OK, so I know I’m being petty and I understand their reasoning, but I still think it’s lousy.
I picked up a copy of Velonews yesterday.(It was the only copy at Teck’s on Chestnut Street. What else am I going to do when it’s 12 degrees and I’m sick of wearing layers and I’m stuck in the gym?) With the magazine was the Velonews-produced guide to the Tour of California.
The bad taste in my mouth started with the cover of the guide, with George Hincapie with raised hands winning a stage. I’m not a fan of Hincapie, but that’s not the point. The point is that he did not win last year’s inaugural tour. Floyd Landis did.
The guide is nearly a Landis-free zone. In the 84-page guide, there is all of three photos of the only man to have ever won the race. There is a fourth photo if you look closely and see him among the bunch. Two of those photos are in advertisements over-which, conceivably, the publisher had no control. His is only identified in one photo. That one is an advertisement.
The salt on the wound here is thatCalifornia was ecstatic about embracing him as a homeboy last February when he won the race and again in July when he won the Tour de France. Now, in a guide that is largely a tourism promotion effort of the state, he doesn’t even get a mention. (Admittedly, I haven’t read the text of the guide yet. I just got it. As I said, I know I’m ranting here.)
The race officials are averting their eyes, like a rich person passing a homeless man sitting on the street. And Floyd won’t even have an opportunity to prove his innocence until mid-May.
I know Floyd has said already that he had written off the 2007 racing season, but it is still a shame that he will not have the opportunity to defend his titles in California, or at the Tour of Georgia, Paris-Nice and the Tour de France. (He eliminated himself from the last two with the pledge he made Monday, via a letter read by his attorneys at a Paris hearing. Floyd asked for a postponement in the French anti-doping agency hearing until his U.S. hearing is resolved. As part of the deal, Floyd said he would not race in France this year.)
I’d like to see him cleared and still have a chance to compete this year. And, hopefully next year, officials and sponsors won’t be running from him.
