Originally Posted by
alcanoe
The French lab took invalid data (even the Canadian experts objected) and accused Armstrong of doping. He had to sue (once again) at great personal expense to show that it was political persecution. That's one example of the many trumped up charges against a person who has not only never tested positive, but has been tested more than any other athlete (read witch hunt).
Other such examples I believe are recorded in Armstrong's war. A non hero-worship awesome book on stage racing which provides a clear picture of Armstrong's and Bruyneel's warts/quirks. Only humans after all.
Can you imagine the outrage if the US had interceded to get Armstrong off the hook as Spain did to bail out Contador. Instead, our government has gone Euro and piled on Armstrong.
The issue here is blatant hypocrisy of cycling offialdom and the cycling media.
Concerning Contador winning, he's got the extra burden of having competed in the Giro. Supposedly that's not done now-a-days due to the recovery time. Schleck hasn't looked all that great so far.
I have no opinion who will win or even who should/should not win. I just hope the wife doesn't throw some thing at the plasma tv.
Al
The only reason the US let Armstrong twist in the wind, is that the US doesn't particularly care about cycling, if Lance played football, he could go out and commit murder and get off. Cycling is a big deal in Spain, so the Spanish interceded. One of the interesting questions though is how much does doping help in cycling? When one takes performance enhancing drugs, they are taking two huge risks, the first is of getting caught, the second is, the health issues caused by it. It's use is rampant in major league baseball, and look at all the guys there dying of heart attacks before they turn 30. There is also another disadvantage and that is increased muscle mass, which adds weight, a decided disadvantage in cycling, when your sponsor pays $10,000 for a bicycle that is .5kg lighter, finding out the rider is doping and is 2kg heavier, would not be helpful.