Gotta love the Tour de France. I've been a fan of Menchov for a few years now, so I'm hoping he wins it. He's been looking strong so far.

THis calls for a parody, where there are stops along the way for drug buys.

C'mon, this sport is bankrupt. Who cares anymore? The guy in front today will be caught tomorrow. The winner last year is a loser druggie.

wow, i've never heard such keen insight into the sport of cycling. please, bradkel, give me a break. show me a professional sport that isn't filled with drugged up superfreaks. or is a 300 pound lineman with a 30" vertical leap natural? what was the last penalty doled out for a major league baseball player who got busted? a few games suspension?

Thank you Norm. I've been watching the Tour de France, mostly for the pictures of France, still this was a nice little vignette.

The Drug Issue with the Tour de france is actually proof of cyclings efforts to clean things up. At least they are trying.

Everyone tested before the tour, with random tests during and the top ten after every stage. Tested for everything, the only drugs allowed are those from Tour doctors, anything else is considered masking and get's you in a lot of trouble.

They also sneak new tests in (that what caught Rico) and keep samples for 12 years now. The punishment starts with two year bans from the sport, but posession or use of a drug by a pro athlete in France now is actually criminal and see's serious time (5 years in jail) for positive tests. These laws are likely to go europe wide next year.

Now other sports seem to do nothing. (US NFL, Basketball, Baseball are jokes) The Olympics have even done only a little of what cycling has done. See Big chunks of the US running team being accused, lot's being found to be cheats well after they win gold, One of the head US swimmers stated he thinks half the current US team is doped.

Cycling looks bad simply because they make it so hard and are trying to clean things up.