Well that was lame or no Contador, no Tour

[rodsteiger]

That has to be the most boring Tour on record. Just freaking brutal.

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all. He just pedals merrily along waiting to win. No guts, no yellow jersey baby.

Contador would have made this thing rock!

But no, on sheer hearsay they kept him out.

Well chuckleheads, you got what you wanted! The lamest Tour ever. Hope you're satisfied.

And to all you drones who go on and on about doping. You're bigger losers than Evans.

See you next year, perhaps when the Tour decides to put a real man in the group! Viva Contador!

 

[thebluetrain]

That has to be the most boring Tour on record. Just freaking brutal.

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all. He just pedals merrily along waiting to win. No guts, no yellow jersey baby.

Contador would have made this thing rock!

But no, on sheer hearsay they kept him out.

Well chuckleheads, you got what you wanted! The lamest Tour ever. Hope you're satisfied.

And to all you drones who go on and on about doping. You're bigger losers than Evans.

See you next year, perhaps when the Tour decides to put a real man in the group! Viva Contador!

HaHa, this should get interesting.

 

[Jeff Vader]

That has to be the most boring Tour on record. Just freaking brutal.

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all. He just pedals merrily along waiting to win. No guts, no yellow jersey baby.

Contador would have made this thing rock!

But no, on sheer hearsay they kept him out.

Well chuckleheads, you got what you wanted! The lamest Tour ever. Hope you're satisfied.

And to all you drones who go on and on about doping. You're bigger losers than Evans.

See you next year, perhaps when the Tour decides to put a real man in the group! Viva Contador!

Rod. I think you are kinda sexy. A real dream boat. I shave my legs and wax my chest, back, eyebrows and all of the other good parts. Do you want to get together sometime for coffee and stimulating conversation?

 

[serpico7]

HaHa, this should get interesting.

Sorry to disappoint, but I would have like to see in this Tour: Contadope, Chicken, Cobra, Vino, Birillo, and even the big Kraut, if he wanted to unretire. That would have put this snoozefest of a Tour to shame.

 

[thebluetrain]

Sorry to disappoint, but I would have like to see in this Tour: Contadope, Chicken, Cobra, Vino, Birillo, and even the big Kraut, if he wanted to unretire. That would have put this snoozefest of a Tour to shame.

What? No Lance???? What about bringing Pantani back from the dead? Virenque?

 

[serpico7]

What about bringing Pantani back from the dead?

Amgen has stuff that can do that?

 

[thoughtforfood]

That has to be the most boring Tour on record. Just freaking brutal.

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all. He just pedals merrily along waiting to win. No guts, no yellow jersey baby.

Contador would have made this thing rock!

But no, on sheer hearsay they kept him out.

Well chuckleheads, you got what you wanted! The lamest Tour ever. Hope you're satisfied.

And to all you drones who go on and on about doping. You're bigger losers than Evans.

See you next year, perhaps when the Tour decides to put a real man in the group! Viva Contador!

Your sockpuppet kung-fu will not fool me grasshopper.....you smell fishy.....maybe even Cranky...you no get flaming response from me. I save my retort for real enemy.

 

[Yojimbo_]

Why should Evans worry about whether the Tour was entertaining to watch or not? Why would he even care?

I've seen plenty of dull hockey, basketball, football, and especially baseball games (isn't every baseball game a dull one?). No-one cares if it's dull, as long as their team wins.

Evans rode to his strengths on a pretty crappy team and did a fine job. I think he should be congratulated.

 

[ad9898]

That has to be the most boring Tour on record. Just freaking brutal.

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all. He just pedals merrily along waiting to win. No guts, no yellow jersey baby.

Contador would have made this thing rock!

But no, on sheer hearsay they kept him out.

Well chuckleheads, you got what you wanted! The lamest Tour ever. Hope you're satisfied.

And to all you drones who go on and on about doping. You're bigger losers than Evans.

See you next year, perhaps when the Tour decides to put a real man in the group! Viva Contador!

With so few posts dude, I have to agree with thoughtforfood, on the other hand if you're for real, duck and cover .

On a serious note I thinik Contaor should have rode and would have made it more interesting for sure but the god like status you seem to attach to him is perhaps a little overstated....at least yet anyway.

 

[mitosis]

That has to be the most boring Tour on record. Just freaking brutal.

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all. He just pedals merrily along waiting to win. No guts, no yellow jersey baby.

Contador would have made this thing rock!

But no, on sheer hearsay they kept him out.

Well chuckleheads, you got what you wanted! The lamest Tour ever. Hope you're satisfied.

And to all you drones who go on and on about doping. You're bigger losers than Evans.

See you next year, perhaps when the Tour decides to put a real man in the group! Viva Contador!

What an interesting and provocative post. You are sure to add some much needed intellectual stimulation to this forum. Its great to have you aboard.

Do you ride a little?

 

[Eldron]

That has to be the most boring Tour on record. Just freaking brutal.

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all. He just pedals merrily along waiting to win. No guts, no yellow jersey baby.

Contador would have made this thing rock!

But no, on sheer hearsay they kept him out.

Well chuckleheads, you got what you wanted! The lamest Tour ever. Hope you're satisfied.

And to all you drones who go on and on about doping. You're bigger losers than Evans.

See you next year, perhaps when the Tour decides to put a real man in the group! Viva Contador!

Ok the post is just silly but it does raise an interesting point:

CSC versus Astana in the mountains would have been AWESOME! Mutiple GC contenders slugging it out mano a mano. Fantastic!

 

[serpico7]

Sorry to disappoint, but I would have like to see in this Tour: Contadope, Chicken, Cobra, Vino, Birillo, and even the big Kraut, if he wanted to unretire. That would have put this snoozefest of a Tour to shame.

Oh, I forgot FLandis. Him too.

If a doping team like CSC are going to win the Tour, then we might as well have the best riders slugging it out. Instead, we have this half-assed situation where GC contenders who are unlucky or sloppy get eliminated from the sport, making it easier for those who evaded detection to win.

 

[MintID]

Ok the post is just silly but it does raise an interesting point:

CSC versus Astana in the mountains would have been AWESOME! Mutiple GC contenders slugging it out mano a mano. Fantastic!

Next year....Next year

Fabian Cancellara may be in contention for the overall win within a couple of years to...
He claims he want to win the tour I think he can do it if he drop some weight... He probably wouldn't climb with the best, but could limit his loses and take them on the TT's and Descents... He would be like Indurain.

 

[Bro Deal]

Oh, I forgot FLandis. Him too.

If a doping team like CSC are going to win the Tour, then we might as well have the best riders slugging it out. Instead, we have this half-assed situation where GC contenders who are unlucky or sloppy get eliminated from the sport, making it easier for those who evaded detection to win.

I had that exact same thought the other day. With this transparent joke of a situation with CSC, Schumacher, and a highly suspicious Vande Velde, we might as well have Basso, FLandis, Contadope, Ras, and Vino battling it out. Heras might be able find a team and come out of retirement.

 

[missile]

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all.

Except if someone steps on his little dog, then he'll cut your head off! That's some killer spirit for ya!

 

[Bro Deal]

Evans has to take a lot of blame as to why this dog and pony show was unwatchable. The man has no killing spirit at all. He just pedals merrily along waiting to win. No guts, no yellow jersey baby.

It isn't just Evans. Any one of the other contenders could have injected some excitement into the race. Instead they sat there watching Evans. You can pretty much level the same charges against Menchov and Vande Velde.

 

[stilesiii]

I agree that Contador would have made this thing more interesting, but Astana was not invited. I think the Tour was a success in that, at least it is believable that we have a clean winner. If Astana was present, I don't think I'd feel the same.

I think the tactics of CSC made this boring. Superb tactical Tour, but boring. Add in the total lack of any team support for Evans, and you get a boring tour.

Look, the biggest target was Evans, they let him and everyone else forget about Sastre. They made everyone, myself included, that Schleck was their horse. Evans didn't feel threatened because, as proved by TT, 2 minutes was nothing. Evans marks Schleck, Sastre goes. Evans marks Schleck and Sastre puts in the one and only attack up D'huez. Menchov knew what was going on, he tried to mark Sastre, but didn't have the legs. Evans was clueless, he didn't figure it our until Sastre was 2:30 up the road with 3k to go. He was probably thinking, "why aren't the Schlecks attacking. I'm going to win this thing." Then the radio squacked, "Its Sastre you idiot, Sastre" Evans, "oh ****." Tour over. CSC was in control all the way and Evans and Co. were clueless.

If Menchov doesn't crash on his attack early in the alps, this tour may have been one of the best in recent years. If Vandevelde doesn't crash on the descent of le Bonnette, this is a great Tour. If Valverde doesn't have such a poor 1st week, things different.

I enjoyed this Tour regardless of the lack of intrigue. I think Cavendish was great. I think Khol was great. CSC was great. Ricco getting the boot was great. I think the next five years will see the best crop of contenders and drama.

 

[serpico7]

I had that exact same thought the other day. With this transparent joke of a situation with CSC, Schumacher, and a highly suspicious Vande Velde, we might as well have Basso, FLandis, Contadope, Ras, and Vino battling it out. Heras might be able find a team and come out of retirement.

Not many would agree with us on this. Where I probably go a step further than you (perhaps):

1. There will always be doping, and the testing organizations will never catch everyone. It's simply too expensive to test everyone for every banned substance on every stage. Plus there's always stuff that cannot be detected, or only detectable above a certain threshold. And let's not forget that part of the reason you don't test everyone for everything is that you'd probably be forced to kick out nearly all the riders in the race. People who don't believe that probably think that it's not at all surprising that half the peleton are asthmatics and thus have clearances to use inhalers. These guys do not run on mineral water alone. CSC should have proved that to everyone this Tour.

For the pro-dope testing bunch, remember all the guys who never tested positive: Riis, Ullrich, Armstrong, Basso, Contador, Rasmussen, etcetera.

2. Catching and expelling more dopers can increase the temptation to dope. For example, Sastre was never a real serious threat for GC in prior years. After a slew of top contenders are eliminated over the last few years, his chances for victory increase, but so does the temptation to take a little something to put him over the top before that window of opportunity closes.

3. Given (1) above, it's just semi-random who gets expelled from cycling and who doesn't. BD, you made a great point about the new EPO in another thread - I completely agree that it is very unlikely that only three riders were taking that stuff. So Ricco is out, and others taking the same stuff stay in. Rasmussen is expelled because he was unlucky enough to be spotted training by a Tour broadcast commentator. Basso and German are unlucky enough to be non-Spaniards when OP broke, while Contador, who, by all indications, is just as guilty as those two, is saved by his countrymen. And on and on.

So rather than have this semi-random elimination of the best cyclists, leave'em all in.

 

[stilesiii]

Not many would agree with us on this. Where I probably go a step further than you (perhaps):

1. There will always be doping, and the testing organizations will never catch everyone. It's simply too expensive to test everyone for every banned substance on every stage. Plus there's always stuff that cannot be detected, or only detectable above a certain threshold. And let's not forget that part of the reason you don't test everyone for everything is that you'd probably be forced to kick out nearly all the riders in the race. People who don't believe that probably think that it's not at all surprising that half the peleton are asthmatics and thus have clearances to use inhalers. These guys do not run on mineral water alone. CSC should have proved that to everyone this Tour.

For the pro-dope testing bunch, remember all the guys who never tested positive: Riis, Ullrich, Armstrong, Basso, Contador, Rasmussen, etcetera.

2. Catching and expelling more dopers can increase the temptation to dope. For example, Sastre was never a real serious threat for GC in prior years. After a slew of top contenders are eliminated over the last few years, his chances for victory increase, but so does the temptation to take a little something to put him over the top before that window of opportunity closes.

3. Given (1) above, it's just semi-random who gets expelled from cycling and who doesn't. BD, you made a great point about the new EPO in another thread - I completely agree that it is very unlikely that only three riders were taking that stuff. So Ricco is out, and others taking the same stuff stay in. Rasmussen is expelled because he was unlucky enough to be spotted training by a Tour broadcast commentator. Basso and German are unlucky enough to be non-Spaniards when OP broke, while Contador, who, by all indications, is just as guilty as those two, is saved by his countrymen. And on and on.

So rather than have this semi-random elimination of the best cyclists, leave'em all in.

I kind of agree, but I think they should continue the random testing and testing of stage winners, ect. I think they should quit throwing out the "suspicious". You get caught, you are out. No positive test, not guilty.

You have to test, or people will start dying on the road. The drugs available today and the abundance of PEDs will get some people killed if no testing at all. Cyclist will push the limit, and some will break.

 

[Crankyfeet]

I kind of agree, but I think they should continue the random testing and testing of stage winners, ect. I think they should quit throwing out the "suspicious". You get caught, you are out. No positive test, not guilty.

You have to test, or people will start dying on the road. The drugs available today and the abundance of PEDs will get some people killed if no testing at all. Cyclist will push the limit, and some will break.

If doping is allowed... It will be in the juniors...the Cat 4 races on the weekends...etc...etc... Soon there will be a dope that makes you unbeatable.... but may kill you. Do we reward the winner who is prepared to take the risk?