Daily Dope

Yep, I'm still watching. Can't help it.

And oh, what drama. A few more bombshells to rock the Tour as the increasingly secondary drama of a bike race plays itself out on stage 16.

As the race took a slight detour through the Basque part of Spain, a roadside bomb apparently went off. ETA?

And, of course, there's news of another positive dope test. This time from stage 11. No word on who it was yet. But Hunter, Rasmussen, Kirchen, Villa, Moreni, Jegou, and Zabel were the riders tested.

Persona non grata #1 has responded to his own encounter with the dope police:

I heard that I made a transfusion with my father's blood. That's absurd, I can tell you that with his blood, I would have tested positive for vodka.

Good one. He also offered the following explanation for yesterday's events:

I think it's a mistake in part due to my crash. I have spoken to the team doctors who had a hypothesis that there was an enormous amount of blood in my thighs, which could have led to my positive test.

The setting up of our team made a lot of people jealous and now we're paying the price. It's a shame to leave the Tour this way, but I don't want to waste time in proving my innocence.

That should clear things up.

Nice to see that there's at least one person who believes that there are some clean riders up at the front of the race. Cyclingnews.com reports:

Speaking to Cyclingnews' Brecht Decaluwé this morning, Belgian Tom Boonen heralded Cadel Evans as 'the first clean rider.' He was expressing his doubts over Rasmussen and, it would seem, Contador also.

Evans was pleased to hear that. "There are not many prices and accolades for doing your job correctely, the prices and accolades are for the winner. I'm proud of the fact that someone like Tom said that about me. I am very happy to hear that."

Nice to see that my guy for the GC seems to be legit. That has to count for some bonus points of some sort. Will have to make a rules ammendment. Then again, maybe we should offer bonus points for whomever can predict the next rider to flunk a drug test.

Meanwhile, there's a bike race going on. Carlos Sastre is trying to pull a Floyd. He attacked on the first climb of the day and is still up front. Sastre was the only guy to chase Floyd last year. Hope he can pull it off. And hope he does so without getting caught up in the incresingly tight net cast by the testers.