well this year's tour seems to have even more doping than ever! vinokourov was booted from the race a couple days ago (along with the rest of the Astana team), and now the long-time holder of the yellow jersey, michael rasmussen himself has been booted for lying about his whereabouts prior to the race, which is part of a system to try and prevent doping. while his lying does not prove that he had ever doped, he did neglect to follow simple race instructions, and deserves to be kicked. it bums me out because i was hoping for a nice clean win for rasmussen, he's a great rider who deserved it. vinokourov i'm also upset about, because he was also another great consistent rider. after being part of that major crash in the 2nd stage, he was all stitched up (in both knees and elbows), and i was surprised that he was able to continue, nevermind win a stage. well, turns out the only reason he won the stage was because of an illegal blood transfusion. it's easy to understand why he did it, because he was struggling as a result of his injuries beforehand. his sudden success definitely set off some alarms. so, cycling still seems to be in the dark ages of doping, even after a step=up of preventative systems to keep it clean. but it's great to see that the system seems to work to a point by getting rid of the dirty riders, right? and on the positive side, leipheimer has jumped from 6th to 3rd as a result of all the recent bootings. contador alberto of the discovery team is now in the yellow jersey, it'll be interesting to see if levi will devote his efforts to helping his teammate alberto hold the yellow jersey, or if he'll take it himself. as for me, i want levi to have it. go levi!
