No freaking way

I'm a fan of cycling. I'm a big fan of the Tour de France. Typically, France, eh, you can keep it. But when it comes to the Tour, I'm all over that. I Tivo every stage so that I can come home and watch the highlights after work. To me it is 3 weeks of bliss. Cyclists are amazing athletes who endure more just sitting on a saddle for 5+ hours a day than most athletes endure in a season.

What the hell is going on with cycling though. Doping suspicions are going to wreck the beloved sport. Lance Armstrong was the most tested man in sport when he was winning the Tour. He passed every test with flying colors. Last year's winner is still under a cloud of suspicion (and not recognized by the Tour as the winner, btw) after having high levels of Testosterone in his blood sample. Just yesterday, a test of Alexandre Vinokourov's blood shows that he was doping so he and his team dropped out of the race. Today I open up the 'puter and see that the leader, two time winner of King of the Mountains Michael Rasmussen has been removed from the race by his team for violation of internal rules. The rule is that he must report his whereabouts 24/7/365 and be available for drug testing at any time. According to the stories I saw last week, this all comes about because he missed a couple of flights flying to and from Mexico to visit his in-laws.

I don't know what to make of this news now. Is this to be like baseball? I was able to hold on to the innocence of sport and competition for a long time watching baseball, until steroids and strikes became de riguer. Am I not allowed to believe in sport and pure human competition anymore?

I just don't know what to make of this