With the exception of this years tdf or possibly the World's we are not going to see any big
victories from Lance. Like I have said before in other posts it's regrettable that Lance is not
willing to after some of bigger races besides the tdf. I certainly understand Lance's apprehension
about riding the Giro. But on the otherhand there is nothing to prevent Lance from riding it as a
training race. Lance's arguement that his racing is centered around the tdf. It's hard to come up
with a good explanation for avoiding the fall season.
The TDF and the World's has gained far to much promince and casts far to much influence over the
rest of the season. Lance and his priorities are a definite outcome of all this. One way to solve
this problem would be to change the points distribution. Sponsors would contribute in much the same
way for the TDF. At the end of the year the world cup winner would win a large cash prize. Large
enough so that riders will change their priorites.
"Dec 2002 - Training camp, Austin, TX
January 2003 ~ Training Camp, CA ~ Training Camp, Spain
February - More training in Europe
March ~ 5-9 - Tour of Murcia, Spain ~ 24-28 - Setmana Catalana, Spain
April ~ 8-11 - Circuit de la Sarthe, France ~ 20 - Amstel Gold, Netherlands ~ 23 - La Flèche
Wallonne, Belgium ~ 27 - Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Belgium
May ~ Training month
June ~ 8-15 - Dauphiné Liberé, France
July ~ 5-27 - Tour de France
Aug
Sep
Oct ~ 24-26 - Ride for the Roses Weekend, Austin, TX"