Now that Floyd Landis has been convicted for the 700th time, the sport can move on to what is important: now and the future. With the Tour right arouind the corner, who has time to rehash old doping allegations? Can't we just let Vino, and Heras, and yes, Landis go once and for all? Let's focus on what's important, the field for this year's Tour de France.
Team rosters are finalized at this point as each rider now anxiously awaits the start in Brest in four days time. The overall contenders are tucked away in the high mountains, taking it easy ahead of the year's biggest test while most of the sprinters and domestiques go about business as usual.
In what will be a whirlwind week for the first timers of this year's Tour, endless interviews and daily distractions will challenge the uninitiated, while veterans like Eric Zabel and Christophe Moreau will smirk with knowing smiles, remembering their first Tour.
Still other riders will be watching from home, as they have not been invited to the 2008 edition. Among them the entire Astana team, winners of the Giro and the best stage racing team in the world. Alberto Contador and his teammates will watch the race unfold, knowing that if they were a part of it, things would probably be different. Ivan Basso, on suspension until September, will lick his chops thinking of 2009. Others like Tom Danielson and Rabobank's Thomas Dekker will bite their lips in frustration after having been left off their team's Tour rosters due to managerial decisions.
Things are starting to come together now, as we lie only four days from the start line in France. All riders are ready, now or never, to contest the most important bike race in the world. Equipment has been prepared, schedules and procedures have been agreed upon and finalized. The only thing left is the racing, which can't come soon enough for the riders, their coaches or the fans themselves.
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