Smoothie104

Agreed, more info should come out eventually.

Also, it's not the climbing of Ras thats superhuman, i mean the guy won the KoM twice didnt he? It was the 11th overall in the TT that made me think maybe he is going a bit too far.

waterrockets 

Don't forget, Chicken is a doper, and Contador didn't get pwned by the cheater. He just lost a bit. And he's too young to be riding like this naturally.

Photogy

What a day. The carnage of the dopers (sorry, accused dopers) is both painfull and good for cycling. I see many posts on other boards bemoaning the effect on the sport. This is the painfull part of cleaning out the bad guys and showing wood-be dopers that it won't work.

This is not a bad thing folks. The is the process that will both cost the sport sponsors and bring it back to a clean healthy sport. Maybe it will be the first in a long time. The sponsors will come back eventually!

classic1

He's never climbed that well with all the GC contenders.

Vinokurtov

IMO (dropping the humble) the only guy in the (ex) top five that appears clean and has a clean team is Sastre. He looks like shiznit and his expression is clearly "I want my dope back if you expect me to climb with these guys"

I'll go 35 dirty/65 clean on Cadel.

If it's the company you keep...check the record of Contador's last team, then read Walsh's book re: Disco. Hardest thing to refute is a IM convert between two (ex) Posties the got ratted/subpoenaed out. Of course there's HIncapie flying up the mountain. Popo channeling Bahamontes. That sort of thing.

Flame away...

But it WAS a great tour for a while, wasn't it?

blue 414

i think they are definitely moving in the right direction. As many have mentioned before the Vino situation is exactly the same as Flandis's last year, but they took care of it right away instead of carrying it into the next year. They seem to be more on top of their game, and not afraid to hand out the punishments. I am all for democracy and such...fair trial and what not, but there may not be much of a place for it in cycling at this time.

bbp

It sure would suck if Vinos B sample came back negative.

Not all super human efforts are fueled by doping. Cancellara's prologue win was pretty impressive but I don't think hes doping.

giantcfr1

Was???
STILL is.
Plenty of worthy riders still there.

Nem01

Ullrich, rasmussen, vinokourov, this is so depressing it's not funny.
Stuff the tour! Stuff it! just stuff it!
I MEAN. imagine next years tour......

Rollfast

They are finding out the purism they wanted isn't real. It may become so sloppy as to become trivial to sports viewers...how Joe Pedals see it (us) is getting to be totally depressing though.

Trevor98

Pro-cycling looks like it's going to finally clean up the sport- just like the XFL is clean now.

waterrockets 

Yeah, just like any wide-open bike race (see mods, this isn't a TdF thread!), these tour stages are still very entertaining if taken completely out of context.

Kilgore_Trout

do you (everyone here) think that another team will pick up rasmussen?

Smoothie104

in 2005 he did ok

stage 10, lost 9 seconds to armstrong, but gained 53 seconds on basso, 1:06 on levi, and 2:05 on Ullrich, Evans and Landis

stage 11, same time as Armstrong and all the GC favorites

stage 14 lost 51 seconds to armstrong, 31 seconds to ullrich, 16 seconds to leipheimer, but gained 2:16 on evans

stage 15 losing 1:28 to Armstrong, 4 seconds to Ullrich, but put 1:22 into levi.

ElJamoquio

The Mexico/Italy thing should be cut and dry - if he was in Mexico, he has receipts, witnesses, passport stamps, etcetera. If he was in in Italy, he'll have excuses for why he doesn't have receipts, witnesses, passport stamps, etcetera.

There's your answer; of course it's superceded by UCI bans.

bac

Yup ...... I did think at first - wow, he really has improved in the TT. But then the reality of it all came crashing down.

... Brad