Le Tour De France

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:43 am

bengatta wrote:Remember, you walked right into that one.... Smile

yeah I will give you that one.

I think a lot of the reason Rassmuson did well in the first time trial, comes from the fact that it was a climming one. The next one will be a flat stage which will suite Cadel far more.

bengatta · Post by **bengatta** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:08 pm

fourthof5 wrote:
bengatta wrote:Remember, you walked right into that one.... Smile
yeah I will give you that one.

I think a lot of the reason Rassmuson did well in the first time trial, comes from the fact that it was a climming one. The next one will be a flat stage which will suite Cadel far more.

Anybody old enough, sadly I am, and it was at a time when I was also a competing Cyclist, to remember Greg lemond win the 1989 tour will know the impossible can happen.

mathematically people can only ever give 100%, but if there was ever a day in history where 100.1% did happen that was it, and it needed Laurent Fignon to have a 99.9% day... As I won the odd time trial in my younger years, I had that on Video and used it as inspiration over and over and over again... it was for me, one of the top 10 sporting moments of all time... planets aligned, and maybe Cadel can align a few later this week

i remeber the stories from that day, Greg told his team he did not want to be given any time checks, he was just going to ride as fast as he could... and if he lost, then so be it... Fignon was given time checks the entire route, and as he started to drift away from the lead he seemed to blow appart...

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:44 pm

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:51 pm

Vino out due to doping. His team have withdrawn from the tour.

nutty · Post by **nutty** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:15 pm

sigh =(

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:30 pm

I couldn't believe by ears when I heard that...

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:40 am

The leader of the race Michael Rasmusson have been kick off the Rabobank team for lying about his where abouts. Rabobank itself took the action after leaning that Rasmusson had lied about training in Mexico when he was in fact in Italy in the month of June. This puts Spanish rider Alberto Contidoor in the lead with Cadel Evens just 1:55 behind with the big time trial to come in the next few days. Evens now have a huge chance to win the tour as there are no more mountain stages.

Exar Kun · Post by **Exar Kun** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:40 am

And Rasmussen out too?

Makes cycling look like a dirty, dirty sport. And severely undermines the effort everyone puts into it.

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:42 am

Points up to previous post. Yup.

nutty · Post by **nutty** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:38 am

Wow, just wow.

Serioually if this keeps up I can see it ending professional cycling, What in the last year we have had.
4 Tour favorites from last year kicked out of the race (before, or during)
2 Previous tour winners getting caught/confessing to drugs
1 Current tour leader being removed from the race.
+ Multiple racers booted out of the race

This has to show that people are willing to risk there career to drug up, and no punishment is going to stop it

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:45 am

It won't end professional cycling And it won't stop the tour. Its too much of an icon; especially in Europe. Besides the tour is such a great spectical.

Scuderia_Alan · Post by **Scuderia_Alan** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:19 am

Exar Kun wrote:And Rasmussen out too?

Makes cycling look like a dirty, dirty sport. And severely undermines the effort everyone puts into it.

Suddenly now? It's been completely confirmed as a dirty sport since around the Festina scandal (in the professional ranks I mean).

Part of the problem this time was UCI not telling tour organisers early enough that Rasmussen had missed four anti-doping tests thanks to his disappearing act. If they did, he probably wouldn't have been allowed to compete.

It's amazing the sort of impact this never-ending saga of rampant abuse of performancing enhancing drugs has justifiably had on people's perception. If you do too well you've automatically got question marks over why it is. Last night it was that Rasmussen has to lose a lot of time in the time trial otherwise it will look suspect. So now we'll have riders holding back a bit sometimes to look convincing?

Exar Kun · Post by **Exar Kun** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:04 am

Scuderia_Alan wrote:
Exar Kun wrote:And Rasmussen out too?

Makes cycling look like a dirty, dirty sport. And severely undermines the effort everyone puts into it.
Suddenly now? It's been completely confirmed as a dirty sport since around the Festina scandal (in the professional ranks I mean).

No suddenly at all. Just a general comment on how bad it is. Someone like me, who doesn't follow the sport at all, is only hearing about it due to the drugs aspect. This year in particular.

David Piglos Shaw · Post by **David Piglos Shaw** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:14 am

Le Tour De Farce

Scuderia_Alan · Post by **Scuderia_Alan** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:16 am

Exar Kun wrote:
Scuderia_Alan wrote:
Exar Kun wrote:And Rasmussen out too?

Makes cycling look like a dirty, dirty sport. And severely undermines the effort everyone puts into it.
Suddenly now? It's been completely confirmed as a dirty sport since around the Festina scandal (in the professional ranks I mean).
No suddenly at all. Just a general comment on how bad it is. Someone like me, who doesn't follow the sport at all, is only hearing about it due to the drugs aspect. This year in particular.

Sorry, slightly snappy. An ear infection and study isn't the best time to reply to people.

GT VIRUS · Post by **GT VIRUS** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:47 am

blah who cares how it happens, as long as an aussie wins thats all that matters!

Post by **Big Kev** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:04 pm

David Piglos Shaw wrote:Le Tour De Farce

Absolutely.

Maybe they should just allow drugs in cycling and be done with it!
The whole sport looks dirty.

bengatta · Post by **bengatta** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:51 pm

Can't say why, but Cycling is my passion... i have been involved in many levels of motorsport, but it is not a passion it is merely a hobby, but cycling definately is...

i can't say how much pleasure it was to log in here and see a few people interested in it enough to want to chat about it... In this country it is not a mainstream sport, so it is hard to find a few people with enough knowledge on how it all works to actually chat about it sensibly... for this I would like to say thank you to everybody who got into it over the last few weeks.

I only have a few words to left... i am gutted. if Cycling needed a moment of sense to lift it out of a hole it found itself in, it was July 2007....

For those of us in Australia who have lived a month without sleep, it is simply not fair to have such a showcase event be absolutely ruined by drugs in sport.... As a cyclist from the late 80's early 90's I was offered many times the option to chemically enhance my performance... Never once did I take up that option... it did not feel right then, and it certainly does not feel any better today....

Not a single one of the guys in the tour deserve to be paid a single cent for any of their performances. only by taking the livelihood away from all these guys will it be cleaned up....

Every single cyclist on the pro tour needs to be tested every single day for a year, no exceptions, no excuses.... and all of the money they were to be paid should go to cover the costs associated with all of the testing... then and only then once the sport has removed all of the drug users, should it be allowed to return to a professional activity.

And just to make another point, Cycling should be removed from the 2008 Beijing Olympics... only by punishing every cyclist will it weed out all of the poisoned apples...

Apologies for the strong views, but this is very close to my heart, and this is an unbeleiveable situation...

i so much wanted to see Cadel win. i feel so strongly, the tour should not declare a winner this year, it should simply finish up today and apologies to all the fans who have tried so hard to maintain there interest levels....

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:02 pm

Big Kev wrote:
David Piglos Shaw wrote:Le Tour De Farce
Absolutely.

Maybe they should just allow drugs in cycling and be done with it!
The whole sport looks dirty.

There are afew ways of looking at things here. When you really sit down and think about what these guys put their bodies through each day it's just remarkable. And it dosn't surprise me that some of them are on drugs. Take a marathon for example. The "holy grail" for any marathon runner is to run sub 3 hours. These guys are riding upwards of 5 hours a day, 7 days a week for 3 weeks. Being so heavily involved in running i have a unique way of looking at things. When you push your body to the limit like these guys do for a single stage, it takes at least 2 days to recover. Then imageine all the pressure from sponsors, the team and fans. I'm not saying that this is bad, in fact, most athletes will thrive off this pressure. But having to push your body past the pain barrier day after day is bloody hard yakka. Like Robbie says. "We are real tough guys!"

Another way of looking at things is that the drug testing in cycling is in my opinion the best of any sport. And they are catching the athletes that are taking the risk and injecting.

Sadly i believe there are a hugh number of cheats in any sport. Especially the ones where endurance and cardiovascular fitness plays a big role. And we are never going to stop that because it's human nature to want to win and be the best. Even if it means bending some rues along the way.

All sports should take a zero tolerance policy. Get caught once, your banned for life. I guarantee the amount of cheats would drop considerably.

[/rant]

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:03 pm

Big Kev wrote:The whole sport looks dirty.

I'd much rather afew guys blood dope and take EPO than rape a girl....

Scuderia_Alan · Post by **Scuderia_Alan** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:14 pm

I don't think a temporary crackdown is going to have a lasting effect, like in other scandals sporting or otherwise they'll creep back. Unfortunately it means even more vigilance for good.

I would be interested to see what the race would be like if they partly removed private teams in favour of national cycling bodies picking their own team. This year we had 21 teams of 9 riders, I'm sure there's at least 20 countries can pick 9 decent riders. Hell for riders good enough but without a nation with 8 other riders they can ride under the UCI banner. Naturally for an event like this they'd be allowed to get the sort of sponsorship money needed, especially since it doesn't involve crowning a world champion.

Positive tests would have a much bigger impact since it would reflect not only on the rider but the national body and a whole country directly.

Incidentally Contador mightn't be squeaky clean either. The rumour is that he cut a deal with the Spanish authorities to cooperate in pointing the finger at riders in return for his results not being passed onto the UCI.

nutty · Post by **nutty** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:05 am

So tonight's the big night.

Can Cadel stepup, 55km to make back 1min50seconds, I know ill be on the couch watching >:D

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:24 am

The problem this year isn't who cheated, but that they were in the tour at all. Question marks were raised but never acted on till the tour had stated. That has been the big mistake. If they had got rid of them before the tour had started 99% of all the issues would have been gone and delt with.

bengatta · Post by **bengatta** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:48 am

nutty wrote:So tonight's the big night.

Can Cadel stepup, 55km to make back 1min50seconds, I know ill be on the couch watching >:D

It is a huge ask, it is almost double a lemond ask... but it will be cool if he makes a dent in it...

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 1:49 pm

Actually, the ask is good. Contedor is a climber not a time trialest. Cadel is a good time trialist. Its not unusual for cimbers to loose 4 - 10 minutes in the time trials. The first time trial was a bit different in that it was a climbing one which suited the climbers. This one is flat which will suite Cadel.