Official Tour de France thread...

[sbrguy]

it's not as rediculous as the last few years, but it's still bad.
i accept that there will always be dopers and people on steroids no matter what the sport.

it sucks more because S-D was doing pretty well this year. let's hope the rest of them aren't doping too.

i was explaining the doping thing to my g/f who doesn't follow or really like biking. her commetn was this
"wait, it's still going on? how long is this race? jesus, no wonder they dope. the race is too damn long!" 

honestly i'm quite happy that they are uncovering dopers in teh tdf this year, and i hope they have to throw out another team at least by tours end.

the reasoning, to basically show how stupid the self righteous tour organizers are and that their "doing the right thing" is not doing anything at all, their "high road" approach and such is just that, a high media approach, and taht they should just keep doing the doping controls but stop vilifying everyone that they "dont like" even though they have no proof of doping.  serves them right now their "clean tour" is not looking so clean anymore.

the team that needs to get thrown out is someone like "high road" or "slipstream" just so that the whole "holier than thou" attitude both teams are taking can be smacked down back to earth.  the self righteousness in the sport is getting sickening more so than the dopers.

look pro athletes take stuff, we ask them to put on a spectacle for everysport taht normal humans can't do, and we expect them to do it like that everytime or else we say "thats not smart" cycling and track and field get the mostheat only because they teest more and actually hand down serious suspensions,not 1 or 2 game suspensions and you are back in a week.. they should be doing what other sports do, which is keep the suspensions on the down low and for much shorter periods of time, that way the sport still grows and the hyporcrate fans won't keep with the standard "i can't believe it, i won't watch is anymore i'm so disallusions" please we are adults stop with all the drama, if you think any sport is clean you really are ignorant in the way the world works.

[FatguyRacer]

Ricco's a rat-faced twat. Good riddance!

[echelon]

Ricco's a rat-faced twat. Good riddance!

Yeah but he is a nasty, fast, strong rat-face twat.  Its not a popularity contest.

[sbrguy]

A little harsh, I don't wish ill on anyone, but I agree with the sentiment.

The way the tour is designed it unlikely that even the most elite humans could compete to the level expected by the audience and teams without chemical assistance.  Read the comments from older riders and they cannot believe 1) the high power/low weight of the riders 2) the difficulty of the stages.  I do notice heavier riders this year which I took as a more "natural" training regimen.

I do like the stricter enforcement.  I heard in the broadcast today that riders who have higher levels (but below thresholds) are targeted and tested to 3 to 4 times a day!  I guess levels can change through the day.  Also, it is now a crime in France so the riders get interviewed by the police and charges could be laid.  It also looks like the testing is quicker to detect "new" forms of EPO.

BTW, Riccardo's expulsion upset my pick selections for the upcoming Alp stages. Rats.

you are right, i agree that stricter testing is good and such, and things like taking pay away and suspensions is good, but they can do this without having to make it a huge media circus everytime, and then they wonder why the fans are leaving the sport, maybe if they didn't make it like "hey come over look at the train wreck and the bodies, everyone come gather round" each time people would accept it happens and but not make it the major focus of the sport, which its not.

also i personally don't like the whole greg lemond thing, that guy is annoying, yes he won 3 tours but it seems to me that once someone else starts winning and he is overshadowed, he "thinks something is wrong with the tour, its not interesting anymore, suspicious".  the guy says this is the first time in years he is watching teh tour, yeah bc basically once armstrong was winning they forgot about lemond, and then he has nothig better to do but start innuendo and such about doping.

the old timers were doping the same or more than current riders, there just werent' any rules against it then and no testingreally.  so i see them as hypocritical when they say "we were teh real deal these new guys wouldnt' beat us back then" stop with the sour grapes because guys now make more money than you did in the past.

[triangleforge]

You know, I was doing so well this year, not following the "race" (which has less and less to do every year with what actually happens on the race course). I figured I'd wait until a couple of weeks after it was over, to find out who'd been declared the legal, mostly-untainted winner. After Tyler, Floyd, Vino and a host of other riders who'd sucked me in and turned me yet again into a broken-hearted fanboy, I figured I was done. But a week ago the old addiction started up again, the constant "refresh" at the VN site, the speculation and rehashing with my old racing buddies, all of it.

But we're over, le Tour and me, for real this time. Whatever news I pick up while stopping by for the PEZ Daily Distraction will be the extent of my contact with this damn circus. 

[KnightofNi]

i agree that the dopers need to be caught. however, it would be a serious blow if highroad and slipstream got caught as they are the most vocal about stopping it. i see their attitude as anger that people are doing it and they want to help clean it up, not "holier than thou."

BTW, Riccardo's expulsion upset my pick selections for the upcoming Alp stages. Rats.

who does fantasy cycling? that's just uber-geek!

[sbrguy]

i agree that the dopers need to be caught. however, it would be a serious blow if highroad and slipstream got caught as they are the most vocal about stopping it. i see their attitude as anger that people are doing it and they want to help clean it up, not "holier than thou."

who does fantasy cycling? that's just uber-geek!

it would only be a blow to cycling if those two teams are cought bc people believe their "holier than thou" approach, basically if you look at them what i mean is that they both came out saying "we are the only teams to test like this, we are so tough, we don't care if we win or not clean is the only way to go"

this implies only one thing "we are goign to lose bc everyone else is doping".. thus the holier than thou approach that i don't like.

[ducpenguin]

Do you mean that no one else plays fantasy cycling?!?!?  Ok, I almost got sucked into it, but decided it was too much in addition to my fantasy bowling league...oh well...
Seriously though...
The issue is that they test so much more often and regularly than any other sport in the world...Just look at the Olympics, MLB, NFL, ect.  If they caught as much negative media attention, perhaps there would be a change there...but no.  You rarely hear of non-superstar violations.  I also think that the teams are on board trying to clean it up.  The Tour is like the Superbowl, or World Series...imagine that the SF Giants are in the Series and Bonds tests positive for Steroids, and the Giants pull the team.  The majority of people involved in the sport of cycling condemn doping.  
Just remember...the ones doping are the minority.  

But we're over, le Tour and me, for real this time. Whatever news I pick up while stopping by for the PEZ Daily Distraction will be the extent of my contact with this damn circus. 

Don't give up yet...