Sports Blotter Roundup

The wheels are officially coming off the cycles at the Tour de France, as not only have two teams been disqualified for members doping, but the tour leader was pulled by his team because he failed to provide an itinerary for the past several weeks. Oh, and a bomb went off along the Spanish portion of the ride earlier today. The terrorist group, ETA, claimed responsibility. As for the racing, Michael Rassmussen was tossed, even though he was leading the race. He violated his team rules.

The Tour is in complete disarray as leaders have been sacked, high profile cyclists have been tossed, and last year's winner, Floyd Landis, is still under a cloud of suspicion over his performance and a failed test.

Earlier this week, Cofidis pulled its team out of the Tour when rider Cristian Moreni of Italy failed a doping test and was led away by police at the end of the 16th stage. That comes on the heels of another team pulling out because Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a banned blood transfusion. He had won a stage earlier in the race.

It's a sad thing that the sport of cycling is best known for doping scandals, and not the difficulty of winning the most prestigious race, the Tour de France.

Then, there's the ongoing mess with Michael Vick. He's been told to stay away from training camp by the NFL. Some are wondering why the half measures. Well, good question. There's also a good answer. While everything appears stacked against him, he is still presumed innocent under the law. Animal lovers have every right to be pissed off at Vick, but don't get ahead of the legal process. These things also have a way of working out for themselves. It might not be as fast as one would like, but they will work out.

There are also signs that Vick might never take another snap with the Atlanta Falcons, the team that drafted him out of college.

Expect Vick to take a look at what's happened and I expect him to try and cut a deal to get out. Prosecutors will likely try to take this to court, and the evidence certainly seems quite complete.

Oh, and for those still paying attention, there's Barry Bonds and his quest to crack baseball's holy grail, the career baseball home run record. He's sitting at 753, and Hank Aaron stands at 755. The problem for Bonds is that everyone associates him with the steroid scandal, regardless of whether he actually took them or not. His name is indelibly linked with the BALCO mess, and his name keeps popping up, despite his protestations to the contrary. It's surely keeping MLB Commissioner Bud Selig up at night, and perhaps wishing that Bonds comes down with an injury that prevents him from reaching the milestone, but Selig has said he'd be there. Hank Aaron has said he wouldn't attend, which is a shame, since putting the spotlight on Bonds actually makes Aaron's accomplishments all the more impressive - he did them without any claims of performance enhancement.