Why even test at all?

Or have two races. The Dopers TdF (TdF-D) and the regular TdF.

Hell, you'd find no shortage of sponsors for the Dopers' TdF. Every pharmaceutical company in the world would be in on that biz.

"I'd just like to thank our Sponsor, GlaxoSmithKline, for all their support. Their performance supplements truly helped me excel past the competition."

All kidding aside, if you stop making an issue of it, it'll stop being an issue.

Socialist.

I think so. the below is from the article Pcad linked to

Rationalizing cheating to gain unfair advantage is more Republican than Socialist.

what does that even mean?

BTW those anti-aging clinics are pushing dangerous "treatments" that mainstream medicine does NOT endorse.

I suggest you stay away.

Not for nothing, but this is BF. If we leave all kidding aside, what's left?

That seems really unpleasant to store and reuse your own blood. Why not just play the sport how it's meant to be played?

In what way is "You can call me Al" obscure?

Now why did you have to bring the Republicans into this? I mean AC probably doped, but I doubt he supports the Tea Party. Let's not really sully his reputation.

http://www.dialsoap.com/fm-hairscalpbody_bodywash.html

The red men's body wash has Andro as an ingredient

I'm not the one making an issue of it, because I'm not asking for Contador's blood (literally, not figuratively). I find this stuff out second hand from people who are asking for Contador's blood. Witch hunts are based on the presupposition that there are witches to be found. If they stop looking for witches, they won't find any. And the consequences of that are... nothing! Riders will continue riding, continue doping, continue winning, just as they have been all along.

I don't know how witch hunts get started, but they're hard to stop. How is it that football has managed to avoid this, while baseball and cycling have taken it on the nose? Who doesn't think that those linebackers are all roided up. Who really thinks they got into that condition through protein shakes and red meat? And baseball? Why do we care? If a scrawny guy can hit a homer using skill, then Barry Bonds can do what he wants.

If letting it go unregulated is of no consequence, then why regulate it? Trying to police 198 riders when there is a 99% chance of not catching any one of them is impossible. Time to just let it go.

But it is of consequence. These products have trickled down into our colleges, high schools and now even our middle schools with kids who are not skeletally mature taking drugs to allow them to compete on a level playing field with their peers. If we allow sports to degenerate into Professional "Wrestling" where PEDs are the norm, our children will suffer.

Intelligent, well thought out, relevant and novel thoughts which contribute to interesting discussions. Which, of course, is what the internet and BF are really all about, right?

Thanks for clearing that up. Unless you're a federal authority or sporting agency I'm pretty certain they don't care what you think.

That said, there's no witch hunt...he failed a drug test.

The consequence of it going unregulated is a) the sport getting kicked out of the olympics b) police and government agencies coming down on it even harder.

Why not just make doping legal, so the playing field can be level.

(Slightly sarcastic...but I can't see any other way of leveling the playing field.)

You got diamonds on the soles of your shoes there, boy.

The illegality has not stopped it from being used, which is why it is "spilling over". Letting it go unchecked is still of no consequence.

Unless we're talking about degrees now. Trying to minimizing damage.

it's, uh, against the law? and legal to what level? Might as well start getting the jr high schoolers on the program.

It would be amusing if it were entirely unregulated...

Bunch of 225LB dudes riding up mountains still putting out 8w/kg - and one or two would die from an overdose on every tour...

You want to win.

It's the pro helmet argument from a while back. If they can't all agree to not do it then they'll all do it because if they don't the other guy will and he'll have an advantage. Seems like it's sort of a game theory thing.

You have to admire the 60+ year tradition of doping in competitive cycling though. That's impressive. I mean, cyclists appear to have invented doping in sport.

That's not stopping people now.

I think he just doesn't understand why they do it. I don't think he was saying he doesn't believe they are. He probably assumes the tests work better than they do and that GC contendors get more tests.

Sorry, did you hit your head? The UCI or any other cycling agency can not create a rule that circumvents the law. That point aside so who gets to dope? Tour riders? Fine. Of course they spend most of the year racing against guys who don't go to the tour so of course they'll all dope too. Domestic pros? Sure they want to go to the show so they'll dope. Cat 1s as well since they want to be domestic pros they'll need to dope. 2s who want to be 1s....

And FWIW it seems to have stopped Contador and Chodroff and Kenny Williams and Floyd Landis....