tour de farce

[DIDSCO]

Did Lance Armstrong ever turn up in France, apparently he called the french football team a bunch of assholees, doubt that went down well with the French especially as they already hate his guts

[Adventure Racer]

Thanks for the support guys - I did think my position on drugs was already clear for anybody who'd bothered to read the whole thread.

Moving on (finally) - I don't think there was really a lot Pereiro and Sastre could do today - they would have just worn themselves out trying. Phonak would have given them a bit of rope and then reeled them back in again. Better to save their energy for the TT and hope Landis has trouble recovering from his huge effort yesterday.

Armstrong is in France - apparently some paper had a headline "Welcome to France, asshole"

[Gross]

I have finally got round to reading all these posts on this thread and to my reading I must admit that AR does not read as a big supporter of drugs in cycling but he does suggest that other sports have a much higher level of drug usage (football, tennis for example). Indeed AR does suggest that he feels that cycling is a cleaner sport basically.

[DIDSCO]

I reckon there probably is a lot more drugs in Football and Tennis but not performance enhancing ones. These guys are more partial to a few lines of coke than a shot of EPO......pretty sure Borg and McEnroe, and even Rio would happily agree with that one.

Football clubs are living very dangerously if they decide to systematically feed there players performance enhancing drugs. A major football club being relegated 3 or 4 divisions is a bigger deal than a cycling team being kicked out of the tour de farce. I'm sure there are football clubs out there doing it, but I'd be very suprised if it was as systematic as it seems to be in cycling.....

[Adventure Racer]

Actually I'm not sure I'm suggesting that cycling is cleaner - just that the difference between it and other sports is less than you'd think from reading the newspapers, where the suggestion seems to be that cycling is drug riddled and it's not a problem affecting other sports.

I'd be very surprised if there weren't performance enhancing drugs in football, given the difference having a bit of extra pace seems to make. Surely there must in that case be a temptation to take something to be a bit faster, and so pick up a better contract.

[Gross]

lpersonally I reckon cycling is actually cleaner nowadays than many of these other sports, .

Must be microsoft east european software that means my machine gets a bit fuddled

[ifor]

Well it is all over and I must say I enjoyed watching it more than the last few years because of the unpredictability, it was all good exiting stuff in the last week.

A pity the points jursy was not more closly contested, McEwan clearly got a big enough lead that non of the other contenders could drag themsleves to the line for what they though would be second and third.

A good start and finish by Hushov, even if McEwan had timed his sprint better Hushov looked like he had an aufull lot of speed Yesterday.

Lets just hope no-one to high up in the standings was on anything, I would like to know thet Honchar was clean....

Ifor

[Gross]

From the BBC website:

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has given a positive drugs test, according to his Phonak team.

The American, who claimed victory in the Tour de France on Sunday, has tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone.

Would seem like AR's earlier faith in cycling being a cleaner sport than others was a bit premature...................

[Adventure Racer]

Because no other winner of a major event in another sport has ever tested positive?

Given that currently it's only an A sample positive, and the testosterone / epi ratio test (I'd be surprised if he didn't test positive for testosterone!) is not black and white, I'd suggest that the condemnation is currently a little premature.

[krocks]

One problem with Oringen-ing is missing live coverage of crucial mountain stages in the Tour, just like this year.
Now it looks like all the excitement of Landis' comeback was based on an extra wee dose of hormone. Rumours starting flying around about this earlier today, and if it is verified, then Landis is one bloody idiot. Everyone knew the Tour was under the spotlight more than usual this year because of what happened beforehand, and everyone hoped this was a start of a new clean era, so for him to risk all credibility for the sport is ridiculous.
However, at least it has come to the surface, not left to fester like before. If it means stripping someone of the yellow jersey for the first time since the early years, then so be it.

[Lil' God'rs]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/5221122.stm

[Gross]

If this guy is proved innocent I'll quite happily sit up and say my comments against drugs in sport were based on a naive lack of knowledge.... I would hope others in orienteering and adventure racing would do like wise.... DRUGS HAVE NO ROOM IN SPORT . I hope that those who are involved in both sports support my statement

[FatBoy]

Let's wait for the B sample - it is the process after all, although rarely does that tell you anything different unfortunately.

Testosterone is a difficult one - it's not like they've found anabolic steroids or something like that.

It's interesting that this has come out from his team's own tests, not Le Tour or WADA. Perhaps shows cycling is really trying to be clean.

I hope he didn't cheat but whatever happens now unfortunately he will always be doubted.

[johnloguk]

I think AR is right when he says that other sports have drugs problems as well as cycling. But I can't think of one that almost seems to need drugs to survive it, let alone win it. Apart from weightlifting maybe which is equally tainted.

Lance Armstrong remains one of my greatest sporting heroes, but the thought that maybe he was helped by drugs is always there nagging away at the back of my mind. And yes I know he's been cleared of any wrong doing, but sadly we all know where the balance is between the drugs cheats and the testers. All the money is on the side of the takers and they seem to be able to generally keep ahead of the testers.

Ultimately Gross is right, there is no place for drugs cheats in any sport at any level, and we should stop trying to fudge it. As a final thought I hardly saw any of the Tour de France this year because I was thoroughly disillusioned with it, and unless Landis is cleared on his second test I won't feel any better.

[Adventure Racer]

DRUGS HAVE NO ROOM IN SPORT

You seem to keep implying that I think otherwise, when my point is a totally different one, which would be obvious if you actually bothered to read my posts. I've tried to avoid rising to this as I don't see why I should have to defend myself, but your innuendo is getting a bit much, so I'll point out now that I totally agree with that statement - drugs do have no place in sport (personally I actively avoid over the counter stuff which is on the banned list, even knowing I won't be tested - can everybody here say that for sure?) Can you stop with the digs now please?