Where's the dope ? 38 year old Frenchman leads yellow jersey group up d'Huez....

What the fark ? Stéphane Goubert the oldest bloke in the Tour leading Valverde, Shleck, Evans, Menchov up d'Huez in pursuit of Sastre !!!! What's happened to bike racing...... not sure if anyone saw the end of the stage... the Schleck/Evans group literally dropped at the top of the mountain and all collapsed to the ground. Sure beats Contador taking a call on a mobile after winning a stage !

Maybe they will start realising that underneath all the dope there is still an amazing athlete!

Wrong. He was still conmpeting on the climb in the 2006 Tour. Slowest ascent of the Alpe ever.

No, that was WBT still on the 2006 L'Etape...

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
-- Albert Einstein

LOL

And this from cyclingnews:
Sastre's time would rank in 17th in the 'official' standings. The top 10 are:

1 Marco Pantani 37'35 (1997)
2 Lance Armstrong 37'36 (2004)
3 Marco Pantani 38'00 (1994)
4 Lance Armstrong 38'01 (2001)
5 Marco Pantani 38'04 (1995)
6 Jan Ullrich 38'23 (1997)
7 Floyd Landis 38'34 (2006)
8 Andreas Klöden 38'35 (2006)
9 Jan Ullrich 38'37 (2004)
10 Richard Virenque 39'02 (1997)

Not one of those top ten times is a clean time.

Interesting times for the climb.

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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.

probably top 50 are not clean

To broaden the OP's point further, AG2R is 50 minutes clear in the team GC from the 3rd placed team. While we all expected AG2R to perform well due to their climbing depth, that is an astounding result, and surely speaks well to the competition level evening out.

Like I heard today there is no "white" line to start the climb, Pantani's in '95 for instance was calculated on bits of tv clips which wouldn't be accurate, Sastre's time was 39'30 i think. A good time for sure, however I wouldn't dismiss every time on this list as "doped", there are some exceptional athletes on that list, Sastre himself would probably admit he isn't quite in the same athletic league as some of these guys, doped or not.

Virenque in 97 was definitely clean.

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Harry

Yeh well that one is a gimme.

Can anyone remember if drafting gave any assistance on some of these times?... Cause it didn't help Carlos much this year.

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They said that Pantani' s times measured from the start of the climb as in comparison to Armstrongs time trial of 37'36 would actually be 36'50 (95) and 36'55 (97).

It is almost impossible to compare years....as the climbs before the L'alpe are different and the stage takes place during different parts of Tour (this was the last mountain stage this year and the MOST difficult) plus one has to take into account the pace of the race prior to the start of the climb. There are innumerable variables that have to be taken into account.

I don't think one can positively say that this year is clean or dirty based on the times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJTqF...eature=related


pantani l'alpe duez 1995