Bradley Wiggins Will Not Win the Tour de France

Bradley Wiggins will not win the Tour de France.  Although Bradley Wiggins is an immensely gifted rider and  Britians greatest hope, he is accident prone and unstable on the mountain stages, prone to falter at critical moments.  Frank Schleck was caught behind in an unfortunate crash and lost two minutes.  Alejandro Valverde suffered the same fate.  Has Schleck and Valverde been eliminated from the race even before the mountain stages? Frank Schleck is an immensely gifted rider and he may make up time on Wiggins in the mountains, but there is still Samuel Sanchez and defending champion Cadel Evans to contend with.  There will be little if any making up of time on Sanchez or Evans on the mountain stages or in the time trials.  Andy Schleck suffered a spinal injury during a classic race, rode an extremely poor time trial, and is certainly out of contention.  Ivan Basso, the perpetual contender is still active, but he is aging and he does not have the same pizazz of yore, when he and Lance Armstrong used to contend stage wins on the cols.  Basso may make the podium, but the chances are remote, so don't bet the sport book.  Levi Leipheimer is also immensely gifted, good in all facets, but prone like Bradley Wiggins to fail at critical moments. At times Levi Leipheimer is prone to inexplicably bad cycling skills and crashes, which diminish his chances of success.  Always a contender Leipheimer will not make the podium this year.  Andreas Kloden, is another timeless competitor who has had varied success over the years. Andreas Kloden could possibly make the podium depending upon his team support, but like Ivan Basso the legs have a million miles and the VO2max has declined with age.  Expect Andreas Kloden to finish in the top ten.  The podium is difficult to predict and if it were not for Frank Schleck being caught behind a crash I would have predicted him to win the 2012 Tour de France, with Cadel Evans second, and perhaps Samuel Sanchez third.  But now?  Pick a card and hope for the best.  Bradley Wiggins, in spite of his natural gifts as a cyclist, will finish off the podium, probably forth or fifth.

Shifting Gears: Why are USADA's Stool Pigeons Allowed to Participate in the 2012 Tour de France?

During the early stages of the tour, the roads of France has been spattered with cyclist blood in an unusually large number of crashes.  But even worse than the crashes were the rumors circulated by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and the New York Times, from anonymous sources linked to USADA and the Jeff Novitzky secret grand jury investigation of Lance Armstrong, that former teammates of Lance Armstrong are scheduled to testify against Lance Armstrong on behalf of USADA concerning an alleged conspiracy of organized and systematic performance drug trafficking within the United States Postal Professional Cycling Team, Team Discovery Channel, Team Astana, and Team Radio Shack.  Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel are accused of drug trafficking and distribution of performance enhancing drugs among the aforementioned teams for a period of fourteen years.  These charges were formulated upon e-mail messages sent from Floyd Landis to USA Cycling and from excerpts gathered from Tyler Hamilton on the news program 60 Minutes along with alleged statements made by former U.S. Postal and Discovery Channel teammates: George Hincapie, Jonathan Vaughters, Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie, and Christian Vande Velde.

De Telegraff  and the New York Times claim that anonymous lawyers connected to USADA claim that during the grand jury testimony George Hincapie, Jonathan Vaughters, Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie, and Christian Vande Velde all admitted, under oath of using performance enhancing drugs and that USADA offered sweetheart deals of shortened suspensions of six months that are to commence in September, 2012 in exchange for favorable testimony against Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel, Dr. Michele Ferrari, and others listed in the USADA charging letter.

Of course, there was an immediate denial of any deal by George Hincapie and Garmin Slipstream sport director Jonathan Vaughters.  George Hincapie merely stated that he felt sorry for Lance Armstrong his old friend and allay.  Jonathan Vaughters claimed that these speculations did not have any thing to do with him, Garmin or Slipstream.

The denials of involvement with any sweetheart deal with USADA is understandable and these sorts of rumors should be staunched at the source to prevent what Travis T. Tygart calls "possible witness intimidation."  Unfortunately the source of the leaks of information comes directly from lawyers who have insider information that is not included in the "public domain."  USADA is directly responsible for the lawyers who leaked witness information to the press are legally culpable if legal action is to ensue because identities of witnesses who appear before secret grand juries are protected by law and testimonies derived from these witnesses are protected by law, and violators of this sacred trust will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Ahem, yes.  But in the meantime these Judas Iscariot types who are willing to sell their very souls for thirty pieces of silver, these USADA stool pigeons who are willing to present to Travis Tygart on a silver platter the head of Lance Armstrong, cretins who are allowed to participate in the 2012 Tour de France unmolested as if they admitted to nothing and testified to nothing. Why this reflects an overt mockery of the anti-doping agenda and this form of hypocrisy cannot be tolerated. After all Micheal Rassmussen was fired by Rabobank for failing to report his whereabouts to the UCI when it was obvious that he was about to win the Tour de France!  But, today, in 2012, we have men who are allowed to compete in the Tour de France, who are admitted dopers!  Men who have not been punished for their crimes, men who are not suspended or sanctioned.  Very well, if Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie, George Hincapie, and Christian Vande Velde have admitted to performance enhancing substance use let them do the only right and honorable thing: resign  from the 2012 Tour de France in disgrace the same way they resigned from participation in the Olympic games.

The the real nightmare will begin and we can all start feeling sorry for George Hincapie who will be relentlessly hounded with "non-analytical positives" for every year he assisted Lance Armstrong to a Tour de France title, shamed into bankruptcy by the relentless pursuit of USADA, and exempt from the statute of limitations...a fate I would not wish upon by worst enemy.  So much for the beloved all American apple pie kid we all used to admire.