Vino

When I got to my desk this morning there was a newspaper article sitting on my keyboard. The first thing I noticed was the triumphant grimace of Alexandre Vinokourov winning Monday's mountain stage. I thought that that stage was one of the most exciting I'd ever seen and 'Vino' is my favorite current rider in Le Tour. The second thing I noticed dropped me into a severe bout of depression. The headline of the article was "Tour rocked as 'Vino' fails test". I absolutely can't believe that *any* rider would mess around with doping or drugs after last years tour and all of the negative press that it has generated for cycling. That it was my hero, an absolutely brilliant and exciting rider, who was busted this year makes me want to walk away from watching the sport.

Cycling is such a great sport and in the past I have loved watching the Tour de France every summer, but lately it seems to have lost its spirit. The fact of the matter is that drugs are tearing the sport apart. I have read articles from "wronged" riders claiming that the process isn't fair and I have read articles from the cycling bodies claiming that they need to be harder on riders to prevent doping. It seems to me that every cyclist who is caught will deny deny deny. That only makes it tougher because if the *did* cheat, they are despicable for not owning up to it, but if they *didn't* then your heart goes out to them for getting screwed. The fact that there is no real way to know sometimes really bothers me, which is how I feel about Floyd Landis. I also feel that way a bit about Lance. There are just too many people claiming he doped that it makes me wonder. I know he never tested positive, but is that because hes clean or because he was the best cheater?

I'll watch the rest of the tour this year but now there won't be that thrill that I felt just two days ago watching Vino win that stage. My eyes teared up for him as he crossed the line and I thought it was a brilliant ride. Now it seems that I was hoodwinked into getting excited about a cheater. I guess you live and learn, but I wonder how many more times this needs to happen before all cycling fans are too jaded to be excited about even the most impressive rides. When there is always that doubt in the back of your mind about whether a rider is on the level, you can't really invest yourself as a fan. It seriously makes me bummed.