Americans banned from TDF

[Dogbait]

Read about it here:

http://harriscyclery.net/page.cfm?pageId=1666&contentType=1

[Bobatin]

Roflmao

[baj32161]

That was very funny. I like the rider coments.....BRILLIANT!!

[56/12 and 22/28]

Good, maybe the French can actually win it again. :D

[Keith99]

Mildly amusing at best. Only American 'fans' could swallow the line:

It appears that recent American domination of the Tour, as well as other European road races has led Tour organizers to offer a French win in the only way possible — by banning the most dominant competitors!

Now if they followed up a bit with nipping things in the bud before Americans started dominating the classics they might have had something worth a laugh, instead of a groan.

Trivia question. What are the American wins in the 5 monuments?

[roadwarrior]

I thought the funniest part was the part on Simoni..."I want to make a beautiful Tour..."

Sounded like Emerson Fittipaldi used to when racing..."they give me a beautiful car..."

[adamastor]

Good, maybe the French can actually win it again. :D

Fantastically funny...those French, particularly Leblanc, that guy knows how to protect French interests.

That's probably why in 1998, without having any positive results against them, he convinced the festina team to retire voluntarily from the Tour, otherwise he would kick them out himself. In that team:

Virenque,
Brochard,
Dufaux,
Hervé,
Moreau,
Rous,
Stephens,
Zülle,
Meier

only French and Swiss creme de la creme. That year the other toast of French cycling, Jalabert, abandoned the Tour with the whole ONCE team in protest (their point was, why kick out Festina, where nobody was caught positive, when everyone knows that 90% of the peloton takes drugs - but this was known only late!), whose directeur sportif was...Manolo Saiz!

But I'm deviating. My point is, in 1998, THE year a Frenchman had to win the Tour for lack of contestants ( very poor year indeed ), Leblanc and the Tour organisers spoiled "la fete" by eliminating their French stars Virenque and Jalabert. Who won it? Marco Pantani ( koff, koff, sorry ! )...

So, not only thie Leblanc is a sadist ( Americans OUT ! ), but he used to be a masochist ( French DEHORS ).

But of course this is a very different story.

Your Adamastor, who couldn't stop laughing when reading the article...

[adamastor]

are you searching the archives looking for lame francophobe posts?

the link left by the OP was lame, why bring it back to the top, unless you're looking to TROLL?

move on dude.

Hi, Gastarbeiter (where? ), went to all posts, and apologies if only read the article today. Thought the aim of a forum was to exchange ideas, regardless on date, as long they are related to cycling.

Didn't mean to offend anyone.

Adamastor :)

[adamastor]

are you searching the archives looking for lame francophobe posts?

the link left by the OP was lame, why bring it back to the top, unless you're looking to TROLL?

move on dude.

By the way, what does "troll" mean???

[smoke]

.....Trivia question. What are the American wins in the 5 monuments?

hamilton at liege is it, i believe

[krazyderek]

No longer will French riders be beaten by American, Texan, Canadian, Australian, Kiwi, British

French is an official language of canada..... i speak it fairly well.

And then this just made me laugh, very loudly...

Now they will see true French victors: athletes who train every now and again, drink a little too much wine in the off season and have a belly to match. These French patriots will provide a true display of the human spirit.