in message <
[email protected]>, h squared
('
[email protected]') wrote:
> Sandy wrote:
>
>> And I am going to watch, anyway. I watched the World Cup, after all.
>
> i tried to watch but don't think i'll continue. watching makes me
> depressed, so what's the point of that?
I'm watching.
It was great to see the Bouygues boys out in the break, it was great to
yell for Tom Boonen even if he went too early and couldn't do it, it was
shocking to see the blood spray off Thor Hushovd's arm - I didn't think
that actually happened, I thought that was just a slasher movie
convention. What a way to mess up a yellow jersey! What happened to his
2004 one? Did that get ripped in the crash?
I'm sorry that those who've gone have gone. I'm still hoping that some of
them will be cleared. I'm sorry that some who are still riding are at
least equally tainted. But... Life wouldn't be the same without these
guys. Seeing Big Magnus winding up for the sprint. Desperately trying to
identify which of the Bouygues guys have gone in the break. Seeing the
peloton in full flight, that blurring mass of colour and talent.
I simply cannot see the drugs issue in black and white. It isn't. Yes,
I'm half convinced that the need to clean up the sport is sufficiently
urgent for draconian measures to need to be taken, but for me personally
Basso is still a hero even if he doped (and Headstrong is still a
villain even if he didn't).
So I'll still be bouncing on the sofa yelling for Bouygues and CSC and
for people like Tom Boonen and Big Maggie and Axel Mercx and possibly
even David Millar (I really liked his attitude in his post-prologue
interview yesterday), I'll still be watching out in other races for
Leonardo Piepolli and Nick Nuyens.
Yes, yet another scandal has taken a bit of the gloss off but I'm
surprised how little, really, for me. Let's face it, in this sport we're
used to scandals.
--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke)
http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb.