Good morning, and welcome to Stage 17 of the 2007 Tour de France.
In case you're just tuning in for the first time since Monday, there have been some major changes:
— Overall Tour leader Michael Rasmussen was kicked off the Rabobank team on Wednesday, just four stages from a sure championship in Paris.
It was unknown Wednesday night whether his Rabobank teammates would continue. What is known is that teammates Denis Menchov and Michael Boogerd gave up any chance of stage wins or podium finishes by unselfishly helping Rasmussen, who is accused of lying to his team about his whereabouts during training. I wonder what they think about The Chicken now?
— Pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov was kicked out of the Tour de France for suspected blood doping on Tuesday.
Every member of his Astana team suffered, as Astana pulled out of the Tour. That includes Andreas Kloden, a cyclist with a Tour history as rich as Vinokourov's. Kloden had battled into 5th place in spite of fracturing his tailbone on Stage 3. Teammate Andrey Kashechkin, formerly 8th place, is also a spectator.
— A rider I can't say I ever heard of — Cristian Moreni — was kicked out for testing positive for testosterone on Wednesday. Shortly afterwards, his Cofidis team announced that the entire team was being pulled from the Tour de France.
Moreni was ranked 54th overall and described as “well liked”. Those who had to leave with him are Sylvain Chavanel and Bradley Wiggins. I wonder if they still like their teammate?
Unless things change dramatically — and that's certainly possible given the events of the past couple of days — Discovery Channel will have two cyclists on the podium, one in yellow. Cadel Evans could be the first cyclist from Australia to finish in the top 3.
The Top 10 are:
1. Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel
2. Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor – Lotto — 1:53 behind
3. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel — 2:49
4. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC — 6:02
5. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi — 6:29
6. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne — 10:18
7. Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team — 11:36
8. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel — 12:50
9. Mauricio Soler (Col) Barloworld — 13:31
10. Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel — 13:42
Recent Comments