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Le Tour

I think that just does it. I thought after the Landis scandal somebody would have learned a lesson but with Rasmussen, Vino and the whole of Cofidis indicted of doping and kicked out, the sport should be facing the brink. How can anyone still take this sport seriously, this is worse than weight lifting!

Enormous shame because I still believe that the Tour de France is the most beautiful sport event there is.

Comments

  • The interesting thing is that there's no proof that Rasmussen has even used doping. I think it's just frustrating. Rasmussen was the best guy out there. But if they believe he lied, firing him is a logical consequence.

    [Edited on 26-7-07 by Stan]
  • I think there are only two things to do there: either
    1) stopping the PRO cycling for at least a couple of years, or
    2) legalize doping.

    Fullstop.
  • The silver lining is that at least the teams and sponsors are finally policing this themselves. Maybe the tour should take a break for a few years.
  • Originally posted by Stan
    The interesting thing is that there's no proof that Rasmussen has even used doping. I think it's just frustrating. Rasmussen was the best guy out there. But if they believe he lied, firing him is a logical consequence.

    [Edited on 26-7-07 by Stan]

    Stan as a Journo covering the tour the Rasmussen saga is fantastic. I believe he is guilty and what I have discovered the past weeks the whole Cycling tour is rife with drug issues. It has also shown a shady corruption side which we will be revealing in SI shortly. It is a shame as a majority of Riders are amazing athletes who preform to their limits daly but at the sharp point of the tour there is some quite disgusting and apalling things going on. Its been quite a eye opener for me.
  • after armstrong retired, i didn't follow the tour...all these things happenning passed by me un-noticed.

    the tour now without lance means little even if everyone is clean.
  • and who says that Lance was clean
  • His test results?
  • The other day I saw an ex-cyclist say professional cyclists never test positive. He said this after he admitted that he had used doping in the past.

    Apparently the art of not getting caught is true professionalism.

    [Edited on 4-8-07 by Stan]
  • I am an avid lover of the Tour de France, and do plan to visit France next year around the same time that the tour is on.

    But this year it has just turned into a farce, and an embarrasment for the sport. Surely these athletes know that the sport has been on tenderhooks over the whole drugs issues for a while now, so why take the risk? They know that the officials are being more strict with their tests, more regular on the spot tests etc. Hopefully this year will make a good example of the policing and that riders in the future may think twice.

    And on a more agonising note, i had £10 on Rasmussen to win the tour at 25/1 :(
  • Regretfully, I find myself repeating what I already wrote last year:

    QUOTE

    I think there are only two things to do there: either
    1) stopping the PRO cycling for at least a couple of years, or
    2) legalize doping.

    Fullstop.

    UNQUOTE
  • is there a sport called cyclism yet?
  • Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally Lance is being stripped off of "his" 7 Tours!! I hope them to remain unawarded, though, as to see replacement names like Ivan Basso or (3 times) Jan Ullrich wouldn't really make much of a change!!! Perhaps cycling is a bit better now than it was 4 or 5 years ago at the end of the discussion above!!!
  • not to forget Frank Schleck
  • I think Malio is right. You need to pull the pin on pro cycling; dismantle the organsisation, and build again.

    The thing is that cycling in general as a sport is so big now. Can't find a more recent statisitc, but in 2010, there were 1.2 million bicycles sold in Australia. That is 200,000 more bikes than cars sold. For a population of 20 million in a country where everyone can afford a car (and most families have 3 or 4), it is an impressive statistic.

    You cannot go anywhere these days without seeing a trail of carbon fibre and colurful shirts atop neoprene-clad thighs go hurtling by (and none of them obeying traffic signals..grrrrrr). There is one unofficial institution in Melbourne where on any given Saturday morning, the road down the Mornington Peninsular is clogged by a swarm of these things, many hundreds deep, pursuing something called the 'Hell Ride'. We even have similar things in Canberra.

    Not sure if this wholly unhealthy pursuit of fitness and poor fashion is repeated elsewhere on the planet, but it is very noticable how it has increased by magnitudes in the last ten years.

    All that of course means so many more stakeholders in the 'Clean Cycling' house of cards, and more stakeholders means more at stake.

    So with the current revelations,what is real, and what is not? Easy to imagine the answer to the first is nothing, and of course the second; eveything.
  • The British Sky team has re-invented the, er, wheel as much it can by demanding sworn current and historic cleanliness. This Cultural Revolution is appropriately Maoist as, in spite of all he has done since his fall, it excludes David Millar.
  • Similar move by the Australian Olympic Team to introduce a mandatory Sworn Statutory Declaration that athletes attending the Olympic Games.

    Reason for this of course is that by making it a Stat Dec, the athlete can be prosecuted in criminal court for making a false declaration.

    How very interesting that Athletes, like paedophiles, are found out decades after their nefarious activities. Both also attract the same sort of stigma.
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