From the Netherlands

In a recent Radio Netherlands' news report, they said...

"The 95th edition of the Tour de France starts in Brest later this afternoon. For the first time since 1967 there is no prologue. The opening stage is a 197.5 kilometre race from Brest to Plumelec. The sprinters are expected to make a good showing as the first stage is fairly flat.

A number of cyclists including Denmark's Michael Rasmussen and last year's winner Alberto Contador, have been excluded from this year's tour due to drugs charges. This year's favourites are Australia's Cadel Evans, Spain's Alejandro Valverde and Russia's Denis Menchov."

I disagree about the way the drug charges comment was presented. Contador and his team are not in the race because of drug use (alleged) by some of his TEAM's riders. Contador was clean, otherwise the UCI et al would be hounding him like they did Floyd Landis.

Further, the Tour seems not to touch another country this year. I'm saying this without taking a closer look at the map, but it seems that everything stays within France for the 95th Tour de France.

Giro complete...here comes the TDF!

With Alberto Contador the 2008 winner of the Giro D'Italia, the next major race on the docket is the Dauphiné Libéré beginning next week in Avignon, France.

And, because we've just cracked the first day of June, we've got a mere month before we find out if Astana will be allowed in the Tour de France in July.

According to reports - READ THE ENTIRE STORY...

Organisers of the Tour de France, run by the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) said earlier this year that the doping scandals which plagued Astana at last year's French race had left them with little choice despite the team undergoing a mass clear-out.

The team's former leader, Alexandre Vinokourov, was fired after testing positive for a blood transfusion during last year's Tour de France.

Weeks after the Vinokourov controversy his fellow Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin also tested positive for blood doping. Other teams riders, including Matthias Kessler and Eddy Mazzoleni, were also involved in doping affairs.

Unlike the French, the Italians relented and finally allowed Astana in.

But I'm worried that this year's Tour will still start with one less team than in previous years and will lack the excitement that Contador, Levi Leipheimer and other Astana riders might have offered.

Stay tuned here while I ramp up the recaps and start to provide my predictions for the 2008 Tour de France.

Keep riding!

No rumblings yet

With all the drug talk in July, I'm surprised that nothing has emerged about the top three riders in this year's (2007) Tour de France.

Friends and other journalists have expressed some concern that Contador, Leipheimer and Evans had such a gap on the rest of the field that they too must have been on the juice.

I'll let you know what's going on as the course gets announced in about 45 days.

Until then, check back here or check Jeff Cutler dot com for more updates on Bowl of Cheese, Novel Ideas (ideas2words.com) and Things to Worry About.

More to come...