Who wins the Tour now?

thoughtforfood

There is a sick logic to that thought, but the reality is that it would only further the fight against doping.

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Tim Lamkin

Not sick at all, you want to stop doping take away ALL the money all the sponsors, you watch how fast it all ends, cancel all race for two years and start over....it would work unbelievably well...you really think there is no doping this year..YEA right

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thoughtforfood

No, I am agreeing with you.

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

Bro Deal

Which riders are seeing Dr. Ferrari. I vote for one of them to win.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Crankyfeet

No I don't agree. What will have changed? As long as people want to win and they can fudge their way through the standard testing programs, people will dope. You don't have to be paying a $30,000 a year retainer to a doctor to take a steroid course off season.

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Bro Deal

You can never get rid of all the doping because some of the recovery products are cheap, easy to use, readily available, and either undetectable or have ineffective tests. The aim should be to get rid of the blood manipulation.

Getting rid of Astana raises the stakes immeasurably. The ASO has used the nuclear option. It has become ever riskier for teams to have an internal doping program, and now the team management have a vested interest in preventing their riders from doping. They can no longer throw a positive rider under the bus and walk away unscathed.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

plectrum

Evans should win the tour easily Popovych is a great ally in the hills. I also think High Rd will do extremely well and Rogers does have a strong chance of a podium. There is though one MASSIVE risk in barrign Astana and that is that possibly Valverde will look at the field now and feel that if he dopes then he is unbeatable. The temptation to return to his pre 2007 doped self maybe too great.

Powerful Pete

Depends if Valverde races the Tour this year...

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whiteboytrash

Don't forget the Shleck brothers.... there blood supplies are still flowing....

plectrum

I hope he does as he has talent but they need to watch him very carefully. Otherwise he will dope and blow the field apart.

Powerful Pete

Let us see if he survives the reopening of OP and the CONI investigation....

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Campagnolo Per Sempre!
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Cobblestones

Athletes dope at the amateur level. Go to an average gym, how many 'recreational athletes' of what I call the 'bouncer type' will use steroids? It's cheep, simple, available etc. Some people simply are competitive no matter what, even if there's no other reward than an 'ego boost', and some of those are willing to take short-cuts.

You take away the money, what will disappear is the elaborate high-tech doping. The cheap low-level doping will always remain. Some of which you can get rid of by (expensive) testing (exogenous testosterone), some not (HGH).

thunder

Popo aint that good in the hills.

But without Contador, Popo can take Evans to about 2 or 3 kms.

plectrum

i found Popo quite impressive this year in the hills he was the internediate stop point for Contador / Levi to catch up to and then for last 30k Levi took Cont home.