Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Alexandre Vinokourov won his first Grand Tour in his own way. The man who is always on the attack was finally able to put it all together and upend the Vuelta just as it looked like an Alejandro Valverde coronation. The Spaniards must be crying in their tapas and wine while the fighting Kazak is going home with the Amarillo Fleece. Kazakstan can be happy that they get some positive news in the press and can show the face of Vino and Kashekin instead of Borat to the world. Borat is hilarious, but the wave of Kazakstan news must have more folks that normal checking out background info on the tiny and cold country.

With several stage wins including a sprint stage, a mountain stage and time trial Vino is looking at next year’s Tour de France with renewed enthusiam. After the unnecessary expulsion of his revamped Astana team from competing in the Tour de France, Vino showed the world what could have been in July. This year’s Tour would have been rip for Vino to pounce on with the ameoba like way in which it evolved. Hopefully if Vino’s team does not suffer through any more Operation Puerto issues and gets a full time spot on the Pro Tour then Alexandre Vinkourov can try and plan his year around the one race that eluded him this year.

Now that Vino is celebrating I can’t help but feel that I should be waiting for the other shoe to drop. After Roberto Heras’s EPO positive result and Ivan Basso’s name showed up in Operation Puerto and Floyd Landis’ testosterone positive, you can’t help but feel like you want to wait for the dust to settle before officially acknowledging that Vino won. This has been a tough year for cycling. If all is clear, then this will be the first Grand Tour in about a year with a “legit” winner. Let’s just hope that Vino enjoys his win and his name is not associated with doping any time soon or ever. I just don’t think I could take another scandal.