I realize this is a little bit late, but I have been waiting to get this off my chest. The Tour has been hit hard by this steroids scandal, and unfortuanately it has robbed teh event of many great athletes. An entire team, led by Alexandre Vinokourov, was sent home from the Tour based on test results that revealed he had used performance enhancers previous to the Tour. Even the leader, Michael Rasmussen was kicked off of his team for lying about where he was training. This has nothing to do with steroids that I know of, but it contributes to the bad reputation surrounding the Tour. As dissapointing as these events are, I think a few questions must be asked.

          Firstly, how are these drugs tested. I don't know squat about testing, and for all we (the viewers) know, the scientists that do test could be making it up. Bodily fluids have to be treated with extreme care, and who knows how well they are tested, or even how accurate they are. I don't want to believe it, but it could be possible that none of this is real. Every tour leader since Armstrong has been subjected to criticism and Landis, last year's "winner" found his jersey taken away because of an alleged use. There's no way to trust teh system for me, so I have absolutely no idea how anybody can end this cycle of using these materials.

          Don't get me wrong, I love the Tour, and I realize that not a lot of people are interested in it like me, but all of these ejections are making it worse. Everybody followed Lance because he was a real hero. He always worked his hardest, and it was a real joy to behold such a determined man take the yellow jersey 7 years in a row, an inspiring story. People (including me) believed we had seen another act of the same magnitude when Floyd Landis won the Tour from a great distance behind. He was a celebrity untill the fatal news came around. And now multiple riders have ben eliminated, cleansing the sport, but it was terrible to follow the tour only to find out that two of teh most prestigious riders in the tour, Vino and Rasmussen, were sent packing. Contador was well deserving to finish in the lead, but it was ruined because he had a deul with Rasmusen, which ended with Rasmussen dropping out. Not only that, but the third place contender was on the same team as Contador, the American Leipheimer. They would help each other keep their positions. No fun at all.

          I am not proposing anything for this sport, but it would be nice to see some good, fun, CLEAN cycling going on that everyone can follow with enthussiasm. Not only is it sad for us fans of the tour, but also the team, who loses hundreds if not thousands of dollars or euros (w/e) because they get money for how well their team finishes. Even the other teams, who hasve to plan manuevers around these leaders are let down because they have worked so hard to stay in contention and now they have just been fighting themselves teh entire time. It sucked. The worst ending to a tour I have seen. But the only hope is that these Performance Enhancers and deciet are slowly eliminated from the sport to the point where it is a clean fight to the finish, one that is enjoyable for all, however unlikely.