From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France (H - Page 9

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle1795754.ece

- My favourite quote is: "failing a in competition test is like failing an IQ test - you shouldn't fail unless you're stupid".

Or they're hormones which are inherently hard to detect because they occur naturally in the body as well (e.g. HgH, EPO, testosterone, etc.). The two popular western EPOs (Aranesp and Epogen, I believe are the names) have different effects on the EPO isoforms that are used to detect doping. Who knows what Chinese EPO (if looking on the web you can easily find this source) does? Manzano has talked about Kelme using Russian EPO and blaims it for a Kelme EPO positive at the Tour (Llorente would probably be the rider he's talking about).

I don't think I've heard anything mentioned in terms of testing about the new artificial hemoglobins designed for trauma patients that Manzano says riders are using.

....and who is this hot nurse they used known as the "carrier pigeon" ? bringing the drugs in a thermos to all the riders ? I want to meet her... I want to marry her... I want to father her children…. She’s dangerous….

I read somewhere (might have been here?) that Chambers has gone to the bottom....he's with some Dutch American football gridiron outfit and doesn't get to get off the bench most games.

It would be like Barry Bonds joining a village cricket club.

This is true but you can hit the big time from this league and you make a lot more from being a waterboy in pro football than you do coming 3rd in sprinting.....

I dont know but I always felt that being top 10 in the world any athletics event was quite lucrative. Think of all the individual exposure for sponsors, compared to being just a bit part in a team.

The man who interested me in the sport was a immigrant that lived in my town who was a Campagnolo mechanic who worked the big races for a few years. He worked the 60's and early 70's...
He used to tell me how the sport would change as soon as companies like Shimano who was just emerging w/Dura-Ace would corrupt the sport. He said as soon as the equipment makers had influence over the teams that we would see some teams getting stronger due to more money from the sponsors.
Wish he was alive to se what really happened to his sport after the last 2 years.
I wish for the 70's, 80's and 90's where the racing was the main show.

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"Since we started [selling the Livestrong wristbands], we've sold 75 million of these bracelets," said Armstrong. "What's different this year, is that anybody who buys a bracelet during the Tour, all the money stays here. I think it's important for people to understand that the money they spend - 1 Euro - is not going to Texas or the United States, it stays in France."

I don't know if that will ever happen. Really, drug testing hasn't netted anymore athletes than in years past. It's mostly been the police who have done the most damage.

If federal agents decided to crack down on steroid use in the NBA, NFL and MLB, they'd have field day.

We're seeing sponsors pulling out, but I'll be interested to see what the impact to the view numbers are during the Tour. If the eyeballs are there, the sponsors will come back. Maybe not the same sponsors, but sponsors will come back.

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"Bait in 08" --nns1400

I think you are correct. The UCI isn't catching most of these guys. Of course they caught Hamilton, Landis, Heras, etc. However, the big damage has been done by the police.

The UCI has an inherant conflict of interest. Scandal is bad for their sport. They don't want bad things to happen to their sport. So, they try hard to avaoid scandal. Which means they don't really try that hard to catch the dopers. I wouldn't be surprised if more teams didn't have a mole at the UCI.

The core problem here is the UCI. The watchdog doesn't want to catch anybody. Therefore, everybody feels as if they can get away with anything.

No, WADA caught them and because the UCI wants to play at the Olympics they have to accept their results. Otherwise you're spot on, the UCI would rather go back to the pre-WADA way and for most intents and purposes a dopers free-for-all. Of course, explaining away why the cops keeping finding cycling related-dope would have created a lot of headaches regardless.

This is the one statement the (theres no dopage) crowd cringe at. They would love to believe some athletic drama is being played out on the roads of Italy, France or Spain, but the fact is the winner has already been determined. The final chapter is already in the can...it's just the arrangement of the other chapters is all that is really being played out.

I'm not saying hard work and preparation do not matter....because they do. This is being decide by something with it's undercurrents bent toward the medical side more than the athletic side.

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"There are no miracles in sports. The strongest always win." Eddy "The Cannibal" Merckx

The NFL is lucky to be based in a country where the authorities have not yet increased their anti-doping vigilance to the same level European law enforcement have. The posters on this forum who advocate that cycling go back to the bad old days of looking the way wrt to doping are missing the new reality: most of the major cycling drug busts have come via law enforcement actions (e.g., Festina, Rumsas, Millar, OP, Quick Step, etc.). The UCI has absolutely no power to change this, and we can all expect much more of the same in the future. Law enforcement exposure of dope rings will continue whether cycling fans and the UCI like it or not. In my view, the UCI and race organizers have no option other than trying to clean up the sport now, because we have moved into an era of modern law enforcement that is no longer compatible with the old system of turning a blind eye to doping. Big Brother is getting bigger every day, and not just for doped-up cyclists. In the real world, members of the general public who get caught possessing or taking prescription medications without proper medical authorization go to jail. They also lose their jobs. It would be fundamentally wrong to have a separate set of rules for professional cyclists, and from a plausibility standpoint, the legal authorities would never grant such a distinction.

The question isn't whether dopers will get exposed and the sport will suffer embarassment. The question is whether cycling authorities will recognize this new reality and try to do something about it.

closed.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.