Dessel wins tour

Or something like that. Now they're trying to say Peireiro was all doped up, too. You know, I'm sue Kloeden was on andro (way too strong), Sastre was on the EPO (climbed like a banshee at the end of stage 17, chasing "testosterone Flyod"), Evans was on HGH (did you see his recovery to win Romandie? Puh-lease), and of course Menchov was on something (trust a Russian to race clean? Don't you remember the 80's? Yeah, thought so).

So, Cyril Dessel really won the tour. A true French champion. And he was denied glory in Paris by all those doped up foreigners. You know what? The Tour should be an all French affair. I mean, those are the only clean riders out there, so if you just discounted all the dopers from the peloton, the whole GC would be all French anyways, so why not cut to the chase.

Pro cycling is in shambles. Riders accused get banned from races regardless of guilt or innocence, yet the for-profit companies running cycling (UCI, ASO, Unipublic, Pro Teams and Sponsors, etc) have zero reason to actually encourage riders to be clean - they just don't want them to get caught. It's not sport, it's ad revenue. So they don't even care to shorten stages because it would be less of a show. Teams and sponsors want their paid riders to race as much as possible - and to win as much as possible. No wins, no logo display, no money, no team. For races - no amazing feats, no drama, no fans, no money, no races.

Riders need a union. That's the only way this is going to get fixed. A real union. Where the riders can sit down and refuse to ride until there's a real agreement - only so many races required per rider per year, accountability at WADA and the UCI, clear rules and agreements to outcome of doping tests if they aren't followed, agreements to punishments for riders who dope, agreements on the maximum length of a stage, stage race, road race, etc, etc, etc. And there needs to be legal protection for riders if they do walk out and refuse to ride. The threat of a strike is a very powerful force. Right now, Cycling is where Labor was in about1870. Now, after all those struggles, we have a 40hr workweek, overtime pay, and weekends.

Unionize.

I was going to write about some local riding now that its sunny and not freezing, but I'm out of gas.

Quick Link Dump:

Help, I'm Surrounded by Jerks (how appropriate)
I wish Art would have written about pro cycling, how sad.