Nice guys finish seventh
Category: Cycling/Running/Fitness...
Posted Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 05:32 PM [GMT-6]

I haven't written a word about this year's Tour de France, which finished in Paris this afternoon, in case you didn't realize it. I was focused on other things and had a difficult time getting plugged into the event. And, I'll admit that it's difficult to get excited about a bike race where the main story continues to be the number of riders who are caught cheating by doping. This year, four riders were caught and kicked out (including one on the last day of the race) and one entire team withdrew. Spectator cynicism cannot be avoided under such circumstances.

But that's all the more reason to call attention to the accomplishments of Team Columbia, one of two American-sponsored cycling teams in the race. Team Columbia was formed under and is managed by the premise that it will race clean; its anti-doping stance is a part of its mission statement.

And the team's 2008 Tour performance proved that you don't have to dope to succeed, as it finished a very respectable 7th (out of 20), and one of its riders, British sprinter Mark Cavendish, won four stages. The team finished less than 20 minutes out of third place, which sounds like a lot until you consider that we're talking about more than 10,000 kilometers and 264 hours of riding (as measured for the team competition).

The future looks bright for Team Columbia, as it had three of the top fifteen riders in the "best young rider" competition. I hope it can continue to lead the way by racing fast and clean, and thereby restore some luster to a badly tarnished sport.