VeeshanVault

Let me preface this by saying I can't wait for football to start and am really pretty tired of cycling on the pro level, but there may be some discussion worth having so we can keep it all in this thread.

I was really impressed with Hincapie and Cancellara today. Pierero had a great ride as well. Leipheimer didn't fail to disappoint as usual, and I doubt he'll stay the GC guy for Discovery by the end of the Tour. Kloden did a great ride, but like the rest of the former T-mobile guys, who knows...

You all probably have this already, but I found it quite awesome myself.

http://www.allanpadgett.com/tourtracker2/index.html

I don't get to watch TdF this year.. don't have the friggin channel.

Tour de Schmalz again. For those that don't remember, this is that (semi) funny guy who comments on the Tour as it goes along each year. I've always found him pretty entertaining.

http://www.velocitynation.com/article.a ... 1527&CID=2

I heard the current leader got dropped by his team because of something related to doping....that he was making himself unavailable for tests or something like that. if true, pretty typical

i'll be honest. this is the first year in uhh...5? that I haven't watched. I also have a regular day job atm, and no tv...so that could contribute...but who knows.

on one hand, i'm really curious as to who the top competitors are with a large majority of the normal leaders gone, but at the same time i'm kind of blah about it all.


(i did see rasmussen won a stage yesterday which made me happy. I alway6s admired that guy"s toughtness in the last few tours.)

ps. forgive typos...too many blackcastles.

Gzette wrote:I heard the current leader got dropped by his team because of something related to doping....that he was making himself unavailable for tests or something like that. if true, pretty typical

The story is that Rasmussen (who seems like a pretty standup guy) was dumped from the Danish national team and won't be riding at the Olympics or at the Worlds Championships because he twice was "unavailable" for out-of-season doping tests and subsequently received an official warning. According to him, it was procedural/administrative error, once on part of him and once on part of his team. Pro cyclists are required to disclose their location to the UCI at all times so that spot checks can occur, and in both situations, Rasmussens information was late in arriving. The one warning will be stricken from his record in September, the second one is from June of this year where Rasmussens letter informing the DCU and AntiDoping Denmark of his training camp in Mexico arrived over a week late - Rasmussen laughed and pointed to the italian postal service, an excuse I rather believe...

Not exactly a grand coverup, and it seems like a ridiculous kneejerk reaction from the Danish cycling union, the sole purpose of which is to discredit a rider who's not afraid to call a spade a spade (in this case, call Jesper Worre, the leader of the union, an asshat).

As an addendum: The hilarity is grand, as Jesper Worre, the chairman of DCU is himself a convicted doping abuser. I'm not saying that Rasmussen is clean (hell, I think 99% of all the cyclists are still doped), but I believe him when he says that these things are administrative fuckups.

It is interesting to watch how there is no obvious favorite this year.. also interesting to see how many people crash out. Crazy.

Some dude is now claiming that Rasmussen tried to get him to smuggle doping paraphenalia across a border at some point.

Question for the cycling enthusiasts:

Do you think that pro cycling is the dirtiest significant sport in the world? From my outsiders perspective, it sure looks like it. Floyd Landis being stripped feels like a sick joke, not because he's clean (he's probably dirty from where I sit) but because whoever finished second is almost certainly dirty too, and whoever finished third, and...

I learned to like the TdF during the Lance era, and I still like it now that he's gone. I read about each stage, I know a bit about some of the bigger riders, I have rooting interests and so on. But it's hard for me to take it seriously at all. It's not that I'm really offended that riders are cheating (hell, I like baseball, where steroids are/were prevalent, and I like football, where 300 pound linemen have mysteriously started growing on trees in the past 15 years). What makes it tough for me to stomach is that cycling is clearly trying really hard to clean itself up, and failing miserably. It makes the whole thing seem very haphazard. At least in football and baseball, there's a level playing field with unspoken rules regarding what drugs you can use, the different ways you can be found out, and so on. In cycling this doesn't seem to be the case-- everyone cheats, some of them get caught and some don't, and so the winner is the most skilled guy who was lucky enough to avoid getting caught. How do we know that Jan Ullrich, Floyd Landis, or any of the other guys who are either direct or indirect casualties of doping wouldn't have beaten whoever wins this tour-- who almost certainly is doping as well?

Do you think this is a fair complaint, or does it arise from my general lack of knowledge of the sport?

I would guess that many other sports would be calling out around the same percentage of "dopers" if they had even half the testing that professional cycling has. It is sad how huge it has become this year. While I am not a lifelong follower of the sport, I recognize so few names now that I have trouble making myself check out the updates, and when I do check them out, it is only a story about who was booted for doping.

Our local Kid up here is doing pretty well (Levi). A shame he started so far back but he is pretty well a certain top 5 finisher at this point.

I also think most of them are doped, and personally I don't really care. It i fine that they are trying to clean up cycling, but I don't think it is even possible, the users are almost always one step ahead.

Also, don't have any illusions about Armtrong, I am sure he was doped as well. I always found it odd how he suddenly got really fast after his cancer treatment. Treamtent for testicle cancer usually includes steroids, so maybe he got some good ideas during that.

And down goes Vino and the whole Astana team...

Maybe they should not run the race, test everyone, and determine the final positions of the race based on the least amount of illegal substances in their bodies.

At least the officials aren't in on the illegal activities like in the NBA.

Will anyone finish?

Boogahz wrote:Will anyone finish?

Does not look like it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2007/n ... id=2948264

What a joke.
TDF has about as much credibility as professional wrestling.

And there goes Rasmussen, things look bleak for the TDF

Jeez, how disappointing.

it'll go on i imagine. at least they're cracking down on it, lending to more credibility. still, they knew about this from the get go. why wait til near the end to pull him?

Noel might end up winning this.

Maybe he'll post and let us know!