Procycling thread

[Musketeer Gripweed]

I couldn't help thinking of this when I watched that incident yesterday...

Hoogerland got up and rode another 50 kilometres. Nani couldn't stay on his feet for 10 seconds.

I love cycling and cyclists, apart from the drugs and the politics of course. Remember Hoogerland, as well as all the others riding with niggles are really restricted to any painkillers they can take. Poor buggers, shame the cheats wasted it for those who are suffering really.

[SJ1210]

http://www.heraldsun...1-1226092003609

Aye I caught that earlier as well, Vladimer Karpets the man dishing out the punishment.

Rumours abound that Contador is really feeling his right knee & a possible abandonment might not be far off, I think we`ll know as soon as the race heads uphill.

Contador's knee

My link

[T_S_A_R]

Whatever Contador has done, he shouldn't be getting shoved off his bike.

it's harsh but to be expected.

he's a multi millionaire with 6 grand tours in the bag, i would imagine that a lot of the peloton think he should have took his medicine rather than try to win the giro and tour again before he likely gets banned. teams find it extremely difficult to get sponsors these days and more bad publicity and 3 of the last 4 GTs being tainted won't help that. it's the rank and file guys in the peloton who will suffer because of it so it's no wonder they are pissed.

[kiddy]

it's harsh but to be expected.

he's a multi millionaire with 6 grand tours in the bag, i would imagine that a lot of the peloton think he should have took his medicine rather than try to win the giro and tour again before he likely gets banned. teams find it extremely difficult to get sponsors these days and more bad publicity and 3 of the last 4 GTs being tainted won't help that. it's the rank and file guys in the peloton who will suffer because of it so it's no wonder they are pissed.

Imagine how pissed off they'll be if he wins his case/it is dropped & he goes on to become the first man to win all three Grand Tours in one season.

[T_S_A_R]

Imagine how pissed off they'll be if he wins his case/it is dropped & he goes on to become the first man to win all three Grand Tours in one season.

he's not going to win his case!

his excuse is the equivalent of the dog ate my homework. valverde got a two year ban from cas even although there was some serious doubts about the process followed to convict him. pelliozoti got a two year ban just for having fucked up blood values.

contador was caught red handed with a banned steroid in his system. he is fucked.

[Mr. Brightside]

Is he though, he's kinda the poster boy, Valverde wasn't that well known.

[chuckles]

Hoogerland and Flecha ended up finishing 16 minutes back - still 5 minutes ahead of Cavendish, Farrar and Rojas though.

It's a rest day tomorrow, so hopefully Flecha and Hoogerland will have a wee bit of time to recover.

It will be interesting to see whether, if Hoogerland is unable to continue, his team decides to sue the French TV company. After all he was in the breakaway group with every chance of increasing his points and keeping the polka dot jersey.

[SJ1210]

he's not going to win his case!

his excuse is the equivalent of the dog ate my homework. valverde got a two year ban from cas even although there was some serious doubts about the process followed to convict him. pelliozoti got a two year ban just for having fucked up blood values.

contador was caught red handed with a banned steroid in his system. he is fucked.

Well the "dog ate my homework" certainly works elsewhere

Mexican footballers cleared

[myshkin]

Kolobnev thrown off the tour for positive test.

Easy money.

[Desert Nomad]

Kolobnev thrown off the tour for positive test.

Easy money.

Haha aye, sadly he is a rider that could been easily picked out as going to fail a test, been rumours about him for a while. Will they decide to kick the whole Katusha team out?

[myshkin]

it's harsh but to be expected.

he's a multi millionaire with 6 grand tours in the bag, i would imagine that a lot of the peloton think he should have took his medicine rather than try to win the giro and tour again before he likely gets banned. teams find it extremely difficult to get sponsors these days and more bad publicity and 3 of the last 4 GTs being tainted won't help that. it's the rank and file guys in the peloton who will suffer because of it so it's no wonder they are pissed.

I find it impossible to believe that Karpets from the disgraced Katusha team was thinking about the ethics and the good name of cycling when he pushed him off his bike.

Edited July 12, 2011 by myshkin

[myshkin]

Haha aye, sadly he is a rider that could been easily picked out as going to fail a test, been rumours about him for a while. Will they decide to kick the whole Katusha team out?

They should have been thrown out of cycling after the raid on their team before the Giro. They won't do it now but that isn't a surprise.

[Desert Nomad]

They should have been thrown out of cycling after the raid on their team before the Giro. They won't do it now but that isn't a surprise.

Aye seems they will be content at him being fired from the team. Right who's next? I predict an Astana nomark.

[myshkin]

Doping aside it's looking like being the tightest Tour for a long, long time.

I'm not sure it will be as close as Lemond and Fignon but I reckon it will go all the way to the time trial on the penultimate day.

Impossible to call the winner right now but we will know a lot more after Luz Ardiden and Plateau de Beille.

I still think Contador is the man to beat but so many doubts about him now, not least his mental state and his shit, underachieving team. That said he doesn't really need a strong team now as all the other teams are forced to control the race.

Evans looks strong although I struggle to see his team being able to control things in the high mountains.

Interesting times ahead though.

Would love to see Tommy Voeckler carry the jersey all the way but can't quite picture a scenario how that can happen, as febrile as my imagination can be sometimes.

[myshkin]

Aye seems they will be content at him being fired from the team. Right who's next? I predict an Astana nomark.

Better not be Remi Di Gregorio as he is my card to play for the mountain jersey. Anyone else fine although given what happened before the race one of Gilbert's Omega Lotto team might not be a bad shout.

Edited July 12, 2011 by myshkin

[kiddy]

I find it impossible to believe that Karpets from the disgraced Katusha team was thinking about the ethics and the good name of cycling when he pushed him off his bike.

I take it Mr Karpets will be mightily pissed off this morning, I wonder who he'll barge into today?

Surprising that this test result has come through so quickly, considering it took two months for the AC affair to hit the headlines.

Then again, perhaps Kolobnev had that much in his system they didn't have to send the sample to the lab in Cologne for testing?

[T_S_A_R]

I take it Mr Karpets will be mightily pissed off this morning, I wonder who he'll barge into today?

Surprising that this test result has come through so quickly, considering it took two months for the AC affair to hit the headlines.

Then again, perhaps Kolobnev had that much in his system they didn't have to send the sample to the lab in Cologne for testing?

firstly the riders don't give a f**k about people taking drugs they care about people damaging the sport because it hits them in the pocket. kolobnev is a nobody and has done nothing of interest this tour except a wee attack on the first stage. no one's livelihood is being put at risk by kolobnev getting kicked off the tour.

riders don't hate ricardo ricco because he cheats. they hated him because he cheated so openly. in the post festina world you have to cheat with a degree of responsibilty, that's what the bio passport is all about.

the difference between this and contador is that the french lab doing the testing leaked the story to le monde before they told the uci. why did they do this? because the uci knew about contador's positive test last year before the tour had even finished and it only came out months later because the lab leaked it to a german journalist.

the comments from blatter are no suprise. a sporting administator downplaying doping within his own sport, never! it's not like it has happened in cycling, tennis, boxing, nfl, mlb and athletics. there are huge amounts of money at stake, no one wants to blow the lid off. what did blatter have to say about the juventus epo scandal? very little.

clenbuterol contaminated meat is extremely rare in europe. what is more likely, contaminated meat finding it's way onto the plate of the plate of the tour de france champion on the final rest day. or the tour de france champion using the rest day to tranfuse his only blood which he doesn't know contains tiny traces of the clenbuterol he was using during his training cycle earlier in the year.

Edited July 12, 2011 by T_S_A_R

[kiddy]

firstly the riders don't give a f**k about people taking drugs they care about people damaging the sport because it hits them in the pocket. kolobnev is a nobody and has done nothing of interest this tour except a wee attack on the first stage. no one's livelihood is being put at risk by kolobnev getting kicked off the tour.

riders don't hate ricardo ricco because he cheats. they hated him because he cheated so openly. in the post festina world you have to cheat with a degree of responsibilty, that's what the bio passport is all about.

the difference between this and contador is that the french lab doing the testing leaked the story to le monde before they told the uci. why did they do this? because the uci knew about contador's positive test last year before the tour had even finished and it only came out months later because the lab leaked it to a german journalist.

the comments from blatter are no suprise. a sporting administator downplaying doping within his own sport, never! it's not like it has happened in cycling, tennis, boxing, nfl, mlb and athletics. there are huge amounts of money at stake, no one wants to blow the lid off. what did blatter have to say about the juventus epo scandal? very little.

clenbuterol contaminated meat is extremely rare in europe. what is more likely, contaminated meat finding it's way onto the plate of the plate of the tour de france champion on the final rest day. or the tour de france champion using the rest day to tranfuse his only blood which he doesn't know contains tiny traces of the clenbuterol he was using during his training cycle earlier in the year.

Then why didn't the clenbuterol show up on the two tests taken on the days either side of it?

The fact that the amount detected was so small (50 picograms, 50 trillionths (10-12) of a gram/ or 0.000000000050 gram), that it would have absolutely no effect on him.

Perhaps, like the rider claims, it was just ingested during a meal?

Maybe Contador knew what was about to break & had passed a sarcastic comment to Karpets? That seems just as likely as any 'protecting the sport' nonsense.

[T_S_A_R]

as i've said before riders who are pericieved to be damaging the sport have been targetted by the peloton before. it happened to ricco and simoni for different reasons.

i'll lay out what i feel is the most likely scenario.

some time during the spring contador takes clenbuterol as part of his training.

a while after that when he believes the clenbuterol and anything else he has been taking is out of his system he draws blood to transfuse during the tour.

unfortunately for him there is an amount remaining which would have previously been undectable but due to new technology and processes at the cologne lab they are able to spot it.

(also remember that there were reports of him testing positive for plasticiziers)

the fact that after more than a decade of reporting on doping people are still willing to believe the bullshit spouted by riders is staggering. contador was on liberty seguros, he was on astana, he was the only rider who could match micheal rasmussen climbing, he won the tour despite his whole team working against him, he's the best rider since armstrong. he has always been suspicious. now he gets caught with a banned substance in his system and people still want to give him the benefit of the doubt. it's like stockholm syndrome.

i love watching football, cycling, tennis and boxing but i'm not going to kid myself on that doping doesn't happen on a huge level.

[Desert Nomad]

as i've said before riders who are pericieved to be damaging the sport have been targetted by the peloton before. it happened to ricco and simoni for different reasons.

i'll lay out what i feel is the most likely scenario.

some time during the spring contador takes clenbuterol as part of his training.

a while after that when he believes the clenbuterol and anything else he has been taking is out of his system he draws blood to transfuse during the tour.

unfortunately for him there is an amount remaining which would have previously been undectable but due to new technology and processes at the cologne lab they are able to spot it.

(also remember that there were reports of him testing positive for plasticiziers)

the fact that after more than a decade of reporting on doping people are still willing to believe the bullshit spouted by riders is staggering. contador was on liberty seguros, he was on astana, he was the only rider who could match micheal rasmussen climbing, he won the tour despite his whole team working against him, he's the best rider since armstrong. he has always been suspicious. now he gets caught with a banned substance in his system and people still want to give him the benefit of the doubt. it's like stockholm syndrome.

i love watching football, cycling, tennis and boxing but i'm not going to kid myself on that doping doesn't happen on a huge level.

It's sad really because even top riders we may believe to be riding clean have a huge cloud over them, I'm talking Gilbert and Evans here.

I am certain that doping takes place in most other sports, the amount of money in cycling is small-fry to football or tennis or boxing for example. Footballers are cheats by their very nature, doping is just taking cheating to the logical next level. Rumours have been rife in Tennis for years, if there is one sport guaranteed that doping takes place, tennis is it.