JayhawKen

Seems like a lot of BF believes he's enjoying the benefits of modern chemistry.

But why the suspicion about him? Why not Evans? Or Sastre?

Contador's only 24, has shown that he's a gifted climber from the beginning, but still needs to develop the multi-day stamina that comes with having ridden many thousands of miles. Most long distance runners peak closer to 30 than 20, and cycling seems similar in that regard.

So why is everyone so quick to suspect the young guy?

marin1

Puerto

-VELOCITY-

they need someone new to point their fingers at.

gfrance

Last year's news.

donrhummy

He was in Operation Puerto, then along with a bunch of other spanish riders, he was cleared. No idea if it means anything, but the VAST majority of riders cleared by the spanish authorities were spanish.

Helmet Head

Anyone who suspects Contador but not Evans or Sastre (or Levi) is naive.

How many stages did Ras win? How many days was he in yellow? How many times did he test positive? Oh yeah, the same number as Ullrich, Basso, Rumsas, Millar, Pantani, and countless other cyclists who admitted or were proven to have doped: zero. You know, zero, the same number of positives as Evans, Sastre, Levi, and until a few days ago, Vino. How many years did Vino, Tyler and Floyd cheat and dope before they tested positive?

Testing clean and being clean are two very different things to you and me, but in the pro peloton, they are one and the same.

Pay attention to today's interview with Levi and George about Ras, and yesterday's interview with Johann about Vino. They all say, without emotion, how "shocked" they are. Liars. They're not shocked. You'd have to be a complete moron to know what they know and be shocked about any of this. So why do they say they're shocked? Because they can't be honest. They can't be honest because what they really think and feel is too bad for those guys. All Levi could muster was "he [Ras] was the strongest guy yesterday". Where is the outrage for having the stage stolen from him? There is no outrage, because Levi knows the stage was not stolen from him, because he was playing by the same rules as Ras, and Ras just did something stupid. Too bad for him, but it's his own fault. But, and this is key, Levi did not suggest in any way, not in his words, not in his tone, not in his body language, that he felt cheated out of the win. The only reasonable explanation for this is because he knows he was not cheated out of his win: he's not clean either.

pcates

Until he tests positive it's all speculation........however if you want to speculate it sure makes alot of sense he is/was doping....From his performance this tour to his link to puerto.....but its all circumstancial, which is why its pure spectulation.

FixdGearHead

Disco needs to grow a pair and come out and say how they feel, just like Boonen, Jens, and (while it pains me to give the man props) Millar have.

Part of me can't help but think if a cyclist isn't absolutely pi**ed and letting the media know about it, they may have something to hide themselves.

bbattle

How can you not root for the man that has a TITANIUM Skull? That is just so over the top OCP Patriot and Hip must be Celeste with envy.

Helmet Head

You're finally catching on.

There are some of course who finally realize that their lack of outrage is revealing their own complicity, so they fake the outrage (note the Cofidis guys protesting against doping right before they got busted themselves).

adam

+1000.

If I was clean as a whistle and just got beat by a super-charged doper, I'd be very pissed.

When these guys are saying "I'm surprised" I think it means "I'm surprised he was that stupid to get caught".

GGDub

Didn't he ride for Manolo Saiz? I wonder what happened to Manolo? Oh yeah, he was kicked out of the sport for doping all his riders. Now Contador is riding even better than when he was with Liberty Seguros. Add all that to his brain blood clot a couple of years ago and you get something that stinks. If I've learned anything from procycling these past 17 years, is that if something stinks, its highly likely to be rotten. Its sad that I've become such a cynic, but really, none of the guys I've cheered for in the past (LA, Vinokurov, Landis, Ulrich, Pantani, Botero, Museuw, etc.) have done anything to prove me wrong.

bbattle

Another reasonable explanation is that Levi doesn't go around voicing his opinions the way Millar does. Have you not seen countless interviews with athletes where they give the same old "it's a team effort", "give 100%", "all the other athletes are great", "he's a true competitor", etc. etc.

Levi has to ride next to a hundred or so other riders that may take offense for whatever reason to what he says, so he, like most other riders, just gives the usual blah-blah answers to the reporters.

FixdGearHead

I will grant you the fact that Levi is extremely Vanilla...one of the most boring interviewees in the Peloton.

DMF 

Well, since it was a Spanish doctor, it kinda makes sense that the vast majority of his potential clients would be Spanish.

Also remember that the records were encoded and most - especially early - IDs were "best guess". Unless there's some other data to corroborate the ID it's nothing more than a guess. Hopefully we haven't stooped to destroying someone's career on a guess.

Cypress

Rasmussen was making the hors category climbs look like a stroll to his mailbox, and also discovered an additional 3 mph in his TTing. Obviously not natural.

Contador - 24 years old, kicking it with the old guys and hurting them... He was the only person to really rain on Ras' parade in the mountains. Granted, he is a climbing specialist, but Ras is no slouch... Especially when he's putting on shows like he was.

interested

You don't seem to remember he was banned from last years TdF for involvement in the Puerto case (he was on Astana). He was later cleared by the UCI; but a German newspaper, Züddeutcher Zeitung, have recently been looking into the Puerto files, and there they found a Dr. Fuentes dopingplan for Alberto Contador (called Document 31. The real tasty bit about this investigation is that on the plan, someone had written; "These paper must not be forwarded to the UCI".
Apparently Contador struck some kind of deal with the Spanish authorities, that if he told what he knew, they would let him of the case.
Whatever the reason, UCI never got the incriminating papers and therefore cleared him.

Besides the reemerging Puerto evidence against Alberto Contador, think of his performance; Even though he is a pure climber like Rasmussen, Contador actually beat his TT time and ended on very impressive 7.'th inf front of Rasmussens 11'th. He also won a mountain stage over Rasmussen, and managed to stick to his wheel, and at the same time making Pantani like accelerations during all the mountain stages. A lot of people commented on Rasmussens extra-terrestial performance, but if Rasmussen, a known top climber who could hang with Armstrong, Basso, Ullrich in the mountains, was doping but still got beaten by Contador, what do you think one should think about Contador?

The case may explode anytime and the fallout may hit Discovery hard, though there still is a chance that UCI is in on the deal with keeping Contador out of the Puerto case.

But in my opinion, if Contador wins this year, the TdF will be won by a doper again.

--
Regards

JPradun

Last I checked, everyone knew Ulrich and Pantani doped. Ulrich got caught once before, and I'm too young to know about pantani

FixdGearHead

The fact that AC had the ability to launch attack-after-attack in the final kilos of multiple stages seemed more suspicious to me that MR's abilty to cover said attacks.

Cypress

I have my suspicions about AC because I want Cadel to win.

pcates

extremely is an extreme understatement

ryanspeer

According to what I've read, A Cofidis rider (i.e., singular) was busted for doping - not the whole team. As a result of the individual rider the team as a whole was asked to withdraw. Not that the rest of the guys are certifiably clean themselves (that's not the issue) but just that they were punished for the one teammate's wrongdoing.

reef58

The reason some people are eyeing Contador, and it may be valid, is some are in the camp that they all dope. That is probably a fair assessment until the TDF of 2006.

1) Landis may have ridden the 2006 TDF clean until he cracked. It was an Unusual crack for someone with a stranglehold on the race, so I am of the opinion he was clean until later that night.

2) Levi may have ridden to 06 tour clean. It would explain his on again off again performance.

3) I think Valverde is clean this year.

4) I think Vino was clean this year until he got desperate.

5) Evans claims he has been beaten by cheaters. My hat is off to him to manage all of those impressive career results against dopers. He must be much stronger than them.

6) Rasmussen looked to be under a little pressure in stage 15 yet on stage 16 he was toying with Levi and Contador.

7) Contador looked fresh at the end of 15, but pretty rough at the end of 16. There could be a number of reasons. Stopped doping during the tour due to all of the scandals. Didn't dope this tour, but ran out of gas. Doped for 16 to, but Ras either is better or has better drugs.

8) Levi has ridden a steady tour. He is very comparable with Evans, so this example applies to both of them. Levi who I think rode last year clean either started doping this year, or more riders this year are clean, so he was able to hold on.

I don't know who is doping, and who is not. It was pretty obvious with Vino.

Since we are throwing around opinions like facts here;

1) Ras doping
2) Vino clean to doping mid way
3) Most of Astana on something
4) Valverde clean
5) Levi toss up probably doping
6) Contador toss up probably doping

Richard

ryanspeer

I'd agree. Different folks all have different personalities and express themselves in different ways. He's probably just not as vocal with his own thoughts - especially with the press (which could arguably be biased).

blue_nose

Like others have said above, Peurto is the main reason, I am suspicious. He was a Liberty-Sugurous (sp?) team member - now team Astana. Too much doping going on with that team to think that he would not be involved.

Also, Contador was the only one able to keep up with MR in the mountains. Just makes you suspicious. Then you look at somebody like Cadel - you actually get to see a rider crack with the dopers attack on the climbs.