The Cycliste Moderne, June 4, 2006

It was a good weekend for Americans

Tour of Luxembourg

Christian Vande Velde won the Tour of Luxembourg for Team CSC on Sunday. Vande Velde became just the second American to ever win the Tour of Luxembourg, which ironically, had been won mostly by cyclists from Luxembourg. Vande Velde rode aggressively and won the overall by sticking with the leading groups in the final three stages. Lance Armstrong won the event in 1998. The Tour of Luxembourg is difficult due to the rolling terrain that the riders face as they race in and around Luxembourg.

Dauphine Libere

Dave Zabriske of Team CSC won the prologue, kicking off the Dauphine Libere in France today. Discovery Channel's George Hincapie finished second. The Dauphine Libere has become one of the most important pre Tour de France preparation races on the calendar. It takes place in southeastern France and frequently covers many of the climbs that will be contested in July. This year the race has a stage finish on Mont Ventoux and its 6th Stage from Briançon to La Toussuire mirrors Stage 16 of the Tour going over the Hors Categorie Col du Galibier and the Col de la Croix de Fer before finishing on the first category climb in to La Toussuire.

The Dauphine Libere has attracted a very strong field with Tour de France contenders, Levi Leipheimer of Gerolsteiner, Floyd Landis of Phonak, Alexandre Vinokourov of Wurth, Denis Menchov of Rabobank, Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears and Discovery Channel's Tour hope Yaroslav Popovych all lining up at the race. Some riders have peaked too early and ridden too strongly at the Dauphine Libere as Iban Mayo did a couple of years ago and as Lance Armstrong did the year before that.

With the climbing and time trialing required to win the Dauphine Libere, it is always a good race to test the form of the top Tour contenders a month before the Grande Boucle departs.

Doping Item Number 1

The UCI's independent evaluation of the L'Equipe investigation into Lance Armstrong's purported use of EPO during the 1999 Tour de France was released this week to the consternation of the UCI, WADA, L'Equipe and others. Dutch attorney and former Dutch doping chief Emile Vrijman issued a report highly critical of WADA and the French lab that conducted the tests that L’Equipe claimed proved Armstrong had doped during the 1999 Tour de France. The UCI immediately criticized Vrijman for releasing the report independently without letting the UCI review it first. WADA and its chief, Canadian attorney Dick Pound, criticized the report and Vrijman alleging that WADA and Pound had been defamed by Vrijman's findings. L’Equipe claimed it stood by its account

The 132 page report is available at Velonews.com. I would recommend you read it and draw your own conclusions. Even ESPN.com ran a story about how no one is a winner in this mess and how even when Armstrong is vindicated that more issues are raised. At the end of the day, Vrijman’s report does not prove Armstrong did not dope. Instead Vrijman’s report does establish that the tests that were performed and the surrounding issues would preclude any determination that Armstrong did dope.

Most importantly, Vrijman’s report does call into question WADA’s commitment to its own regulations, the French lab’s commitment to valid science, and the validity of any testing on samples more than five years old that lack any semblance of a chain of custody to actually believe they are what the are purported to be.

Doping Item Number 2

As discussed last week, Liberty Seguros/Liberty Insurance terminated its sponsorship of the Spanish team it sponsored with Wurth. The team lined up to race this week in plain blue and white jerseys with the Wurth logo on the front. Cycling media outlets are reporting that a consortium of companies from Kazakhstan will sponsor the team for the remainder of the season to support Kazakh national hero Alexandre Vinokourov. However, reports also suggest that the ASO, the organizer of the Tour de France, will seek to exclude the team from the Tour de France as a result of Manolo Saiz arrest. The ASO is waiting to see what action the ProTour will take against the team before it will act. Although the ProTour and the organizers of the Grand Tours had apparently come to an agreement to end their bitter dispute, this issue is likely to inflame tensions between the two if the ProTour fails to take action against the team. Needless to say, Alexander Vinokourov finds himself the likely victim of whatever wrangling occurs as he seeks to improve his aggressive performance in last year's Tour de France for T-Mobile where he finished fifth overall, winning the final stage on the Champs Elysees.

Uni Watch

Paul Lukas, ESPN.com’s fashion maven and biweekly contributor to Page 2, has recently launched a daily blog on sports uniform issues.

It is a shame that he is a Paul come lately and failed to recognize the Cycliste Moderne as the original blog on sports fashion, particularly cycling fashion. That does not mean that he is not a really enjoyable read, especially if your sporting interests cover the whole gamut of sports.

Anyway. here are the links to last July’s Tour fashion ratings. We will do the same again this season.