continue growing if he ends up winning stage twelve.
-The dopers getting caught. Is Beltran actually trying to cycle away from the testers? It's still lame to see them around, but we agree with David MiIllar:
Asked if he was surprised that in 2008 a rider had used EPO, Millar responded: "It makes me f***ing pissed off when people are surprised that this happens.
"We've been decades to get to this point, and if anybody's naïve and foolish enough to think that we're never going to have a positive control again then you may as well go home and not cover this race.
"The media has a responsibility to understand that this is no way going to be the last positive test we're going to have; it's going to go on for years. That's professional sport – as long as there are doping controls, there will be positives. At least this shows the controls are working. (Nicked from Cycling Weekly)
-Cadel Evans winning a stage despite not having a great team round him. It would be great to see this likable and oddly tranquil (well, usually) Ozzie go all the way.
