I don’t mean to be a jerk or anything and I hate to pick on people while they’re down. But I heard something that caught my attention this morning that’s got me a little put off.

During their daily Tour de France coverage, Versus is playing a promotional message exclaiming with great excitement: “Who will win the Tour de France!?!” The spot then goes on to list all of the major contenders and ends up with American Levi Leipheimer.

In summarizing Levi’s chances, they conclude with another question: ‘Will Levi make it nine Tour de France victories in a row for America!?!’

That’s where I said, ‘wait a second!’ Is Versus bold enough to really ask that question without any disclaimers on it?

Let’s do the math here. Lance Armstrong won seven Tours in a row. Check. Number eight would be last year’s win by Floyd Landis. That’s where the problem comes in.

After Landis was accused of doping, his Tour victory became clouded. Over the past year, there has been a lot of legal action over the issue and the appeals with the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) have not yet been concluded. But should Landis lose his appeals, he will be stripped of his Tour title. (Read a very good recap of the issues by clicking here.)

The UCI, which is the national governing body of cycling, still officially lists Landis as the winner of the 2006 Tour de France, as does a listing on the vernerable resource Wikipedia.

But Tour officials do not. The official website of the Tour de France has the letters “NC” next to the results of Floyd Landis in its database of rider history for 2006. Oscar Pereiro, who would move up into the winning slot if Landis was stipped of the title, also has an NC (rather than a ‘2′ denoting second place) next to his name.

I also find it interesting that the official web-site has the results in its history archive for every race from 1903 to 2005 – but excludes 2006.

So whether Landis wins his appeals or not – whether he is cleared to keep his title or not – doesn’t it seem a bit circumspect for Versus to ask this question about making it nine straight for the USA? It seems like Versus might be getting a bit ahead of themselves.

Like a good juror, I’m waiting until all of the legal appeals are concluded before I decide who won the Tour de France in 2006. But until then, I think it’s a stretch to have us counting down toward nine American titles in a row. It could end up being seven American titles and one for Spain in the last eight years after all. And there are still a lot of miles left in this year’s Tour as well.

Coach Joe

Running Wild with Coach Joe – a blog focused on marathon, triathlon and ultra-endurance racing, training and motivation. Bookmark us at http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com or use your favorite RSS feed reader to get the latest news and articles. Running Wild is also available on Yahoo! 360 and My Space.