FlashBazbo

It has been announced that Rasmussen & Contador are up for testing tomorrow. What will happen? Will there be a positive test(s)? Will their performance decline?

It was already going to be a fascinating stage. This just ads to the intrigue!

ttopaz

As brilliant performance now associated with doping, the most boring and consistent like Levi will win the Tour.

Dubbayoo

Contador will come up clean or Johan would have sent him home with intestinal problems already.

Keith99

The Tour leader gets tested every day. I think the top 3 actually get tested. Rasmussen thus has been tested for quite a few days now.

FlashBazbo

Does this mean we should expect an outbreak of food poisoning among all the hotels where the teams are staying?

TitaniuMerlin

I wad under the impression that at the least, the Tour Leader and Stage Winner were tested every day.

FlashBazbo

That makes sense to me, too. The BBC said that Rasmussen & Contador were being tested/announced as the "random" tests. (Seemed pretty un-random to me, but . . . . )

FlashBazbo

Wow! Those are some pretty incredible early numbers!

I'll bet you guys think O.J. is still looking for the REAL killer!

Ganesha

As they are both stage winners, they have already been tested.

Unless their plan was to win a stage while clean, then dope up.

godspiral

There's degrees of cheating. I don't know what any of these riders did 5+ years ago, which very well could have developed most of their skills and talent by cheating, but in competition doping is extremely risky, and just for the desperate or developmentally challenged.

interested

I don't think you understand. Of course they will both test negative and perform well, that doesn't mean that they don't dope, just that their doping program is smarter than the tests.

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Regards

FlashBazbo

Yeah, but neither has had their "crater" stage yet. And, if nothing else, that seems to be a primary symptom of even the best cheaters.

Helmet Head

There are certainly degrees of cheating and of course it's risky.

But it's looking more and more that the only way to compete in the Pro Tour is to dope, and, so, not doping is even more risky. After all, look at how long the caught/admitted cheaters like Rolf Aldag, Andreu, Basso, Camanzind, Hamilton, Heras, Danilo Hondo, Jacksche, Kessler, Flandis, Millar, Perez, Riis, Rumsas, Simeoni, Ullrich, Vino, Virenque, Zabel, etc. etc., got away with it before they got caught. I hope you don't believe that they just starting doping when they were caught. What that means is that each of them was probably doping for years without getting caught. So if they were able to dope without getting caught, so can many others who just haven't been caught yet (and may never be caught). The main risk of getting caught might be overdoing enough to exceed some threshold on a test.

And when we're talking about riders at the champion level like Riis, Basso and Ullrich, you really have to wonder how anyone could compete with them without doping, if these guys had to dope.

I mean, what's more likely? That Armstrong raced clean for 7 years in a row, able to ride with and beat guys like Ullrich, Basso, Pantani, Vino, Beloki, (implicated in Puerto, but then "cleared" just like Vino was ), Rumsas, Hamilton, Flandis, Heras, even when they were all using doping enhancements, or that he simply was more anal with his doping (like he was with everything else)?

Finally, why is Lance Armstrong not speaking out with outrage about all these guys cheating? Think about that.

DocRay

OJ was found innocent in court of law, that's good enough for me.
The courts are always right. Always.

DocRay

It's not hard to dope a cyclist and avoid the tests. Anyone with an MD degree or even a biochemistry BSc degree could pull it off. You just need to know the tests. One easy trick is get the rider diagnosed with asthma, the asthma medication can mask many steriods.

aham23

its so easy, but yet the pre race favorite couldnt figure it out?

Pinyon

I get the feeling that if it would not negatively impact their breathing or other internal organs, that most top riders would eat super intestinal gas producing fiber products, so that they could fart with enough volume to produce a stinky jet-of-victory...

timhines

If you will remember back a few years, Lance Armstrong was always one of the "random" test subjects as well.

Helmet Head

Passing these tests is apparently not that hard since they know exactly what they test for and what values are considered acceptable.

Basso, Heras, Ullrich, Hamilton, Flandis and countless others who we now know were doping at the time all get tested countless times too, and (most of them) never failed.

Consider all the guys in Operation Puerto, some of which cannot be identified.

haimtoeg

If it's so easy, why hasn't the tour become the asthma patients' ride?

haimtoeg

I think he was a test subject due to being stage winner or overall leader, not randomly.

Helmet Head

It has. The percentage of Tour riders who "suffer" from "asthma" is very high. Google it.

cibai

Asthma

cibai

They were both tested today

Jesse Smith

Those riders didn't have the technical inside information, medical expertise, and international connections so many posters in the forum enjoy.
Doping news addicts have the amazing ability to have 100% confidence and faith in tests that turn out positive, yet still be skeptical when tests turn out negative.