Tour de France 2010

kouroux said:
When there is someone or something to criticize they don't refrain from it tbh.
Like King_Eric said, mechanical problems is not accident so there is no moral obligation to wait for the opponent.Plus apparently (I'm not sure of it) it was Andy's fault so why should Contador have waited for him ?
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I'm not sure of it as well, but it was the first thing that some of the analists on the Belgian tv were thinking of.

But it shouldn't matter anyway. There's no racing sport in the world I can think of where people wait for their close competitors when they have mechanical problems.
 
Yes agree. You never anyone even remotely care in F1 or the other car racing sports, it's a mechanical error for a reason, you or your team has made a mistake somehow.

It's a bit different if you are held up because of someone crashing in front of you and holding you or getting in a tangle with some spectator.
 
Great stuff from both Andy and Conta on today's parade, "attacking" each other and joking around.

These two are gonna form an all-time rivalry, I'm certain!
 
Take a bow, Mark Cavendish.

15 stage wins in three years. A beast of a sprinter on the bike.

First one to win on Champs-Élysées two years in a row?
 
RedLars said:
Great stuff from both Andy and Conta on today's parade, "attacking" each other and joking around.

These two are gonna form an all-time rivalry, I'm certain!
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It's refreshing to see that between fierce opponents.

RedLars said:
Take a bow, Mark Cavendish.

15 stage wins in three years. A beast of a sprinter on the bike.

First one to win on Champs-Élysées two years in a row?
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Cavendish is a UFO.
 
They isn't as much talent in the sprinter's as there used to be, that's true sure, but 15 wins in 3 years is insane, probably be 17 had he not left to prepare for the Olympics as well.

This guy is a king.
 
Oh yeh, he's easily the best

Shame he's not winning the green jerseys, but he's already a bona fide Tour de France legend with so many stage wins, and many more to come
 
Cavendish will win the green next year.

He is unstoppable in a mass sprint, Hushovd on the other hand is almost finished as a typical sprinter. I'm not even sure if Petacchi will race next year.

Cavendish can focus more on working on his strength in the mountains, so that he can gather points in the harder stages as well. His qualities as a sprinter are insane.
 
Really pleased that Cavendish won the final stage, he would have run away with that green jersey had it not been for him pulling up in that sprint in the first week. Nobody has anything on him at the moment - when he kicks, nobody can stay with him. Brilliant sprinter, one of the best of all time? He's going to amass a lot of stage wins by the time he retires.

Congratulations to Alberto Contador on the win, though I wasn't very impressed with his comments that Andy hadn't improved and that he (Contador) had just underperformed. I'd agree with that slightly, but Andy has clearly improved.

Anyway, what a 3 weeks that was. Enjoyed it immensely, roll on 2011!
 
Haha that is fecking hilarious, they should just let them dope at this point and stop with all the whoha about doping as all of them can do it so it is an even playing field.
 
Another person I am sure is doping is Cavendish who has mysteriously dropped out of a race in Melbourne because it is too difficult.......
 
Desert Eagle said:
tbf it actually seems like an accident.
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There appear to be a whole lot of questions here, starting from the actual value of this "muscle-building and fat-burning drug" (according to the BBC) plus the fact he's been tested regularly without anything showing except for that one day, to the fact it appears to be a very small concentration.
 
Amir said:
There appear to be a whole lot of questions here, starting from the actual value of this "muscle-building and fat-burning drug" (according to the BBC) plus the fact he's been tested regularly without anything showing except for that one day, to the fact it appears to be a very small concentration.
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that and the fact it apparently happened on a rest day is what makes me wonder.
 
Alex said:
Haha that is fecking hilarious, they should just let them dope at this point and stop with all the whoha about doping as all of them can do it so it is an even playing field.
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The problem is that you then force everyone to go dope themselves. There are still people who don't want to (health reasons maybe) and shouldn't be forced to do so just to be competitive I think.

Amir said:
There appear to be a whole lot of questions here, starting from the actual value of this "muscle-building and fat-burning drug" (according to the BBC) plus the fact he's been tested regularly without anything showing except for that one day, to the fact it appears to be a very small concentration.
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It's a very small concentration indeed (400 times less than the minimum threshold WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) uses as the limit to report). So it probably won't have had any activity that day.
Desert Eagle said:
that and the fact it apparently happened on a rest day is what makes me wonder.
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Whether it's on a resting day or not doesn't really matter anyway. These kind of drugs are probably more used in training before a big race and the building up than during the race itself.

Some (medical) people are now suggesting this trace amound could come from a blood transfusion (using his own blood from a few months before when he was doped, commonly known as blood doping) and that blood could have had much bigger concentrations of this clenbuterol, indicating he might have used outside of the Tour de France.

Clenbuterol, besides being a possible muscle building hormone, is apparently also able to mask other doping products in the blood.

Contador himself claims this amount got in his blood because of contaminated meat he ate, which is also possible. Clenbuterol is used legally for horses with asthma and probably also illegaly in the cow business.

But whatever the case is, only a few months ago another rider had almost the exact same amount of the same product in his blood and he got suspended for 2 years. It doesn't look good for Contador...
 
FFs Cyclists have been doping since time immemorial.

I mean how will you manage for the Tour to ride 3,500 KM in 3 Weeks with climbs in double figure thousands of meters and that with an average of around 41KMH whilst I wont remove anything from the riders they are amazingly fit such speeds despite the technology today just don't add up

Also why are the majority of riders Asthmatic ? maybe because the drugs in the spray open the airways this sort of thing isn't new and the sport is itself to blame due to the amounts of money in it since the sport turned professional.
 
My gut's saying believe him on this one. Still think he's a cheating bastard after chain-gate
 
Accident my hairy hole! They found chemical traces of plastic in his blood, meaning he'd recently had a transfusion, most likely of his own, stored blood. If he was on clenbuterol at the time of, or shortly before, the extraction, that would explain the low doses now. According to doping hunter Werner Franke this cnut is one of the biggest frauds in the history of the sport and 'everyone' knows he was lucky not to be exposed as one in the wake of Operación Puerto.
 
B Cantona said:
That's my reading. You've surely got to be more careful if your career depends on this kind of thing though
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But how far can you go? Suppose he's right about this and it comes from the meat - how can anyone be absolutely certain everything you consume is OK? Athletes are careful these days, many of them won't drink anything unless it comes from a closed bottle, etc. But you can't exactly test everything.
 
King_Eric said:
But whatever the case is, only a few months ago another rider had almost the exact same amount of the same product in his blood and he got suspended for 2 years.
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If you're talking about Chinese Li Fuyu of Radioshack, I can't see that he was suspended for two years. Not yet anyway. At the moment he is just suspended pending further proceedings.
 
Elliott said:
According to doping hunter Werner Franke this cnut is one of the biggest frauds in the history of the sport and 'everyone' knows he was lucky not to be exposed as one in the wake of Operación Puerto.
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And so many experts are saying Contador may well be innocent... So I wouldn't rush to listen to anyone, whoever he may be.
 
Amir said:
If you're talking about Chinese Li Fuyu of Radioshack, I can't see that he was suspended for two years. Not yet anyway. At the moment he is just suspended pending further proceedings.
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Ah ok. That is possible. It is indeed Fuyu I was talking about. In some Belgian newspapers they were saying that he had already been sentenced.
 
Amir said:
And so many experts are saying Contador may well be innocent... So I wouldn't rush to listen to anyone, whoever he may be.
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Significantly fewer now it's been revealed he had traces of plastic in his blood.
 
Elliott said:
Significantly fewer now it's been revealed he had traces of plastic in his blood.
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I wouldn't quite rush to judgements on those 'revelations'. They appear to be from L'Equipe - and they had "convicted" Armstrong dozens of times - and also based on a special new test which has not even been approved yet.
 
dogrob said:
Also why are the majority of riders Asthmatic ? maybe because the drugs in the spray open the airways this sort of thing isn't new and the sport is itself to blame due to the amounts of money in it since the sport turned professional.
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The pathogenesis of exercise-induced asthma is different to that of normal asthma and legitimately affects endurance athletes more than others. Large volumes of ventilated air - especially cold and/or dry air - effectively dehydrate the airways resulting in damage to the tissue, in turn provoking an inflammatory response which, amongst other things, causes bronchoconstriction. That is why so many athletes report with asthma compared to the normal population. In fact, ventilation is not normally a limiting factor in exercise - oxygen exchange, delivery, and utilisation can be - so there is no performance benefit of a bronchodilator in healthy athletes. The issue with clenbuterol and other beta2-agonists is that they can have an anabolic effect when taking orally (not inhaled).
 
Mister Jeebus said:
The pathogenesis of exercise-induced asthma is different to that of normal asthma and legitimately affects endurance athletes more than others. Large volumes of ventilated air - especially cold and/or dry air - effectively dehydrate the airways resulting in damage to the tissue, in turn provoking an inflammatory response which, amongst other things, causes bronchodilation. That is why so many athletes report with asthma compared to the normal population. In fact, ventilation is not normally a limiting factor in exercise - oxygen exchange, delivery, and utilisation can be - so there is no performance benefit of a bronchodilator in healthy athletes. The issue with clenbuterol and other beta2-agonists is that they can have an anabolic effect when taking orally (not inhaled).
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Bronchoconstriction actually :angel:

(still bitter about you correcting me over anabolic/catabolic exercise ;))
 
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Nothing would please me more then seeing this little vile cnut of man get banned.
 
Amir said:
I wouldn't quite rush to judgements on those 'revelations'. They appear to be from L'Equipe - and they had "convicted" Armstrong dozens of times - and also based on a special new test which has not even been approved yet.
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Mate, you'd be foolish not to think that Armstrong and the likes were not drugged to their eye balls. All of them are. Its just that riders like Lance were that far ahead of the anti doping bodies that by the time they returned positive tests, they couldn't do a thing about it.
 
Amir said:
I wouldn't quite rush to judgements on those 'revelations'. They appear to be from L'Equipe - and they had "convicted" Armstrong dozens of times - and also based on a special new test which has not even been approved yet.
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Actually, they're from a German TV station, but I see your point. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he once again gets off on a technicality.
 
marchi-91 said:
Mate, you'd be foolish not to think that Armstrong and the likes were not drugged to their eye balls. All of them are. Its just that riders like Lance were that far ahead of the anti doping bodies that by the time they returned positive tests, they couldn't do a thing about it.
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I'm not saying you're wrong, but what happened is in the past and we have to look at the present and future. If someone is guilty he should be banned, but I do fear for the sport in a situation like this, when you could end up banning a cyclist - a big one, at that - for something that might be borderline.

We don't know everything about the human body, so we have to tread this carefully. I'm not sure having some suspicions regarding a cyclist and one or two problem tests - rather than clear cut cases - should end a career.

Elliot, L'equipe also claims to have information about the plastic traces. Not sure if there's someone feeding the media information, or it's just a case of one media outlet using information from another. I'd rather Contador got off on a technicality rather then have his career possibly ended in a very questionable manner.
 
Amir said:
it's just a case of one media outlet using information from another.
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That's the one. L'Equipe didn't break this story.

Amir said:
I'd rather Contador got off on a technicality rather then have his career possibly ended in a very questionable manner.
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As far as I know this new technique they use to detect chemical traces of plastic is very accurate and it's only a matter of time before it gains full acceptance with WADA. In other words, if today's reports are legit, a potential ban wouldn't be questionable at all as they would prove that Contador, at the very least, is guilty of blood doping.
 
Elliott said:
As far as I know this new technique they use to detect chemical traces of plastic is very accurate and it's only a matter of time before it gains full acceptance with WADA. In other words, if today's reports are legit, a potential ban wouldn't be questionable at all as they would prove that Contador, at the very least, is guilty of blood doping.
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I don't think it would look good at all if Contador is banned over a test that is only granted acceptance after or while it helps to 'prove' him guilty...
 
Would it 'look good' if he's proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt but gets off on a technicality..?
 
A test that could harm his defence but in no way proves him guilty, that simply isn't approved yet, is a lot more than a technicality.
 
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