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Today he is the Tour De France winner. It was a race marred by drug scandal, but it would have been more of a scandal if the riders and teams had turned a blind eye to cheaters. So what some call a scandal I see as a sign of a sport fighting to clean up its act. Contador had some doping trouble in the past, but it appears he has cleaned up his act.
Kudos to Rabobank for doing the right thing. Rassmussen had the yellow jersey and Rabobank could have reaped the benefits of his win, but the team said no we don't want to win under a cloud of doping. They kicked Rasmussen off the team days before the end of the tour. The team has won by letting ethics rule.
Though Contador would not have won with Rassmussen in the race, he did prove that he was a champion with his performance in the mountains and in the last time trial. His only real competitor was Cadel Evans, a brilliant time trial rider. Contador is more of a climber than time trial specialist. But today he was good enough to keep Evans at bay. Though Evans reeled him in, it was still 23 seconds short.
So our winners are Contador, Evans, and Lepheimer, a Spainard, an Aussie, and an American. The American team Discovery won the team classification. This is their last year sponsoring the team, but I am sure they will find another sponsor, the team is just too good.
Let's hope the governing body of cycling keeps working at cleaning up the sport. It's too beautiful a sport to fall into disrepute. Let's also hope that the winners of this year pass their post race tests. If we have a reply of last year, the sport could be dealt a fatal blow.
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