A shift in the winds....

Over the last few years, even during Lance's iron rule over the tour, I have been just plain old disappointed at the whole doping thing. I am not under any delusions that the guys getting busted for doping are just a few bad apples, they are just the ones that get caught. I assume that most people in the pro-peleton are doing it. You can't not. The guys that are busting their ass just to finish these races are probably not riding for a team with good enough doctors and savvy enough team leadership to get the good stuff and or have it administered properly.

The guys who come out of no where and have absolutely epic days and win some crazy mountain stage with 7 hor category climbs and finish with energy to spare are for sure doing it. No one goes from the back to the front with out some help.

To certain extent what has happened it that the status quo has been shifted since pretty everybody is doing it. You HAVE to dope in order to just be on par. The guys who are just killing it have found some magic combination of drugs, training and medical supervision and they just get it all right.

However, the powers that be are really making an effort to get rid of it and I have a feeling that riders, once the get over the loss of having that kind of magic fitness, would probably rather not deal with it. They worry about getting caught, the long term medical effects, whether their doctors really know what they are doing or just hacks, blah, blah, blah. I bet a lot of them would rather just train and maybe sleep in a altitude tent.

Whether or not the holy altruistic grail of a clean sport is happening or even CAN happen, I would surmise that the sport is cleaner. Notice I said CLEANER not CLEAN.

But what I have noticed this year is (and even last year) is that the tour hard men are not as fast as they were a couple of years ago. People are a little more vulnerable.

I can only hope that the cycling will get cleaner. The pessimistic side says it might be just a temporary regrouping and nothing will change, but the optimistic side hopes that we are witnessing a real shift in cycling. I can only hope...