Tour de France 2009

Doubtful Will, tweets are limited to 140 characters. ;p

That would suit me fine. I only have seventeen different characters.

lol

Article about Voight in CW - he looks quite battered, also a video message from him - what a nice guy.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/385338/voigt-on-the-road-to-recovery-after-tour-crash.html

totally.

Did the video go all weird for you? I got abot 2 mins of weird colour bars after he'd given his message. It was quite cool.

Wiggo publishes his blood profile as promised
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wiggins-values-point-to-cleaner-peloton

Sounds like good news...

I do find it quite ridiculous that we can see this stuff though - I wonder what old Henri "give me a fixed wheel" Desgranges would think of it all.

First post Tour drug bust, and it's a stage winner to boot;

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/ENews/ENewsDetails.asp?id=NjQ2OA&MenuId=MTYxNw&LangId=1&BackLink=%2FTemplates%2FUCI%2FUCI5%2Flayout.asp%3FMenuID%3DMTYxNw%26LangId%3D1

I do often wonder whether we're just being fed lies.

Of somebody really wanted to keep it quiet that he's been using performance enhancing drugs, providing he knows the right people, he could keep it away from anyone but his closest.

Is this just me being paranoid or is it actually a possibility? I'd really like to believe that the majority of Tour riders do it without using drugs but it's hard to know what the truth is - just because they haven't caught anyone using performance enhancing drugs this year doesn't mean some didn't actually take them.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-stage-winner-astarloza-suspended-after-failed-doping-test

First post Tour drug bust, and it's a stage winner to boot;

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/ENews/ENewsDetails.asp?id=NjQ2OA&MenuId=MTYxNw&LangId=1&BackLink=%2FTemplates%2FUCI%2FUCI5%2Flayout.asp%3FMenuID%3DMTYxNw%26LangId%3D1

sadly, i was waiting for the first dopers to be announced. hmm.

The unfortunate truth about performance enhancing drugs is that they have be in use before WADA can develope tests to find them. The biological passport is aimed to combat this by identifying freak increases in things like haemaglobin levels but that wont really be possible for a little while until base levels have been gathered for all athletes.

This is why they normally catch a load of people at one time, like with CERA in 2005, the drug had been around for a while but there was no test, as soon as a test was developed a load of people got caught.

There is also the fact that independant labs will produce designer steroids for individual athletes, this is what Dwain Chambers made a big statement about after his suspension, obviously if only one guy is taking it WADA never find out about it and thus never test for it so it goes undetected. This is one of the reasons i think it is a bit suspect that a number of riders were suspended for doping in the season following armstrongs retirement. Armstrong retires, what he was on get released for general use, WADA identify it, develop a test, everyone else gets busted, armstrong makes his triumphant return....

CW just posted this

ha!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-stage-winner-astarloza-suspended-after-failed-doping-test

I must have missed that one then.

Has Armstrong ever been caught using drugs? The next question I'm not whether I want to ask because it will send this thread on a complete spin, but at the same time I'd like to know peoples views:

Do you think Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs and if so why, with what proof?

I know that they used EPO during his cancer treatment, but I was under the impression that it would have left his system by the time he started racing again.

Buy a copy of this and make up your own mind.

and a copy of this:

then look at the history of every other team mate of LA. also read about the aussie scientist who retested samples obtained from the UCI which proved a positive result.

And a copy of this, because it's like thought-provoking and shit, and the author's surname is almost an anagram of 'vagina':

OK, so most peope think Armstrong took drugs then!

I don't know that I want to get into the whole drug thing by reading all of the books. I'll end up reading one and then wanting another and another and another and it may end up runining the sport of cycling for me.

Why not take some dope and then make up your own mind?

OK, so most peope think Armstrong took drugs then!

I don't know that I want to get into the whole drug thing by reading all of the books. I'll end up reading one and then wanting another and another and another and it may end up runining the sport of cycling for me.

if anything it made me understand the sport more and hasn't made me like it any less.
though if it wasn't the 'new blood' :-) coming into the sport i may think differently.

peronally, having been involved in relatively high level sport, ie to a level where, although personally i was never tested it was entirely because my name didn't happen to come out of the hat, i think its wrong to lable some1 a drugs cheat if they have never been "convicted".

There are procedures inplace, granted somewhaat unsuccessfully in cycling, if we don't trust them then any disscussion about drugs is pointless because you'll never be convinced. If you don't trust the system you might as well lable eveyone a cheat as none of there tests are valid.

I dont think he cheated, no, and regardless he's an exceptional athlete and one of the most proffessional sports people in the world

he was also a cunt to a lot of people to get where he wanted to be.

Is that not true of most people at the top?

he was also a cunt to a lot of people to get where he wanted to be.

You sure about that?