Youthful exuberance

Six of the top ten riders in this years Tour de France were Spanish (and thirteen of the top twenty-five). The winner of the Yellow Jersey is also the winner of the White Jersey (i.e. he's under 25). The winner of the polka dot jersey, and the most aggressive rider are also both under under 25. In fact when they had all the jersey winners up on the podium the only one over 25 was Boonen (who's 26). The face of the tour is changing. Spanish riders have always been among the best of the best. In fact the record Lance Armstrong broke (for Tour wins) was previously held by a Spaniard (Miguel Indurain), but the young guys at the top is new.

Lance Armstrong was 27 when he won his first Tour and 34 when he retired and that's a pretty good indicator of the average age. Presumably they have the under 25 competition because no one under 25 (usually) wins the overall competition. There's talk, even in the NY Times (my favorite periodical), that the baby faces on the podium is an indicator of the sport getting cleaner.

In the 90s (and probably before) doping was ubiquitous. Everyone knows about the 1998 Festina scandal that decimated the Tour that year and precipitated the current focus on cleaning up the sport. It was difficult at the time though. If they caught one or two top riders doping (or even an entire team as was the case with Festina that year) there was still dozens, maybe hundreds, of other riders doping and when you came up to the pro circuit you had to compete with all of them. So, it's been a gradual process.

Now though, young riders coming up aren't willing to risk their lives or their careers to possibly get ahead, and team managers won't put up with dirty riders, and the UCI and race organizers cracking down. In sports there's always going to be people who, through doping or winning the genetic lottery, can't be beaten, but it no longer seems to be the case that it leads to a downward spiral where everyone has to cheat, not to win, just to stay in the game. As more people who are used to the old way, where doping was the only way to get ahead, retire (or get caught and banned) the young riders can now face a clean field.

This years Tour was wide open. No Lance Armstrong, no Ivan Basso, no Jan Ulrich. The giants of the sport who couldn't be beaten have retired. It was great watching Lance Armstrong dominate the Tour year after year, but after a few years it started to become sort of routine, not as exciting. There may still be a long way to go to eliminate doping, for that matter, the seemingly clean youngsters rising to the top these days might not be, but it sure is fun to watch the race and not feel like the outcome is a forgone conclusion.