Racing: the Tour, the Olympics and the Mayor

I don't cover the international racing scene. Heck, I barely cover the local racing scene (due to ignorance, not malice). But there have been a few big stories including a race in France.

First, Floyd Landis lost his appeal and his final chance to retain his 2006 Tour de France title.

A three-person panel at the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a previous panel's decision, ruling his positive doping test during the Tour two years ago was, indeed, valid.

The US Olympic Team was named

George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer were among 21 cyclists nominated for the United States Olympic team. Hincapie  will  represent the United States  at the Olympics for a fifth time.

Others nominated for the men's road team were Jason McCartney, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie. Only Kristin Armstrong was nominated for the women's road team, with two others to be selected.

The men's cycling track team will consist of Michael Blatchford, Adam Duvendeck, Michael Friedman, Bobby Lea, Giddeon Massie and Taylor Phinney.

Women's track will feature Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed.

The mountain bike team will include Adam Craig and Todd Wells for the men and Georgia Gould for the women. One other women's has yet to be determined.

Kyle Bennett, Mike Day and Donny Robinson were named to the men's bicycle motocross (BMX) team, while Jill Kintner earned the lone women's spot for BMX.

Sarah Hammer? She's no Thor, but it's a great name. I'm a fan already. Expect numerous updates.

The tour started without any riders who'd previously won it* (Lance Armstrong is retired, and Landis and Alberto Contador were in various levels of hot water)

Spaniard Carlos Sastre won (if you don't know that by now, you probably don't care) a doping-scandal plagued Tour this year. 

Last year's winner (Alberto Contador) and top American hopeful Levi Leipheimer (third place last year) were absent because their new team, Astana, was banned from the games because of previous doping scandals. And four riders were dropped during this year's Tour, including Stages 6 and 9 winner Riccardo Ricco, for positive tests.

Whether it was the doping or the lack of an American near the top, viewership this year was down in the US.

Average viewership of the Tour on Versus declined 18 percent this year

In local racing news, DC's most famous bike racer was injured in a bike crash on Tuesday, but I have few details.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty flipped over the front of his high performance road bike while training yesterday on Whitehurst Freeway.

*Oscar Pereiro, the official 2006 winner did race. By chance, of the 30 minutes I watched of the tour, I saw Pereiro crash over a guardrail ending his race.

Update: The Post had an article on Fenty's crash

Fenty, 37, was riding with his older brother Shawn, 43, and other members of the competitive cycling team D.C. Velo when his bike hit a seam in the road near the on-ramp to the Whitehurst Freeway in Georgetown, Shawn Fenty said.

The bike Fenty (D) was riding was a special model used for "time trials," in which the racer's elbows are rest on bars in front of him. Such bikes, Shawn Fenty said, are faster but are harder to control.

Brooks said she did not know whether the mayor will compete in the Nation's Triathlon in the District on Sept. 14.

Comments

[Chris]

Maybe with the downtime the mayor will have as result of his accident will give him some time to focus on other bicycle-related issues, like getting the city to actually enforce the bike/bus lane on 7th Street or some such thing.

[Nancy]

That should be Carlos SASTRE.

[Jack]

Does this mean that if someone honks at us while riding on the Whitehurst Freeway, we can yell back that the mayor does it?

[washcycle]

Yeah, I had a bunch of spelling errors in this one.

[josh]

This was actually one of the most dope free tours in more than a decade.
Also, an American was in the top five, nothing to sneeze at.

[washcycle]

5th place is fine for Canadians, but America demands more!