Tour of California on Versus - oh yeah!

Cable guy came and I'm now all set for the Tour of California viewing spectacular. I have already set the DVR so I can watch the coverage over and over. Hopefully it's all in HD too.

So I broke down what I thought about Astana. Still think Levi is the favorite. But lets look at some of the other guys riding in the ToC.

Back from suspension
There are three guys who got banned for doping who I'll be watching in this race. Ivan Bass0, Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton.

Basso
I think Basso has the most potential but probably not in this race. At 31, he's the youngest of the three riders. The former winner of the Giro d'talia was banned for two years after admitting he had "attempted to dope" but says he did not ever actually dope (he apparently did not inhale). The Italian was a star on the rise when he got banned so I'll be interested in seeing how the two years off have or have not changed him. But Basso has other goals on his plate this year and as a member of Liquigas he'll be able to race in Europe and enter more high stakes races. So I think he may be missing that motivation to be a true factor in this race.

Landis
Now Floyd Landis on the other hand, he's very motivated to do well in the ToC. I have to assume even the most casual cycling fan knows the sad story of Floyd Landis. The former Lance Armstrong teammate had his victory at the Tour de France in 2006 stripped after he failed a doping test. Landis is back from his two-year ban and is riding for the domestic squad OUCH. This means Landis will not be racing in Europe and the ToC is probably the biggest race of the year for OUCH. In interviews Landis has acted like he might not be the GC contender for his team, but I have to believe that's him trying to act like he's no better than anyone else on his squad. Also, Landis was the winner of the very first ToC.

One benefit of Landis' suspension was that it gave him time to have his hip resurfaced (Yes, you read that right. He had that surgery that's a step below hip replacement, and he's 33). A bad crash in training left Landis with a bum hip, which he raced on for four years. Landis says it feels great to ride without pain. I bet! Landis may be in the mix of things because he's a good climber and won his share of time trials, but I think if he's going to have success on a big U.S. stage this year it will more likely come in the Tour of Missouri or U.S. championships toward the end of the year.

Hamilton
And finally we come to Mr. Nice Guy Tyler Hamilton. Hamilton has had a long road back to the big times. He was banned for blood doping in 2004 for two years. Wait, it's 2009 now? It's true, his ban ended in the middle of 2006 and he signed with a team and did ride in 2007. But news reports were linking Hamilton to the doping scandal Operation Puerto and saying he had tried to dope in 2002-2004 (based on the failed test in 2004, seems like he did inhale). The bad publicity proved too much for his team Tinkoff Credit Systems and they parted ways in a messy legal battle (which I think may still be on-going).

Last year Hamilton signed with Rock Racing but the Tour of California would not let him ride. He would end his year on a high note by winning the U.S. road championship (now he gets to wear a cool red, white and blue jersey all year. Captain America costume all set for Halloween!). So here we are in 2009, five years after Hamiltion's fall and the ToC is apparently going to let him ride this year. I'm not sure if they feel he's served his time or just realized it'd be weird to ban the current U.S. road cycling champion from their race. Hamilton is very competitive, he paid his dues as a domestique to Armstrong and spent the years in which he would have had his best chances at glory banned from the sport. Hamilton's almost 38. The clock is ticking. Add in all the concerns about his team Rock Racing and whether they're going to be around for very much longer (they can't find a sponsor to put up the big bucks) and the time is very much now for Hamilton. But does he have enough left in the tank to make anything happen? I guess we'll find out.