The cycling world would do well to realize that this year is the Year of the Giro, and allow the Tour de France a secondary role that it is certainly not willing to accept.
But if the Tour de France has taught cyclists anything, that would be how someone that only owns and organizes an event of global stature, that nearly the entire world notices in July, is capable of stupidity, avarice and ... unZEN karma.
We are not aware of what conversation, or event, transaction, or promise (and we are NOT insinuating bad things) created a change of mind with RCS the organizers of the Giro d'Italia. But we applaud the alignment of the stars, that gives only this, the first of the three Grand Tours, a claim to 'world championship' status.
If the management of the Tour de France, whose 'Tolérance Zéro' only begins on the Tenth Anniversary of the Worst Tour, is paying any attention, they would be biting their nails now, wondering if they've made the wrong 'last stand' at denying the team Astana of Kazakhstan an opportunity to race, with its 2008 winner (via the withdrawal of the leading Michael Rasmussen of RABOBANK, for a 'whereabouts' conflict that erupted in the middle of the race).
Remember: the 1998 FESTINA-stained event, with its drug busts and embarrassing sequels... was ten years ago; it then opened the door to a US Postal >> Discovery Channel sequel. That shift was monumental: it presented to the world, the fabulous, money-making, sport-redefining reign of Lance Armstrong, without whose miraculous, post-cancer "rebirth", the sport of cycling may very well have faded into total obscurity.
We at ZEN Central do wish the riders at the Giro the race of their lives!
And this report will suffice, because, hey! The Giro is on live, now, and we don't want to miss another slippery turn
But if the Tour de France has taught cyclists anything, that would be how someone that only owns and organizes an event of global stature, that nearly the entire world notices in July, is capable of stupidity, avarice and ... unZEN karma.
We are not aware of what conversation, or event, transaction, or promise (and we are NOT insinuating bad things) created a change of mind with RCS the organizers of the Giro d'Italia. But we applaud the alignment of the stars, that gives only this, the first of the three Grand Tours, a claim to 'world championship' status.
If the management of the Tour de France, whose 'Tolérance Zéro' only begins on the Tenth Anniversary of the Worst Tour, is paying any attention, they would be biting their nails now, wondering if they've made the wrong 'last stand' at denying the team Astana of Kazakhstan an opportunity to race, with its 2008 winner (via the withdrawal of the leading Michael Rasmussen of RABOBANK, for a 'whereabouts' conflict that erupted in the middle of the race).
Remember: the 1998 FESTINA-stained event, with its drug busts and embarrassing sequels... was ten years ago; it then opened the door to a US Postal >> Discovery Channel sequel. That shift was monumental: it presented to the world, the fabulous, money-making, sport-redefining reign of Lance Armstrong, without whose miraculous, post-cancer "rebirth", the sport of cycling may very well have faded into total obscurity.
We at ZEN Central do wish the riders at the Giro the race of their lives!
And this report will suffice, because, hey! The Giro is on live, now, and we don't want to miss another slippery turn
___ç-ç*******/ ZENmud \*******ç-ç___
© 2008
© 2008
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