Cycle Sport America has photographs of six
riders on cover of their Tour de France
Guide 2006. So far four of those riders
are out of the race due to withdrawal
or injury. [ Photo: Cycle Sport America ]

Has anyone noticed that two-thirds of the riders depicted on the Cycle Sport America cover for July 2006 have left the Tour de France due to the Operacion Puerto revelations or due to injuries sustained on the road?

• Ullrich: Out due to decision by T-Mobile Team in response to Operacion Puerto disclosures,
• Basso: Out due to decision by Team CSC in response to Operacion Puerto disclosures,
• Valverde: Out due to broken collar bone in crash during Stage 3,
• Landis: Currently in 9th place in the General Classification,
• Hincapie:Currently in 3rd place in the General Classification,
• Vinokourov:Out due to failure of his team (Liberty Seguros / Astana / Wurth / whatever) to have the minimum number of riders available to start the Tour de France, again due to Operacion Puerto.

I love to read Cycle Sport. They've just been extremely unlucky, as have all of the major cycling magazines, in whom they chose as their featured riders on the cover. Hopefully George Hincapie and Floyd Landis will survive all the way to the finish in Paris.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Cycle Sport, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Alejandro Valverde, Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, Alexander Vinokourov.