Ulrich, Basso suspended from Tour de France

[Mount Suribachi]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/othe...ng/5132320.stm


Oh dear oh dear.....

[The Wizard]

Wasn't it pending the investigation by Spanish authorities regarding activities in last year's Vuelta?

[Dutch_guy]

Well at least the little fishes have a better chance now....

Other than that, it's a real shame, but then again - do we want to have drug addicts in the tour (which to be fair, hasn't been concluded as of yet).

[cutepuppy]

Well at least the little fishes have a better chance now....

Other than that, it's a real shame, but then again - do we want to have drug addicts in the tour (which to be fair, hasn't been concluded as of yet).

if you don't want drug addicts in the tour, you'll have no tour.
Not many other professional sporting events either.

[doc_bean]

teh merge ?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I'm way ahead of you.

[Big_John]

looks like lance got out while the gettin' was good.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf200...ory?id=2505973

tour de france might actually be interesting to follow now that some of the major dopers (lance included, don't act like you didn't lance) are gone.

[littlelostboy]

Wow, that's a lot of cyclist out of the race.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
I can't ride a bike.
.

[Csargo]

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I can't ride a bike.
.

Yes you can just get some training wheels. I'm still on a four wheeler myself.

[Ayachuco]

I know how to ride bikes. Its fun. all yas doin is just balancin yourself.

[Fragony]

.
I can't ride a bike.
.

It's so easy mia muca, once you are in motion it's almost impossible to fall.

[Red Peasant]

I thought that Armstrong had been cleared, again and again. Where is your proof? Put up or shut up I say.

However, if you think of it, even if he did do what you are saying he did he still beat rivals who were also doing it, hence the playing field was level and he still won all those titles.

[doc_bean]

I find the jealousy/envy/hate towards Armstrong rather sickening. he was the best, no drug is going to turn an ordinary man into a superman. He probably took some stuff during training, and he probably did some things that weren't illegal *yet*. But he was still the best, miles ahead of his closet rivals. The closest thing to a Merckx of this age (who incidentally, always said he didn't do anything illegal because what he did wasn't illegal back then...).

They never caught him and he was checked up on far more than anyone else in the Tour (the French didn't seem to like an American dominating their Tour).

[doc_bean]

tour de france might actually be interesting to follow now that some of the major dopers (lance included, don't act like you didn't lance) are gone.

Bleh, this just means the ones using the better stuff are still in.

Besides they never caught Lance, and God knows the French tried

[Peasant Phill]

The problem is that blood doping (is this the right term in English) isn't detectable if it isn't strange blood (blood other than that of the user) that is used. So I don't think that Lance used something different, only that he was more careful or lucky.

Besides I find it very strange that a lot of helpers of Armstrong never performed after they went to another team as they did when they were members of US postal or discovery channel. Besides some of them were caught later on using doping.

some info on blood doping

the theory:
the more red bloodcells you have in your blood, the more oxygen is transported to your muscles. More oxygen in the muscles means better performances.
So by keeping some blood and injecting it before a ride, more red bloodcells will be present in the body. And because the blood is of the person in question it can't be detected.

the procedure:
About a 1/2 liter of blood is tapped during a trainingperiod. The blood is frozen for keeping and later injected before a major race. This will grant the 'user' 10% more red bloodcells and a hematocryte level somewhere near 50 (legally allowed level). In theory the blood can be injected right before the race as it takes only half an hour.

[doc_bean]

I find the whole red bloodcell thing a bit overrated though. Poor people shoot up, rich athletes sleep in an oxygen chamber, pretty much the same effect...

[Big_John]

i think doping is done via hormones (like EPO) nowadays. it's 'detectable' in a sense, because the UCI (union cycliste internationale) just uses some arbitrary cut-off for max cell percentage in blood samples. if you're doping, you're ratio of cells to "liquid" in the blood will be over the limit, ideally.