The Virtual Musette: A Road Cycling Blog

Sorry to leave you all hanging for so long, but there is no way in hell I'm going through the effort of updating the rankings until Alberto Contador's situation is resolved. I wouldn't expect to see new rankings until September.      

In the meantime, if you'd like to check out the articles I write for my professional bike fitting business, VeloFit Revolution, you can visit my other blog. 

 Update (11/3/11): Still waiting. Maybe we'll have a final verdict on Contador's situation before the end of the year. Again, until that time comes, I won't be able to update the rankings.  

Update (1/15/12): And still we wait. Newest ETA for the Contador ruling is the end of January.  Regardless of the outcome, the process is obviously broken and needs to be changed. I'm sorry to all the loyal readers of this site for having to wait so long for the new rankings.

I'll weigh in with my opinion on this mess. Contador had Clen in his system after the 2nd rest day at the 2010 Tour. I've never heard anyone in Alberto's camp argue this point. Whether or not the drug got into his system accidentally does not change this fact; the drug was there, there is no threshold limit, and his '10 Tour title must be stripped. If I'm one of the CAS panelists, I'd give him a one year ban, strip the Tour title, and let him keep all other race results - after all, his Federation did clear him to race, and those are the rules, love them or hate them. Contador has already served the one year ban by not having raced for both the second half of 2010 and 2011, thus he should be free to race at the start of this season.  I know my scenario would not be satisfactory to either side in the debate over his guilt or innocence, but it's a compromise that could allow this drama to be put to rest once and for all.

Regardless of the outcome, I find it incredible that El Pistolero was still able to race at the highest level last season. Once he's free to ride again without the burden of an impending sanction hanging over his head, I expect him to go on a tear and break Merckx's Grand Tour record of 11 victories. I don't think it's too hard of a stretch to imagine that he could take the Tour/Vuelta or Giro/Vuelta double at least a few times for the remainder of his career. Also, despite his tired legs after attempting the Giro/Tour double last year, I'd be surprised if he doesn't attempt this at least one more time.  Based on the soundbites I've been able to piece together, Alberto seems to care about his place in the hierchy of great champions, and that's why I'm a fan. He's the first cyclist since Sean Kelly to have real shot at making the jump into the Top 5 by the end of his career.  Indurain and Armstrong might have have been capable of reaching Anquetil's point totals, but simply didn't race to win in enough high scoring races to get even close, particularly the week long stage races.  Twenty years down the road I think we'll look back on the career of Contador and come to the conclusion that he was the greatest stage racer the sport has ever seen.  I'm looking forward to witnessing history in the making, and I hope it resumes with the start of this season.