So who won the tours that Lance didn't???

[CAMPYBOB]

Where's my pitchfork?...I demand they go after David, The Grand Fondue Faux Fifth Finisher dude and the former head of the Danish Viking Cycling Society guy!

And let's not forget Missy and her van load of pot!

And that kid in third grade that knocked me down on the playground!


Man, Paddy is going to come out of this smelling like a rose if he can get Mr. **** Pound to keep his mouth shut for a week or three.

 

[limerickman]

Originally Posted by tonyzackery .


Credit to Velonews.com

/img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif

 

[qdc15]

Rat race. Enough already. Just end it. Call the exterminators. Bike racers are vermin.

 

[limerickman]

Originally Posted by qdc15 .

Rat race. Enough already. Just end it. Call the exterminators. Bike racers are vermin.

I'm not sure that this is the most astute thing to say on a Cycling forum.

 

[qdc15]

Deal with it or keep the wool over your eyes.

 

[limerickman]

Originally Posted by qdc15 .

Deal with it or keep the wool over your eyes.

/img/vbsmilies/smilies/frown.gif

There are clean riders you know.

 

[qdc15]

I don't know that. The code of silence remains in place. Credibility is gone. The party's over, turn out the lights.

 

[nonns]

Lim,

There might well be clean riders but how can we tell? Because they seem decent and solid and upright.

Jan Ullrich seemed like a nice chap but apparently liked a liquid spliff once in a while (not to mention other sorts .
LA allegedly was a toker also as we're now discussing and arguing about.
Stephen Roche? Seemed like a lovely chap. My ma thought he was fantastic. Now we hear he didn't get on well with Kimmage. Was he dirty?
What about Sean K - him of the famous legs picture. Was he or wasn't he? Apparently those were bad times why should he be the exception. He rode enough races that no-one could blame him for being smacky K could we now???!!!! He was another of my heroes. :-< I could never understand a word he said especially after a race but he was the epitome of tough guy cycling hero for me as a youngster.
Contadope. Well no question there. Lepheimer? Cadel Evans well I hope so but you know what who knows. Bradley W. He's English - what a good sort - I want to believe.
Hinault - my all time fave. He was actually seen exhibiting what one could call roid rage in thumping that docker and he was something of a bully also.
Mercx - Pshaw
Moser??
Which of the greats and even not so greats.
Froome. He came from nowhere to suddenly being one of the front runners and his performance was slightly up and down though that could be cos the poor bloke was buggered after the tour. Slightly suspicious but also believable and man do I want to believe.

I mean who the hell are we meant to feel is truly clean. Just the current lot cos they say so?????

I think at this point I'd almost rather believe that they're all clean and give them an amnesty but put in place rules so draconian that if they're caught they're history without possibility of rehabilitation as I've said in one of the other threads.

As for the past well I'm inclined to believe that they were all dirty but it doesn't matter because they were all dirty. Look forward.

 

[qdc15]

My understanding is riders who refuse to play the game are sent home.

Clean riders are not pro riders and I suspect the performances of many top amateurs are enhanced.

 

[limerickman]

Originally Posted by nonns .

Lim,

There might well be clean riders but how can we tell? Because they seem decent and solid and upright.

Jan Ullrich seemed like a nice chap but apparently liked a liquid spliff once in a while (not to mention other sorts .
LA allegedly was a toker also as we're now discussing and arguing about.
Stephen Roche? Seemed like a lovely chap. My ma thought he was fantastic. Now we hear he didn't get on well with Kimmage. Was he dirty?
What about Sean K - him of the famous legs picture. Was he or wasn't he? Apparently those were bad times why should he be the exception. He rode enough races that no-one could blame him for being smacky K could we now???!!!! He was another of my heroes. :-< I could never understand a word he said especially after a race but he was the epitome of tough guy cycling hero for me as a youngster.
Contadope. Well no question there. Lepheimer? Cadel Evans well I hope so but you know what who knows. Bradley W. He's English - what a good sort - I want to believe.
Hinault - my all time fave. He was actually seen exhibiting what one could call roid rage in thumping that docker and he was something of a bully also.
Mercx - Pshaw
Moser??
Which of the greats and even not so greats.
Froome. He came from nowhere to suddenly being one of the front runners and his performance was slightly up and down though that could be cos the poor bloke was buggered after the tour. Slightly suspicious but also believable and man do I want to believe.

I mean who the hell are we meant to feel is truly clean. Just the current lot cos they say so?????

I think at this point I'd almost rather believe that they're all clean and give them an amnesty but put in place rules so draconian that if they're caught they're history without possibility of rehabilitation as I've said in one of the other threads.

As for the past well I'm inclined to believe that they were all dirty but it doesn't matter because they were all dirty. Look forward.

I don't know who is clean currently.

I know "back in the day" that certain riders were regarded as clean. Melchor Mauri had a reputation within that peloton for being a clean rider. In a peloton that contained Roche, Fignon, Indurain, Bugno, Chiapucci.
Is Mauri's reputation based on "positive sentiment" (likeability)?
I couldn't tell you.
All I know is that the several of the main riders of that generation regarded Mauri as being incorruptible as regards doping.

 

[nonns]

I still think its a fantastic sport even with the cheating. The performances put out by these people (men and women) are just staggering.

 

[tonyzackery]

Definitely lost much of the interest I've had in the professional sport.
Once activities/sports/recreations become "professional", things go haywire such that the essence and beauty are lost only to be replaced with greed and lust.

 

[jpr95]

Originally Posted by tonyzackery .

Definitely lost much of the interest I've had in the professional sport.
Once activities/sports/recreations become "professional", things go haywire such that the essence and beauty are lost only to be replaced with greed and lust.

We may disagree on many things, but I'll hoist a glass to this statement.

 

[alienator]

I still think its a fantastic sport even with the cheating. The performances put out by these people (men and women) are just staggering.  

Yes it is. There are few sports that require the suffering, the endurance, and the will to go harder that bicycle racing does. It's a great sport with an even greater history.

 

[limerickman]

At it's purest cycling is an exceptional sport.
Man testing the limits of his physiology and cycling the most efficient means of transport known to mankind. What sport can be better?

By rights sport should be pure and wholesome.

But in Victorian times when men began to take a half day off work on Saturday afternoon to play sport, they began to demand compensation for the wages forgone during that half day. And thus the seed of professionalism was sown.

The amateur ideal of "sport for sport sake" is something that is lost in today's world of earnings, endorsement fees and product placement.
Instead sport is an industry where faster, higher and stronger take on a different significance.

Cycling in it's purest form. I wish I had this full documentary to link because our own Ras Tailteann was one such race that amateurs rode.



some of my former mentors are in this documentary/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

 

[hpearson]

Originally Posted by tonyzackery .

Definitely lost much of the interest I've had in the professional sport.
Once activities/sports/recreations become "professional", things go haywire such that the essence and beauty are lost only to be replaced with greed and lust.

Lemond has a real concern. I see cycling heading into a 10 year if not more, black hole. It was headed there after Festina and Operacion Puerto and Lance story saved it.

Now the sport from top to bottom, UCI, team management, physicians, sponsors, athletes...... are all headed down the drain. The next to go is the TV coverage and then the athletes will be back to getting paid nothing and then the next good crop of young riders decide on some other sport and the death spiral starts.

Team sponsors will be Bubba's Chicken and Randy's Muffler.

We are going to be listening to the TDF on ham radios. They will be lucky to field nine guys for a team. We are going to watching Hincappie drag his tired ass over the Alps when he's 60.

This sucks!

 

[steve]

Originally Posted by hpearson .

Team sponsors will be Bubba's Chicken and Randy's Muffler.

We are going to be listening to the TDF on ham radios. They will be lucky to field nine guys for a team. We are going to watching Hincappie drag his tired ass over the Alps when he's 60.

I hope you're wrong /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

 

[Dave Pace]

Originally Posted by hpearson .

Team sponsors will be Bubba's Chicken and Randy's Muffler.

We are going to be listening to the TDF on ham radios. They will be lucky to field nine guys for a team. We are going to watching Hincappie drag his tired ass over the Alps when he's 60.

This sucks!

You forgot that the whole time you will have Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet's Color Commentating on it the whole time

 

[CAMPYBOB]

"It was headed there after Festina and Operacion Puerto and Lance story saved it."

QFT!

If I want to watch a bunch of Cat. 2's, I'll follow their wheels as long as I can in the local mixed category races.

Well, back to watching the Spanish train and the Engrish team climb like...who was that masked man?

"Team sponsors will be Bubba's Chicken and Randy's Muffler."

Heheh! NASCAR! Talladega to Milan! The next 10 kilometers are brought you by BC Powder! Got a headache from too much EPO? Use BC NOW!

Anyone know when the X-Games come on?

 

[danfoz]

Originally Posted by hpearson .

Lemond has a real concern. I see cycling heading into a 10 year if not more, black hole. It was headed there after Festina and Operacion Puerto and Lance story saved it.

Now the sport from top to bottom, UCI, team management, physicians, sponsors, athletes...... are all headed down the drain. The next to go is the TV coverage and then the athletes will be back to getting paid nothing and then the next good crop of young riders decide on some other sport and the death spiral starts.

Team sponsors will be Bubba's Chicken and Randy's Muffler.

We are going to be listening to the TDF on ham radios. They will be lucky to field nine guys for a team. We are going to watching Hincappie drag his tired ass over the Alps when he's 60.

This sucks!

Only time can tell. Capitalism is fickle. It doesn't care about integrity. I lot of us are amateur competitors and may have a slightly different take than the non-racing fan. I gather many of the people that watch are doing so for entertainment on their days off, and going out with a picknic basket is a time honored family pastime that a few drugs will have zero effect on. Did baseball stadiums start emptying out when the doping scandals hit? I don't know basball well enough to answer. I think cycling is too firmly embedded with the Europeans to be derailed by some American who doped. I certainly can't see any Belgians giving it a scond thought.