newton's first law doesn't get enough love.  at the time it was formally presented, it was a stunning advance in understanding the mysterious forces of the physical world around us.  bodies at rest tend to stay at rest while bodies in motion tend to stay in motion.  and this is easily extensible to vectors. 

cyling is on a vector that is not auspicious.  i'm not going to drone on about what i perceive the problems of professional cycling to be.  but i will tell you where it's headed if someone or something doesn't change it.  boxing.  once glorious and spectacular, capturing the popular imagination, the sport of the everyman.  look at it now.  rent by schism.  wracked by gambling and drugs.  plenty of solutions appear to be available but nothing happens.  it's become a shadow of it's former self.  unrecognizable.

to recap only a few of the events from today:

cyclists protest enforcement of doping rules.  ref.   to wit: 10:47 CEST  The départ fictif (neutral start) was expected for 10:40, but all the French teams along with the German squads have vowed to do a sit-in protest at the start, similar to what we have seen in 1998. So the start may get delayed. 10:58 CEST   The riders have now got moving after that protest took place. They have left the start area and are moving toward the end of the neutralised section.

cycling is no longer sporting.  ref.  to wit: "Jean-Francois Lamour, vice president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, suggested Wednesday that the sport could be withdrawn from the Olympics. "

riders who haven't tested postive are basically perceived as guilty.  ref.  to wit: "After a week full of rumours and speculation on the credibility of Michael Rasmussen, the rider and his Rabobank team tried to dissolve the dark clouds that have gathered over the Danish cyclist during a rest-day press conference in Pau. Rasmussen stepped into the press room together with his team manager, Theo De Rooy, and lawyer Harro Knijff - signaling intensions of dealing with the accusations seriously. The accusation is that Rasmussen has been careless in informing the UCI of his whereabouts in the past two years and as a result the media had doubts on the credibility of the Danish rider."

cycling is the pariah of sports.  ref.  to wit: "One of Switzerland's biggest newspapers stopped writing about the Tour because of the recent doping scandals."

it's entertainment value is high, but not in the intended way.  ref.  to wit: vino maintaining he did not dope... "I think it's a mistake in part due to my crash. I have spoken to the team doctors who had a hypothesis that there was an enormous amount of blood in my thighs, which could have led to my positive test."

consigned to the dustbin of history.  who will shed a tear for riders doped to the gills in order that they may maintain their sponsorship deals? all the while undermining the integrity of the sport and the appetite of fans for more?  hmm?  boxing it is...

- posted by scott

p.s. news flash, it's worse than you thought...