Where's the traditional Giro drug raid?

Something is missing from this years’ 100th anniversary Giro. No, it’s not an epic climb left off the route or a famous rider or team that didn’t make the start list. Somebody forgot to include the once-a-Giro drug raid by police.

Where are the Carabinieri and the anti-drug storm-troppers? It has become something of a Giro tradition the last few years to have a drug raid as part of the race events. The authorities hit the team hotels, buses, rummage through the rooms and generally annoy the riders. Massages and pasta dinners and sometimes even bedtime are interrupted.

What happened to tradition, we ask? Not even one rider targeted for suspicious values? Perhaps the police and Giro Organizer Angelo Zomegnan (Crazy Z) worked out a deal for the 100th anniversary–no drugs raids this year in return for two raids next year.

We miss the excitement, the outrage and the goodies they always uncover:  nice, new syringes, mysterious unmarked prescription bottles, a well- thumbed copy of the Dummies Guide to Performance Enhancing Drugs. What’s a three week tour without 21 stages, 2 rest days and 1 drug raid? A shocking over-sight. Surely, somebody is riding suspiciously fast, someone like, say, Denis Menchov.

We’d hate for Lance Armstrong to miss this Giro tradition in his only Giro appearance. It’s not too late for the Policia to bring the kind of excitement only they can bring.