The Tour of Shame II ?

The time: July 11th 1998.
The place: down the hill from Christchurch Catheral, outside a pub on the banks of the River Liffey.
The occasion: the prologue time trial for the Tour De France.
We got there early and stood for hours, along with 200,000 others to watch Chris Boardman win.
The next day was a loop through the countryside around Dublin.
The third stage was Dublin to Cork and then off to France(they didn't cycle that part).
I know it's called the Tour De France and Dublin is not in France. There are often stages outside France and next year 2007 Tour de France will start by weaving its way past London's best known landmarks, then continue to Canterbury.
The rest of the 1998 Tour was best known for the drug scandal which saw the whole of the Festina team out of the race and it became known as the Tour of Shame.
The next year, a few days before the Tour started, as I was channel surfing the TV I flicked on to Eurosport just as a Texan was being interviewed. I don't know what made me listen to the interview, maybe it was the way he talked but 20 seconds into the interview I knew this was the man who was going to win the tour that year.
That year was the first of Lance Armstrong's record 7 wins.
Why didn't I put some money on it in '99?
Every year for the past 7 years, three weeks in July have been The Tour and this year was going to be strange without Lance.
Now with more doping scandal and the exclusion of both the other podium finishers from last year, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, and fourth place Franciso Mancebo, it's looking like a very poor tour before it even starts tomorrow.
One whole team, Astana-Wurth(used to Liberty Seguros who have withdrawn sponsorship) may not be able to start as there will be less than the minimum number of riders.

I'll still be watching and cheering for George Hincapie this year.
Here he is on the left, with Lance.

But will it be a Tour to watch?