Le Tour 2006

I had started to write this bit about this year's Tour de France and how exciting it would be. "Wait! Lance Armstrong has retired -- why would we even watch it now?" many of you might ask.

I was ready to pounce on the fact that, even though I am a huge Lance fan, it would be even more exciting than in recent years because of the unknown. When Lance raced, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that he would dominate as always, but this time I was giddy to alert everyone that now, there were new cycling supermen to emerge. Ivan Basso, who just won the Giro d'Italia, had been heavily favored to win the Tour as well. Jan Ullrich, Lance's long-time rival, had been under scrutiny for his conditioning, but had begun to show some dominant form. The stage was set for an epic battle to see who would be the heir to the Lance throne. Even some of Lance's former Discovery lieutenants like George Hincapie or Paolo Savoldelli stood an admirable chance of winning it all, even if only sentimental favorites.

Then Friday morning, I anxiously pulled up www.velonews.com and www.thepaceline.com with great anticipation on the eve of the Tour prologue. What I saw sent me reeling. "Tour in turmoil as Basso and Ullrich ejected" shouted one of the the headlines. For weeks, in the cycling world, we have been reading about Operacion Puerto - a Spanish doping probe which has been threatening to upend professional cycling.

Unfortunately, performance enhancing drugs have been a dark and disenchanting part of the sport. Not all elite cyclists are dopers, of course, but it happens. Several big names began to appear in the probe, but they were just allegations with no hard evidence. We learned that the evidence was so compelling that over 50 riders have been implicated and several suspended by their teams on this the night before cycling's Super Bowl; the World Cup on wheels.

So many things about this are hard to believe. It is hard to believe that these riders are presumed guilty until proven innocent. It is hard to believe that the sport of cycling did not learn lessons from the 1998 Festina doping scandal. It is hard to believe that riders would subject themselves to unknown dangers of performance enhancing substances. It is hard to believe that the biggest names in cycling are involved. Ivan Basso? Jan Ullrich? No way. It just can't be. Even the timing of all this on the eve of the Tour....hard to believe.

I have been waiting for this year's Tour since the end of the 2005 Tour. What new fiasco will unfold each morning when I tune in to the Outdoor Life Network at 6:30 a.m.? Well, I wanted an exciting race, and that's what we'll see without a doubt. Only now it's more than the racing itself. It has become a much bigger story than who is the fastest over 2,000+ miles. It is beyond any predictions, prognostication, and hands-down favorites.

And out of this bleakness, there is one shining note: not one of the members of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team is involved in the scandal. Does all of this mean favorable conditions for Lance's old teammates? Absolutely. Keep your eyes on Hincapie. He's someone we can all cheer for and hope for. For years, he has been the right hand man and now it is his chance to shine. There will be those who want to put an asterisk next to whomever wins this year's Tour. In my mind, anyone who races that distance and wins is a god, "yeah, buts" and "what ifs" aside.

If you like the "unscripted" drama of reality TV, I give you the 2006 Tour de France. Maybe, just maybe, the race will now be clean and the drama will indeed be the race itself...not the accompanying soap opera.