Mad#2

Madeleine turns a beet red whenever exerted, as she is here following Friday-Night-Fives. The kid gives sport 100%, though she has not turned the corner regarding capability. But she will.

Today the starting point of the 11th stage of the Tour de France which famously covers 3,500 kilometres, give or take, of France. The race usually lasts 23 days and broken into day-long segments or "stages." Individual stages are totaled and the leader wears a yellow jersey. The course changes every year but always ends on the Champs-Élysées in the 8th. Quel honneur. Unfortunately the sport has been doped beyond recognition and support, including corporate euro's, has plummeted despite hosting celebrity icon Lance Armstong. The idea of emaciated riders discovered with gnarly intravenous applications and bloody disposables turns even the most die-hard fans. For my part, I do not doubt for a moment that every cyclist using. This includes Armstrong, whose former training partner and teammate Frankie Andreu, stated in a deposition that Armstrong admitted using performance-enhancing drugs to his physician following brain surgery in 1996 - this reported in Le Monde, which I read en francais in 2006. AFLD, the French anti-doping agency, has pursued Armstong as recently as April '09 for violating its rules by not fully cooperating with a drug tester; they have never succeeded but I remain convinced, though I wish it was otherwise. Armstrong states flatly: "I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs." He is a bona fide inspiration for cancer survivors simply being with us today.

“There are two levels of guys. You got the guys that cheat and guys that are just trying to survive.”
--Frankie Andreu, former team captain and part of Armstrong’s inner circle for more than a decade