Which small towns will the race visit next year?
TOUR DE FRANCE ROUTE UNVEILING ALLOWS ME TO DREAM FOR A LITTLE WHILE
Before I get started, let me ask a question: Anyone else hoping the unavailing of the Tour de France route for 2013 tomorrow will, at least for a day (or even a few hours), cool the obsession and non-stop beating of the drum that is the Lance Armstrong saga? It's all been quite interesting at times, but it's also getting a bit old and here's hoping that in revealing tomorrow's tour route, we get a little break from it all and remember that there's still cycling going on in the present.
So how about the unveiling of the route? It's always a fun day for cycling fans to see what exactly the organisers have in store for us, and given the way the race format has chopped and changed in recent years, it's hard to know just what we're going to get. Some people say more climbing, some say even more time-trialing. I say, whatever they come out with will make for a great race and also for some quality day dreaming.
I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard. When the route comes out I trace the route around France looking at the various stops and start to wish I had the money and the time to head off there next July and watch the race pass. From some quaint little French village in the middle of the country, to some warm sea-side city on the south coast, to a hair-pin bend on the side of one of the Alpine giants. I'll scope out where I would love to watch the race, then face reality and scope out which stages I'll have to make sure I make time for to watch on my television.
One day I'll find the cash and the time to spend a full three weeks following the race around France, but no day soon. Until then, I'll just anticipate the routes unavailing and then wait patiently until next July for it to begin.
IT'S NOT TOMORROW YET, SO WE CAN'T TALK CYCLING WITHOUT MENTIONING ARMSTRONG...
Without wanting to distance ourselves too much from that inescapable specter that is the Armstrong saga -- we couldn't have an article without mentioning it now, could we? -- I noticed this morning that Lance has changed his profile bio on Twitter. Gone now is the mention that he won the Tour de France 7 times in what appears like a very quick acceptance of the UCI's decision. I thought he might have kept it for a while yet if only to spite everyone who now know he's never won it.
I too changed up my bio on my personal Twitter account. It now reads, "I'm a cyclist who has won as many Tours de France as Lance Armstrong." Today, even Lance recognises that.
McQUAID BLASTS THE INFORMERS
UCI chief suit, Pat McQuaid has come out guns blazing against those who dared to speak up and tell the truth. Yes, he's gone after Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis declaring them as "scumbags" who have damaged the sport of cycling.
According to McQuaid, "Landis started it," and his dad is bigger than Landis's so he'll finish it. "He was in a bottomless hole and he said the only way out of it was to bring the sport down. That's what he intended doing and what he intends doing, but he won't achieve it," he blasted as though the situation we now find ourselves in with the lid off on a generation worth of doping and the downfall of Armstrong, is a bad thing.
McQuaid was talking about Floyd Landis's decision in April 2010 to come clean after telling what he knew and prompting an investigation by the FDA and USADA in America. That flake of snow a-top a vast mountain back then snowballed into an avalanche which seen numerous riders come forward to tell the truth leading to USADA's 200 page reasoned decision of evidence that Lance Armstrong did indeed do what may speculated he did and eventually led to McQuaid's UCI to strip him of his seven Tour de France titles and ban him for life.
"Another thing that annoys me is that Landis and Hamilton are being made out to be heroes," continued McQuid on his rant. "They are as far from heroes as night and day. They are not heroes, they are scumbags. All they have done is damage the sport."
No Pat, they ain't hero's, you're right. They cheated and dragged the sport down once upon a time... but they did come clean, they did fess up to the truth, and if they're scumbags for what they did, then fine ... but saying all they have done is damage the sport makes it sound like you wish they had just stayed quiet and not created this big mess that has led you to sever your ties with Armstrong.
Publicly the whole thing damages the sport, but had it all been kept quiet, had Landis and Hamilton continued to deny what they did and had Armstrong remained a seven time Tour winner perhaps attempting a third comeback, then wouldn't the sport, silently, have been damaged even more?
