Have you been following the race this year? If so have you enjoyed it? What are your veiws on recent, regrettable events behind the scenes?
I am a fan of the race and have enjoyed watching it since 1994. I have to say though the last couple of years have tried my patience to say the least and have been left 'gobsmaked' by recent events.
It's a farce & I feel sorry for any non-cheating riders, if there are any.
You should look out for the women's racing. Nicole Cooke is world champion, she's a proper star, and she's clean.
i think some.of them have been silly
I have been following it, and enjoy it.
Shame about Astana, but then I have been suspicious of them right from the start, particularly Vino.
I don't know how he got away with it for so long.
I haven't especially been following it, but I did watch the start (it went past the bottom of my road!) and got caught up in all the excitement of it. So it's a huge shame that it's now falling apart in a drugged-up mess. It makes me wonder why I bothered, and I'm fairly sure that a lot of potential new fans are now so disgusted by what's going on that they've lost interest.
Cheers,
Rob ;)
I've been following it. I too watched it when it passed through Stone (Dartford). What a spectacle. How on earth does the caravan cope with getting through the narrower mountainous bits? Shame about the cheats though - spoils it for all the others in the team :( I didn't trust that Vino bloke either - I always thought he looked a bit shifty.
Twinkletoes
The cheatting revelations are both a bad and a good thing. Obviously they are proof that there are cheating scum taking part which is bad.
But they also show that cycling has more drug testing than any other sport - this is why it appears that there are so many cheats. In fact there probably are no more dopers in cycling than many other endurance sports but because the authorities spend much more time looking for them in cycling they are obviously going to find more. It's like how the crime rate always rises when you put more bobbies on the beat.
It is unfortunate that in all the sensationalist reporting the press never appears to recognose this fact. However, other sports are very slowly starting to catch up and by the 2012 Olympics I predict that there will be wide scale expultions of athletes from many counties (including the UK) in many sports. Indeed, I noticed the other day a story about the amount of doping that goes on in pro golf, which isn't even an endurance sport!
But, putting the doping aside, the racing in this year's TdF has been excellent - it's nice not to know who is going to be the winner until quite late on, unlike in the Armstrong domination years.
Heard about chicken this morning, not sure what I think of it, no proof, but he is must have something to hide by not turning up for his pre tour testing!
I do not really know what to think any more. Can you really trust anyone in the sport anymore? Is it really cleaning itself up or are the methods of cheating/doping becoming harder to detect? i have long beleived that since the human body is capable of some incredible things that it is possible to ride in and win the Tour without resorting to artifical 'assistance', but this ability is only given to the rare few. Those that dope are either just not good enough (ie have not got 'it') or simply have not prepared themeselved sufficiently, so feel the need to make up for it by artifical and illegal means.
As far as recent events go, there are i think two distinct problems/issues. In the Vino case you have a straightforward case of cheating by means of blood doping. This was done during the race in order to win stages of it.
The Rassmussen affair is quite different. In this case he did not (as far as we know) cheat to win stages and the yellow jersey. I think his acheivements in the race have been done cleanly. No in this case we have a rider who has efectively lied and cheated his way into the race itself and would have (probably) won it on the basis of this 'fraud'. Had this been discovered before the race Rassmussen would not even have started and the race would not be in this mess now. Ok booting him out now has saved a lot of embarrasment and trouble later on but, you have to wonder what might have been, and feel sorry for some of the other overall contenders who have lost out as a direct result.
The greatest sadness of it all is that both Vino and Rassmussen are/were great riders and had quite a following. Seeing such riders behave the way they have sets an appauling example to young cyclists. Top riders should see themselves as role models and behave accordingly.
QuoteThe Rassmussen affair is quite different. In this case he did not (as far as we know) cheat to win stages and the yellow jersey. I think his acheivements in the race have been done cleanly. No in this case we have a rider who has efectively lied and cheated his way into the race itself and would have (probably) won it on the basis of this 'fraud'. Had this been discovered before the race Rassmussen would not even have started and the race would not be in this mess now. Ok booting him out now
It seems that the authorities knew about Ras's dissappearances before the race - it's been speculated that they only disclosed the info now because it had been leaked to the press. He hasn't actually been booted off the race as such, but rather he has been sacked by his team for lying to them about his where abouts rather than doping (he said he'd gone to Mexico a day early, they claim he was in Italy). Whether this was due to pressure from the uci or the sponsors I guess we won't know for a while.
The Vino case is also a bit odd - they got him for something that is extremely easy to detect: it seems unbelievable that he thought that he could get away with it. The only explanation that I can see is that the blood bags got mislabled and his doctor infused him with someone else's blood by mistake. Or that he is inocent and the test was wrong (we haven't seen the B sample yet) or the foriegn blood markers did get into him as a result of the treat ment for his accident. But my money would be on the team bungling his doping.
I saw the TDF in the French Alps in nineteen hundred and seventy-something. Awesome sight. I think the legendary Freddy may have been riding, can't remember.
As for doping. Bl**dy idiots. No point winning if it's not on merit is it? Makes me mad that cyclists think they're the Prima Donnas of the sports world and above retribution ::)
Great photo in the paper today: http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2007/07/27/1989651.htm
Quote from: Trixiebelle on July 26, 2007, 14:22:02
As for doping. Bl**dy idiots. No point winning if it's not on merit is it?
Money money money money money makes the world go around. >:(
Quote from: pye on July 27, 2007, 22:57:00
Great photo in the paper today: http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2007/07/27/1989651.htm
Quote from: Trixiebelle on July 26, 2007, 14:22:02
As for doping. Bl**dy idiots. No point winning if it's not on merit is it?
Money money money money money makes the world go around. >:(
Great Photo!
Yep its all down to money, too much of it washing around the sport. Thus the rewards to be gained out weigh the risks when it comes to doping. That said this is starting to change.
There is hope with the young riders coming up through the sport. The vast majority of these are against doping so hopefully things will get better once the old guard of existing top riders are gone.