Menchov not invited at Tour de France:

As you probably know, today ASO has published the list of teams invited to this year edition of Tour de France. To my horror, the name of Geox team didn't appear on said list. The teams that were invited to the prestigious French race in fact were Cofidis, FDJ, Team Europcar and, dulcis in fundo, the super famous Saur-Sojasun team. After all, why should ASO have invited Menchov and Sastre's team when they knew they could have Casper and Coppel's equipe? It would have been a non-sense choice! Moreover, Saur-Sojasun team kits perfectly match the colour of Movistar's ones and this fact may cause some confusion between supporters. What a joy! And, perhaps, after being invited to the Tour this team will assume such a 'grandeuristic' attitude that they'll start to send mails to the journalists and tell them to write the team's name in capitals. That would be great for French cycling, wouldn't it? And then, Saur-Sojasun is a French team, so its riders will surely enter a breakaway on the Bastille Day, won't dope during the race and they won't force French journalists to speak English. And then, in this team there are so many unknown riders! I mean, Geox has Sastre and Menchov, ok, but none of them is a great beauty, right? And then, those guys have been racing for about 10 years now, we supporters are fed up with them! So, let's give space to French teams, they deserve it so much! And then, let's not forget that Geox kit may look like Footon-Servetto's old one and ASO guys don't want naked-looking guys riding on the French roads in July, right? It would damage tourism!!
I'm trying to be funny while writing this post but, believe me, I am scandalised, I mean, 's-c-a-n-d-a-l-i-s-e-d-', by ASO's decision. Ok, Carlos Sastre was pretty disappointing in the last 2 seasons, but you can't decide not to invite Menchov at the Tour! How can a person without mental problems consciounsly decide not to invite him there? Denis is the most complete Grand Tour rider of the world (Andy Schleck is better than him on the climbs, but the Russian is better in time trials) and was 3rd in the last Tour; moreover, in the last years he won two Vueltas and a Giro. Why not inviting him then? What kind of illegal substance damaged the brain of ASO's guys so much to make them take this decision? Did they sniff clenbuterol?
'Contador has damaged cycling', McQuaid has recently said in an interview. Well, in my opinion ASO organisers have just joined the Spaniard in his attempt of trying to disgust cycling supporters once again.
As a supporter, every time I watch a Grand Tour I hope that, in the end, its winner will be a rider that has deserved that victory. A rider that isn't doped, a rider that has made me feel strong emotions, a rider that has beated all the other strongest riders of the world. This happens to be particularly true for the Tour de France, the most important cycling Grand Tour of the world. All the best riders of the world should be able to take part in it, no matter the Pro Tour systems or b******** like that. Then it's true that it's almost impossible to have all the best riders of the world in the same race, because unfortunately there is always someone who is injured or has had health problems or so on. But still, I think that the best riders of the world shouldn't be excluded by the most important race of the world because of the organisers' stupidity. Because, when a team as Geox is excluded from a race like the Tour, then it means that we're not talking cycling anymore. It means that we're talking politics, patriotism, revenge or things like that. But we're not talking sport. And sport, when I watch cycling races, is the only thing I actually care about.
Talking about cycling races, the Tour is considered the best Grand Tour of the world. Therefore, from the theoric point of view, the rider who wins it should be the best Grand Tour rider of the world. Now, me wonders: how can we know if 2011 TdF winner would have beaten Menchov if he had had the chance to race? Personally, if right now I were a Tour de France's possible contender, I wouldn't be happy to know about Denis' exclusion from the race. In my opinion, in fact, a Tour without all the best riders of the world is a Tour without value.
Talking about Menchov, I really don't know how he must be feeling right now and I wouldn't like to be in his shoes tonight. I mean, Denis was born in 1978 (on the 25th of January), isn't a 'young gun' anymore and, perhaps, he won't have many other years at this level in front of him. If I were him, I would be terribly angry at ASO right now. Perhaps they didn't realise it, but with their decision the ASO guys might have just destroyed Menchov's sportive dream. It's easy for us to say 'He can always try to win the race next year', but there are many things that can change in 365 days time- everything can change in 365 days time.
Now of course Menchov and Sastre hope that their team will be invited to Giro and the Corsa Rosa will become their main goal of the season. Hopefully mr. Zomegnan cares about cycling more than his colleagues at ASO and so he will invite Geox to his race.
It will surely take me some time to get used to the idea that Menchov won't race the Tour, but perhaps the most disgusting thing about this story is that supporters can't do nothing about it. Riders are said to count nothing in the cycling world, but supporters count even less than them. 'It's another defeat for cycling, it's another delusion for the tifosi, it's another blow for cycling's credibility!', that's what Very Important People say every time a rider is caught positive at the anti-doping. Too bad that, imo, also not inviting the best riders to the most important race of the world is a loss of credibility for cycling, another defeat for the sport and, most important, another delusion for the tifosi. Personally, I've rarely felt so disappointed because of cycling. People always believe there's justice in this world, too bad that it's not true... Btw, I realise that I'm slipping into cliché, moralism and all those kind of things, so it's better if I stop this post here. The lack of solutions for this situation leaves me disappointed and disgusted, powerless and worried.
Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it, apart from thinking that, of course, there are more important things in the world (and I'm perfectly aware of this, don't worry). For example, HTC Columbia rider Carla Swart, 23 year-old, died the other day while training. My deepest condolences go to her familiars and friends.

PS1: I wrote this post as soon as I got the news of ASO's decision, when I was even angrier than now at the Tour organisers, therefore anger might have caused me to make more mistakes than usual int. If so, I apology.

PS2: in the first part of this post I wrote about Saur-Sojasun. I want to make it clear that I don't have nothing against that team and that I perfectly know that it's not their fault if Menchov's team was excluded from the Tour.