Denial Ain't Just a River in Egypt

German TV Strikes a Pose: can someone explain to me the point of German TV, in the wake of the shocking--shocking!--Patrik Sinkewitz testosterone positive, bagging Tour broadcasts til the B sample sez what we all know it will? I mean, it's not as if these guys weren't perfectly happy to suck money off the clearly tainted T-Mobile's ratings back in the day til they suddenly decided they loathed Jan Ullrich, so what gives? Let me just clarify my position on doping here, as my views of late on guys like Jan (railroaded), Heras (horribly screwed), and Floyd Landis (thrown to the sharks like a bikini-clad bimbo in a 3-D Jaws sequel) may make it seem that I, well, actively support cramming all possible substances down riders' throats like ducks being force-fattened for pate'. Not true! Look--doping bad. Very bad. And I particularly believe that anyone who's contributed to a rider's physical or (like Pantani or Vandenbroucke) mental destruction should pay tremendously. But what I find even more irksome than cheating is selective enforcement, so if you're gonna run around calling southern european countries "mafia nations" while treating, say, the Belgians (who have a whole drug cocktail named after em for heck's sake) and Germans (can one even count that high?) like saintly teetotalers, or ignoring the entirety of the Op Puerto file right when you need buckets of warm bodies for the Tour de France, turning poor Landis on a spit while silently watching as the rest of Phonak's notoriously stoked riders sign sizeable contracts, and wholly ignoring the crucial role that sponsors, managers, team doctors and assorted other money-grubbing leeches play in actively encouraging the trade, I'm gonna call you down. After all, what the hell possible good can it do to scapegoat select high-profile targets who dope and *don't* suck--like Ullrich Heras and Ivan Basso--while letting entirely off the hook riders who dope and *still* suck (you know who you are!)? If you want to take this sport back, UCI, WADA, ASO, and all you other doublespeaking disingenuous goons--and I'm counting the smug German TV stations in this group for their meaningless publicity stunt, who ought for the sake of fairness to boycott every other damn sport plus the next Olympics while we're at it--you can't just pick and choose your little angels; we need consistency, people!

Oh, and my pick for today's flat stage was Boonen, and no I haven't watched the stage yet, so yes I fully expect I was wrong, but Friere and McEwen are out, Petacchi's at home, Thor's whacked with an antibiotic-sucking virus, and much as I want Erik Zabel to take a stage win, as far as I can tell Milram's not interested in helping him. Allez Thor!