Tour de France Began

The Tour started yesterday. I'm feeling a mixture of excitement and dissappointment. Due to the ominous cloud doping has produced, and the childish tactics of a select few, the most competitive team in the world was left at home. Team Astana, who is without a doubt the most talented team this year, and in many years, has been excluded from the race. The reasons are completely illogical, but the decision stands. I can live with it.

What I can't live with is another heartbreak. I can't bear to watch another hero fall. The only thinf I want to see from this year's tour is for smoeone one to take the race by the neck and shake it for all its worth. I don't want to see any tactics or good decisions. I don't want to see the chess game. I don't want to see conservation. I want to see some one so angry and so motivated that they can not do anything else but attack. I want to see people squinting through tears as they come over mountain passes. I want to see the carnage and injuries that can only be accomplished by putting everything that you have on the line. I want to see people at the finish collapse and need medical assistance because their bodies can no longer function.

I want cycling to be real again. I want it to be human. I want to know that these men feel the same thing I do when I'm cold and empty. I want to know that they hurt, they doubt, some give up.

I don't need a champion. I don't need a winner or a yellow jersey. I don't need 21 second

victories.

I need Heroes. Men of mythical accomplishments.