What has happened since the '08 Tour

A lot happened in this years Tour de France and the aftermath is still being felt.

Rasmussen being sacked by his team while leading the worlds biggest bike race. Unheard of, and all I can think is that team management had some pretty hard evidence that they thought had a good chance to going public. Theo de Rooy the team manger that fired Rasmussen left the team after the Tour. American fans who followed bike racing know de Rooy from the focus CBS gave him in some of their coverage of both Paris-Roubaix and the Tour as a typical domestique. Rasmussen has not been suspended by the UCI and is doing criteriums in Europe.

Discovery no more. It was announced months ago that the Discovery channel would not be sponsoring a cycling team after this year. It was thought that with their success they would find a new primary sponsor, but soon after a rider for the team won it’s 8th Tour it was announced that Tail Wind Sports would not have a team in ’08. This seems a lot like in the 80-90’s when 7-11 became Motorola and then ended just as the USPS team was ramping up. Now it is Slipstream team run by Vaughters that has the big plans for next year that is on the rise. Maybe American cycling can only support 1 major European based team at a time.

In more upbeat news Tour de France star Mauricio Soler won the 2nd stage of the Vuelta a Burgos and is leading the race against some top competition. I can only hope that unlike most riders from Columbia in the past 10 years he has more then one great year.

Comments

[Frederikke Toemmergaard]

Hello,

I have read your blog with great interest, and have a small request for
you.

We are a group of journalism students who are covering the sports conference
Play the Game on Iceland.

Doping and the use of performing enhancing medicine is playing a big role
up here and we have made several articles on the topic already.

We are hoping to create a dialogue on our page about the issue, and would
greatly appreciate if you would look by our webpage, www.thepulse2007.org,
and take part in the debate.

Youre experience and knowledge would be very welcome,

Regards
Frederikke Toemmergaard
The Pulse

[Frederikke Toemmergaard]

Hello,

I have read your blog with great interest, and have a small request for
you.

We are a group of journalism students who are covering the sports conference
Play the Game on Iceland.

Doping and the use of performing enhancing medicine is playing a big role
up here and we have made several articles on the topic already.

We are hoping to create a dialogue on our page about the issue, and would
greatly appreciate if you would look by our webpage, www.thepulse2007.org,
and take part in the debate.

Youre experience and knowledge would be very welcome,

Regards
Frederikke Toemmergaard
The Pulse