The Real Truth: Is Sabotage Now Part of Tour de France?

It is certainly tempting to talk about how ill-fated this year's Tour de France has been. Crashes galore.  Mechanical failures.  And everything we are not used to seeing.

In the recent past, most winners have had either the air of drugs or proven drug use to pull the Tour down.  Winners turn out to be losers, superhuman feats turn to bad memories of drugged performances, and the Tour—as misbegotten as any world-famous sporting event—has taken it all in stride.

Now, we have spectacular crash after spectacular crash.  What used to be a gentleman's sport—i.e., Lance Armstrong's delays in order for more than one fallen rival restore his position at least a bit—has turned to an outright leave-in-the-dust attitude. Before his fall, Armstrong cautioned a rider from sprinting ahead because of a rival's fall.

To little avail.

We are now in an age of sport as TV entertainment only, with fewer real competitors and many teams whose destiny is riding on this year or next.  A kind of scene that in today's decreasing morality can result in more win-at-any-cost mentality than ever before.

So we have to ask.  Is this an ill-fated Tour, or are all the welts, heartaches, and failures part of team schemes to get rid of rivals?

The real truth may never emerge from all this.  Yet, it is clearly worth at least an in depth look.

We will see.