Exhausted Bradley Wiggins now knows he can win the Tour - Page 2

Have a nother one.

Well, it's always better to be made up from inside your head than from outside.

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"Soldiers! Heroes!

The supreme command has erased our regiment from its records. Our regiment has been sacrificed for the honor of Belgrade and the Fatherland. Therefore, you no longer have to worry for your lives - they do not exist anymore.
So, forward to glory! For King and country! Long live the king! Long live Belgrade! "

I'm prepared to give Wiggins the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Aside from the astonishing improvement in this years T de F there is no other doping evidence - no Betty Andreu, no association with doping doctor, no positive tests etc. However, I do get your point.

I suspend my disbelief, HR.

I do hear what you'e saying.

In the past I used the "they debuted at a very high level, and maintained/enhanced that level" rule.
And it looks like I was wrong.
Happy to admit that.

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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.

His father was a pro bike rider. Look at some of the people running the UK program. I think his eyes were opened about what goes on a long long time ago.

What are you on about? Wiggins has the cleanest blood values in the peleton.

Wiggins' Values Point To Cleaner Peloton | Cyclingnews.com

Fair enough. But the end game answer cant be to just let it roll. I mean you cant make the sport primarily about 'whoever is willing to take the greatest personal health risks to win'.

You have to try to promote the real talent without wrecking the sport as a going conern. Wasnt richard england racing in ther USA last season? Didnt they sack him and he is back home racing for nothing? Wasnt he at Bissell? Hasnt Bissell got too guys on doping charges this season alone?

Maybe thats all unrelated. But you have to look after the guys with natural talent who want to race properly. Those are the guys who deserve contracts.

(I realise racing in the US isnt real cycling but still - I think if we dont look after the pro tour situation the US Pro scene will become a complete cesspool!)

Did George Hincapie cost Brad a podium place ?

Stage 3: Marseille - La Grande-Motte
19 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 5:01:24
35 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream +0:00:41

That 41 seconds lost to LA was critical, as Brad was only 37 seconds behind him in Paris

Final general classification
3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:05:24
4 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:06:01

Recovox News: Did Hincapie Tell Lance When The Hammer Went Down?

It was Brads fault for not being near the front... Who d'a thunk it?

Yeah, well, Armstrong's the most tested athlete in the world (not really, but that's what he says) and Ulrich never failed a test. And yet, for some reason, they seem like a pair of drug cheats.

Also, consider that every rider on the ProTour has to submit to blood evaluations so according to your reasoning, they're all clean... or, more likely, they're all drug cheats.

Don't get me wrong. I'm just being realistic. I don't think PED use demeans the sport or the athlete or the action on the road. It's still an athletic achievement, albeit enhanced. And, I acknowledge that certain athletes respond to PEDs better than others and while on the outset that seems unfair, what's fair about an altitude tent?

The only thing that bothers me about Wiggins is this sideshow he perpetrating ref. his cleanliness. Please.

Look, Swiss world road champion Oscar Camezind was class on the bike and off. He had one positive for EPO, one no-comment, and one retirement. I think that pretty much says it all.

BTW: It's spelled peloton. I corrected it above for you.

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"Bait in 08" --nns1400

No, Wiggins has a really good background in antidoping. You're trying to be too clever and barking up the wrong tree on this one I'm afraid.

He certainly has a good background in being very 'critical' about doping but it could be argued that this is a tactic to divert attention away from himself. How do you explain his astonishing performance in this years T de F? His previous best effort in a Grand Tour was 71st in this years edition of the Giro. Whether you like it or not this has certainly raised eyebrows (and not just with us jaded cycling fans - L'Equipe has in so many words said they reckon Wiggins is dirty).

Years ago David Millar was thought to "be a good boy". Now he's interviewed by all and sundry when it comes drugs despite the fact he was well and truely caught with his hands in his big stash of EPO with more needles in his possesion that all the junkies in Amsterdam combined.

He didn't focus on the GC before. His main focus was the time trial bits in preperation for the track. This is the first year that he trained for the Tour and not the track, and lost the weight to do it. He is the real deal - his blood values show this. He is going to release all his values for the last five years apparently, to show how they haven't changed.

I can understand the skepticism but it's incorrect.

David Millar too had a great background in anti-doping after his arrest by French police in 2004 for -- in short -- EPO. Millar came back to the sport a changed man, an outspoken anti-doping activist while at the same time retaining the services of renound doping doctor, Dr. Michele Ferrari.

How many times can someone watch Sammy Davis Jr., do the Candy Man? It's the same song and dance over and over again. Wiggins is singing the same pop song with a little different twist, and yet, here he is getting the same huge results against guys who have been or later will be implicated in drug scams either by police investigations or drug tests.

Armstrong lost weight. Armstrong never focused on the Tour. Armstrong retro-tested positive six times for EPO in 1999. He beat Wiggins by 37 seconds this year. That's less than two seconds a stage... one-one-thousand-two.

Listen, there are no superheroes out there. There's no one clean abnormally gifted guy who's going to take all the dopers school. The good guys who are racing clean, you don't know who they are because they are not racing professionally.

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"Bait in 08" --nns1400