nikoncmk

"It's unrecoverable what (Landis) has taken away from Oscar, from the team and our sponsors. He couldn't enjoy standing on the podium in Paris and that has no price," Unzue told VeloNews.

Eusebio Unzue, Pereiro's sport director at Caisse d'Epargne

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If it wasn't for Landis / Phonak, there is NO way the leaders would have allowed Pereiro to recover 30 minutes (i forgot which stage). I pisses me off that Oscar will win, and pisses me off even more that they are crying about ceromonies...

They shouldn't just have no winner for 2006 TDF. At least Contador was right on Rasmussen all the time, I that's alright.

my passionate 2 cents...

Midnight Cyril

Requirement to win the TdF:

1. Finish faster than everybody else (who doesn't get kicked out, fired or DQ'd).
2. Deserve it.

Point

Interesting sidenote to the 06 Tour...........

If they give it to Pierero, then the winner (as far as I know, since it's the stage winner, yellow jersey and random), wasn't tested for PED's the last two days of the race. So they're assuming he was clean after he lost the jersey.

rufvelo

Stop whining.

Pereiro finished second to a doper, doper is out, Pereiro wins. Fair enough.

Were there bigger names who could have won. Sure. What were they doing - Sleeping obviously. They gave the Tour away, mush as they allowed Landis to go on that critical stage, before he was tested and dumped. Losers all.

Pereiro is the 2006 TdF champ.

Layback

Pereiro finished second to an accused doper. The results are inconclusive at best, likely false based on the findings. Landis will forever be remembered as the guy who won the tour but lost the trial. The whole tour is a friggin joke right now as far as I am concerned.

barba

Seemed fairly conclusive to me. Congratulations to Pereiro.

bac

If it wasn't for Landis / Phonak, there is NO way the leaders would have allowed Pereiro to recover 30 minutes (i forgot which stage). I pisses me off that Oscar will win, and pisses me off even more that they are crying about ceromonies... [/QUOTE]

To whom would you award the win?

... Brad

erader

OJ will always be remembered as the guy who butchered his wife and her friend and won the trial.

both are guilty. good riddance to landis. hope he can bowl !

ed rader

HyperHorse

I think it'd be better for the sport if we all just forgot about last year's Tour De France.

Layback

You must be the kind of person who believes we are winning the war with Iraq because George Bush tells us it's so. Read up on the facts.

barba

Just the opposite on Iraq, and I find the "facts" to be ugly combination of nationalism and sour grapes for the most part. It is time to let it go, folks.

Bacciagalupe

It was Phonak's choice to let Pereiro run away with that day's stage. (Another team could've tried to shut him down as well if they wanted.) If he came in 2nd, it's Landis & Phonak's own fault as much as anyone else's.

Of course, one could claim that Landis never would've been in 1st place if he hadn't been using synthetic T the whole time.

I'm not going to say that I know for sure who was clean and who was not, but it's rather clear that even though Lanids demonstrated tremendous ride skills on Stage 17, the bottom line is: He got caught, he's had his hearing, thus we can reasonably conclude that he doped, he got busted, he does not deserve to win.

C'est la guerre.

marin1

So Landis gets caught doping and has his day in court(US court), Loses and is still innocent. Rasmussen tests positive for nothing, but lies about where he was and you are convinced he is a doper. You need to look at cycling objectively and not proclaim certain cyclists are guilty and others are not simply because you do or do not like them. Landis doped, Rasmussen did too, and while we are at it so did Contador.

GV27

:confused: They DON'T have no winner for 2006 - Oscar Pereiro is the winner..... :confused:

timmhaan

pereiro is the last person who is happy about this. from all that i've read, he is stuck in this position and hates every minute of it.

pseudobrit

I think EPO has won just about every Tour for the past decade.

EGreen

From the start of the whole debacle.

Maybe besides the point, but he also happens to be a very classy, intelligent guy.

gcl8a

Doping aside, it's all the other teams' fault Pereiro came in second. When you come in first, you don't have to worry about everyone behind you.

nikoncmk

All I am saying is that if Landis/Phonak was not there, Pereiro would NOT have won. He should thank Landis, not blame him for taking away his "glory."