The Tour de Drugs

bikezappa

What will happen next?

I give them credit for trying to clean up the sport.

I wonder how American sports would do if Barry Bonds and all the other sport people were tested during and off season for drugs. How would the NFL do if they tested the teams.

Maybe we are all fooled by these people taking drugs to preform better.

zombie boy 2000

It would be an absolute travesty that an event with a such a rich and fabled and history is brought down by recent events.

During the years of Greg LeMond, Hinault and Andy Hampsten, the Tour was a fixture in my household growing up. My dad still has the VHS recordings of each year and would watch them again and again.

After talking to him at length last night, he is very distraught over the matter.
Again... a horrible, horrible shame. But at least they are taking a hardline approach to the issue and are attempting to clean up the sport as best they can.

But blood transfusions? Jeez...

wingnut4772

There has always been doping in cycling. This is nothing new.

bikezappa

wingnut4772 wrote: »

There has always been doping in cycling. This is nothing new.

Agreed.

There has never, to my knowledge, been an attempt like this in any sport to punish the cheaters or dopers.

shawn474

The Tour has long been associated with drugs, blood doping, etc. It has just been recently that we have been able to detect these things due to technology. The joke is that you can't win the tour without cheating in some form or another. Let's not forget that Lance Armstrong has been implicated on numerous occassions in Europe. We don't hear about it here because he is held in such high regard - not a popular opinion, but true. This is all smoke and mirrors, much like the steroids in baseball. Once Bonds retires, the steroid issue will be dead. The only reason baseball has done anything about it is because of the beloved records that are being broken. Cycling will disqualify all of these riders and make it appear that they are performing a "crack-down", when in actuality it will be status quo in the next couple of years. Bottom line is people who enjoy the sport will still watch; people who are fed up won't. It's just disheartening that all of our sports have had some form of bad press from rogue players (NFL), to gambling officials (NBA), to steroids (baseball), and to cycling.

Shawn

bikezappa

I don't think there is any doping in local bike racing. I think the reason is that there isn't much money in it. Once the money in the sport gets big people will do anything to gain an advantage. It would be difficult for me if I were Roger the Rocket not to take drugs in order to pitch well for the team. The money can change any sport. People will do any thing, including hurting their bodies long term with drugs, to gain an advantage in business and sports.

Systems

bikezappa wrote: »

I don't think there is any doping in local bike racing. I think the reason is that there isn't much money in it. Once the money in the sport gets big people will do anything to gain an advantage. It would be difficult for me if I were Roger the Rocket not to take drugs in order to pitch well for the team. The money can change any sport. People will do any thing, including hurting their bodies long term with drugs, to gain an advantage in business and sports.

hell yes, pop a few drugs, get your million dollar contract and your set. Who cares if you get caught down the road, leave with your millions.

shawn474

I agree, but we are not talking about local bike racing. Professional riders in Europe make a lot of money through endorsements and such.

Shawn

markmarc

It's very disappointing, in high school and college I had the chance to watch some of the great riders of both sexes compete in the Red Zinger which later became the Coors Bike Classic (the Kevin Costner movie American Flyers was filming during the race). I got the chance to watch and talk afterwards to such greats as Connie Carpenter. One year I was lucky enough to sit with Jeannie Longo at an Italian-American function. She was all of 5-1, and 100 pounds but watching her power up a mountain pass at 9,000 feet was amazing.

I just hope this tough line finally drills it into the heads of the cheaters that you're going to get caught so don't think about it.

Strong Bad

They need to do an All Drug Olympics like the skit from Saturday Night Live.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LrCGYtFAQ2U

That way, there would be no controversy over doping and whatever since everyone would be on the stuff and using whatever they want.


John

shack

The French and WDA are on a witch hunt IMO. According to them “everyone who wins” dopes. Dick Pound needs to go pound his **** and just shut up. He is now after golfers. Have any of you seen some of the tour winners this year? Many are overweight, several are smokers, some are skinny as a rail. There is no real advantage for steroid users in golf, but they want them tested anyway.

As for the tour…Rasmussen has been tested after every stage but there has not been a single positive test. He missed two requested random tests prior to the tour, which has been the speculation about doping and the reason for his dismissal from the Danish National team and all the uproar. He states he was in Mexico (his wife’s home) and did not receive the requests. He was dropped from the tour because someone else “stated” they saw him in Italy. He denies it. Seems it would be easy to prove either way. There was tremendous pressure from the doping **** that it would be a terrible thing if Rasmussen won the Tour and it is my guess that Rabobank was forced to drop him with no proof. Sports have gone too far to the extreme with doping (especially Dick Pounder). Guilt is often presumed with no proof and rather than the sanctioning body having to prove doping, the athlete must prove he’s not. How is it possible to refute proof (speculation) that doesn’t exit? If they can prove something exists…fine. But to charge doping because someone does something that the so called experts “assume” that isn’t normal is just wrong IMO. I have always thought innocent until PROVEN guilty was the standard. Evidently not.

Ron-P

There has always been doping in cycling.

...football, basketball, baseball..etc., the list goes on.

woofiepaws

Make doping legal. Give the yellow jersey to the doctor!!!

Midnite Mick

Drugs in sports has very little to do with money...and way more to do with obsession. I knew a lot of guys, as well as ladies, that did a fair amount of drugs without making a single dime....nor having any intent to make any money. It is part of being an obsessive, compulsive personality type, in which EVERY athlete is. If they weren't then they would not be athletes. Besides who cares if athletes use drugs, to me it doesn't take away from any of the greatness...... it is just part of the game.