Tour de France 2006 and the neverending story of Doping..

[cara]

of course it can...
but in my opinion no-one can do a three weeks-bike-ride at this speed just with pasta..
I think I just lost my believe in clear pro-cycling....

 

[jennyema]

They eat like 20,000 calories a day and not much of that is from pasta, actually.

Here is from Floyd's post ride interview on that day

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Q: Did you bonk? Were you simply out of sugars, or maybe not enough drinking during the stage? You were so strong on the other mountain stages; this was definitely not normal for you.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]FL: I don't think it was a problem of not eating enough. I just wasn't good from the beginning, like I said. A lot of times I feel that way and I come around at the end. There was never a flat part for 15 minutes where I could recover. I think I would have been better off, but that's how it goes.[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[cara]

jenny, I know it's not only Pasta, but that's what we say here when we have doubts it's gained without any doping substances ;o)

I followed the news and explanations about that, but the other thing is, why didn't the other teams react? A DC under Lance would have never let him go 8min in front... and they would have never let an Oscar Pereirro get half an hour...

 

[jennyema]

He's only in the place he is now because Tyler Hamilton got yanked, right? I think that would make one extra careful from the outset, but also the right-before-the-race disqualifications seemed to suggest that the testing was rather rigorous and the burdan of proof changed from innocent till proven guilty to guilty until proven innocent.

RE: Floyd Landis. He's an absolute training freak. Like a lot of those guys. He had been projected as one of the possible winners from the outset and Phonak rode some smart races throughout. Then, he had one very bad day.

The next day he had to go for broke but no one thought he could do it. As one article put it: "It was the grand slam, the long touchdown pass followed by the onside kick, the midcourt shot at the buzzer. Landis knew most of his rivals were so conditioned by cycling convention that they would assume what he was trying to do was impossible, rather than trying to prevent it from happening."

No one knew he was the present day Eddie Merxx.

No ask me about Lance Armstrong ...

 

[cara]

In my opinion the big teams had problems with their tactics... they should have known that Floyd might be able to do what he did... but no-one wanted to lead the peloton, no CE, no TMO, no GST or what ever...
okay, TMO had Sinkewitz in front with Landis, but he didn't had the strenght to follow and was called back to help Klödi

but Floyd's efforts count even higher if you consider he didn't have a good team behind him...
btw I still hope they get the money so he will come to the "Nacht von Hannover" on friday, one of the big german post-tour-criteriums...
already signed are Winokurouv, Klöden, Simoni and Zabel...

 

[jennyema]

Klöden -- nice time trial!

I guess no one thought he had the balls or the stamina to do what he did. He'd been a lot more conservative before.

Do you ride (competitively)? I used to, when I was younger. Nothing too serious. I followed The Tour until Lance's 2nd or 3rd time. Then I started having real 's about him.

Tyler Hamilton is from around here. I hope he is conclusively proven innocent, but I doubt he will be.

 

[cara]

I would have never betted even one cent on Klöden...
you haven't heard of him this year before the tour, but to his excuse he had a broken shoulder...
He grew with his mission and he is a good pro, when he is not beaten down by one of his many injuries..

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/tour06/?id=/riders/2006/interviews/andreas_kloden_tdf06

I just get on my bike to get to the beergarden or the pond... nothing serious, but I'm a fan of the Pro's... have been a fan? Not sure yet...
Tyler was one of my favorites, but he did not only disappoint me but lied in the name of his dog... I don't believe he is innocent... but he is just one of many and he had been so silly to get cought

 

[cara]

it was not only pasta...

************
Phonak-PR:

Quote:

Cycling Team was notified yesterday by the UCI of an unusual level of Testosteron/Epitestosteron ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France.

The Team Management and the rider were both totally surprised of this
physiological result.

The rider will ask in the upcoming days for the counter analysis to prove
either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake in the confirmation.

In application of the Pro Tour Ethical Code, the rider will not race anymore
until this problem is totally clear.

If the result of the B sample analysis confirms the result of the A sample the rider will be dismissed and will then pass the corresponding endocrinological examinations.

Please understand that we cannot at this time give you more detailed
comments.

| Martina Arpagaus | Organisation

**********

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/jul06/jul27news3

 

[jennyema]

I was just hurrying over here to acknowledge that your suspiciosn were correct.

"I think I just lost my believe in clear pro-cycling...."

Me too, unless something drastic happens to clear him....

 

[cara]

"I think I just lost my believe in clear pro-cycling...."

so did I - I think

It's no fun if you see you worst worries confirmed... I hoped I am wrong.. but no...