Rogers wins in wake of doping humdrum
By: Roger Ewing
On Sunday afternoon, I watched the 8th stage of the Tour of California on the corner of Agoura Rd and Cornell across from Padri’s Restaurant. The course was at total of 83.5 miles, breaking down into 4 grueling loops up Mulholland hwy. Check out the video as the cyclists turn onto Cornell from Agoura road.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syWNAWpPJAI[/youtube]
The winner of the tour, Michael Rogers’, posted an overall time of 33 hours 8 minutes 30 seconds; just nine seconds better than runner-up David Zabriskie. Despite his win, Rogers was notably verbose about the recent doping allegations made by Floyd Landis.
“I’m getting a little bit sick of this,” Rogers said. “There are so many great performances. The sport has got to get away from the negativity. Everyone has to pull their weight, from riders to management to race organizers. We all have to do everything we can because it’s killing our sport.”
Just days ago, Landis accused Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie and Hincapie of doping more than 5 years ago.
Hincapie, who came in 15th overall, responded by saying, “There will always be people who cheat in life, not only sports, but cycling has done more than any other sport to clean things up. Nobody wants the sport cleaner than me. To talk about stuff from eight years ago is a waste of time. Talk about what we do to make the sport clean now.”
Interestingly, Armstrong fell in the Tour of California just hours after Landis accused him of doping. Armstrong permanently withdrew from the race after receiving stitches and injuring his elbow. The issue of doping continues to remain an area of controversy. To learn more about the testing process, go here.
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