Cycling Update: Le Tour

This one's for Expat, who's doing a better job updating than me, but who asked if I'm following Le Tour. But of course. Although, with Ulrich, Basso, Mancebo, Sevilla and Beloki among those banned under doping suspicions and Vinokourov unable to ride because Astana-Wurth couldn't field a team, not to mention the gaping hole left by Armstrong's retirement, it's an odd sort of Tour.

Hincapie, for years the loyal leutenant, finally got a brief taste of yellow. Hushovd got it back. McEwen, perhaps my least favorite of riders, won stage two and wears the green points jersey. Discovery apparantly doesn't have a team leader yet; they're waiting until the first long time trial to see how things shake out. Seems like a recipe for disaster - whoever they want in yellow on the Champs-Elysee should already be conserving his energy - but what do I know? I love Hincapie, but I don't think he has the personality to stamp his will on the team the way Lance did. Let's face it - Postal/Discovery's purpose in life was to help Lance win the Tour de France and if you didn't like it, you found yourself another team. Lance was the team leader and everybody knew it. Right now I don't see anybody on Discovery who can command that kind of obediance. Then again, with all the doping violations the field is wide open and maybe that kind of iron discipline isn't required this year. But if Basso were riding, Discovery would already be screwed.