Will it ever stop?

The last few days have been exciting and devastating for me. Two of my favorite sports are cycling and soccer, and the biggest events for both are underway right now: the World Cup, and the Tour de France. Sadly, overshadowing the whole thing has been the Operacion Puerto investigation of doping in Spain. Names were finally released, and riders have been suspended. Basso (2nd place 2005) and Ullrich (3rd place 2005) were both kicked out, along with the 4th place finisher (Mancebo). Vinokourov, who finished 5th was innocent, but enough riders from his team were guilty that they couldn't even start the race. With Lance retired, that means the top 5 from last year are gone! While that will make for a very interesting, and possible American dominated Tour 2006, what a fiasco! I'm disgusted at my own sport. Sadly, there are also about 100 other athletes who have been implicated in the same investigation, but it hasn't been publicized like this. If you want my opinion, see http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/9930.0.html. You'll find my comments at the bottom of the page.

World Cup soccer has been great. I've seen a few upsets and disappointments, but today I was ecstatic to see Portugal beat the overrated English squad to move on to the semi-finals. Brazil's performance was disappointing, and although I was cheering for them I am glad France won today. Brazil just didn't play well enough to deserve the win.