I honestly thought the doping news would be limited to riders like Beltran that are in the later part of the careers and other riders not in the top of the GC. The news today about Riccò is obviously disappointing. I was just beginning to really like him as a rider as well. I hope it is just him on the Saunier Duval-Scott team and nobody else. Though right now I look at Stage 10 and am reminded of the Gewiss-Ballan team at the La Flèche Wallonne in 1994, but hope it is not like that.
With Riccò gone it is hard to tell what impact if any it will have on the GC. We lost the rider that animated the race the most. The CSC team with the Schleck brothers and Sastre are the obvious candidates to fill this role. The one competition this has the biggest impact is the King of the Mountain as Riccò had a decent lead there. In fact 4 of the top 10 riders in the King of the Mountains were Saunier Duval–Scott riders. It is incredibly unusual for that competition not to be effectively done by the time they get to the 2nd mountain range in the Tour.
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