American busted doping in Tour De Wussie...

[Goalie]

Ahh, sterotypes, fun. Yea the US has kicked @$$ up there for the last decade or so. We send a guy with cancer to win it 7 times and then a guy whose hip is barely functional,(Not to take anything away from them or what they did, just looking at it sterotypically) that must make them feel pretty bad.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Looks like it's game over for Landis: Landis returns positive B sample.

Let's see, in recent years teh Americans have send: a guy with cancer, a guy whose one leg is an inch shorter than his other, a guy who can only cycle with one leg, and a guy whose hip doesn't function and who'll get a hip replacement operation shortly after the Tour.

I'm sure they all make for brilliant marketing stories back home. But they are as credible as those chest-haired, record-breaking former East German female athletes.

I wonder what kind of Ubersportsman they will send next year. Hulk Hogan? The amazing legless cycling wonder? Strike's 96-year old granny?

[orangat]

The article is a little inaccurate. Landis didn't test positive for high testosterone. He tested positive for exceeding an arbitrary threshold set for the epitest-test ratio.

Anti-doping labs should test or develop a test for the synthetic isotopes instead of relying on some arbitrary measure.

[Ronin]

The article is a little inaccurate. Landis didn't test positive for high testosterone. He tested positive for exceeding an arbitrary threshold set for the epitest-test ratio.

Anti-doping labs should test or develop a test for the synthetic isotopes instead of relying on some arbitrary measure.

when this issue broke out last week i heard on the tv news that such a test does in fact exist....not sure if this is correct tough

[Navaros]

Anti-doping labs should test or develop a test for the synthetic isotopes instead of relying on some arbitrary measure.

I read something to the effect that they did find synthetic testosterone that would have had to have been ingested in that doping cheater.

He's a doping cheater. That's reality. No doubt about it.

[orangat]

when this issue broke out last week i heard on the tv news that such a test does in fact exist....not sure if this is correct tough

Well in that case top athletes will probably start using natural testosterone if they aren't already.

[Don Corleone]

Yep, everything I heard was that the testoserone he tested for was synthetic. And now that the results of the second test are in, time to strip him of the title. Dirtbag.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Dirtbag.

Dirtbag...mwah, I dunno. Landis was close to winning the Tour, collapsed three days before the end, and then simply couldn't resist the temptation of an extra dose of testoteron midway during the Tour. Pity.

But hey, I've said it before, nobody rides the Tour on milk, steaks and an extra helping of pasta alone. All the riders are an experiment in pharmaceutics. Just like extreme bodybuilders, few, if any, achieved their results through natural means.

Two of the best riders, Basso and Ulrich, were disqualified before the Tour started. The winner was/will be stripped of the title. The whole thing has become a Tour de Farce.

Either the Tour must be toned down, so that it is possible to ride it 'natural'. Or we should accept that the riders are, like race cars, fine-tuned machines, the result of an exstensive staff of specialists. In formula 1, the best racing team wins too, having the best driver is but one part of it. Maybe that should be the future of cycling too.

[English assassin]

Although I have toyed with the idea we should allow juicing (maybe, in something like the tour, we could have a "clean" class and a juiced class) I don't think it would be ethical. Wouldn't we be condoning people doing quite dangerous things to their bodies for our entertainment?

Not that that stops me enjoying boxing. Hmm, this is difficult stuff.

Anyway, I for one am sorry Landis turned out not to be clean. The final mountain stage was an incredible sporting achievement. Too incredible to be true, as it now seems, and yet the pain he went through on the Tour is still real, and now for nothing.

Ah well. I was going to say I guess no one made him cheat, but in fact, in these team events, is even that true?

Call me a bleeding heart euroweenie but I feel sorry for him.

[Devastatin Dave]

Call me a bleeding heart euroweenie but I feel sorry for him.

Well, since we have your permission!!!

[Ronin]

Although I have toyed with the idea we should allow juicing (maybe, in something like the tour, we could have a "clean" class and a juiced class) I don't think it would be ethical. Wouldn't we be condoning people doing quite dangerous things to their bodies for our entertainment?

Even without taking drugs, one can take the line that high performance sports are neither normal or healthy...a human body is just not made to take this kind of abuse on such a regular basis.
So...even without drugs they still do pretty bad things to their bodies for out entertainment.

[Papewaio]

Either the Tour must be toned down, so that it is possible to ride it 'natural'. Or we should accept that the riders are, like race cars, fine-tuned machines, the result of an exstensive staff of specialists. In formula 1, the best racing team wins too, having the best driver is but one part of it. Maybe that should be the future of cycling too.

Why not just ride motorcycles instead then if it isn't about human natural ability?

France has a bad enough tongue-in-cheek reputation of rolling over and accepting defeat, I don't think by giving up and accepting steroids would really help with that perception.

[Strike For The South]

Looks like it's game over for Landis: Landis returns positive B sample.

Let's see, in recent years teh Americans have send: a guy with cancer, a guy whose one leg is an inch shorter than his other, a guy who can only cycle with one leg, and a guy whose hip doesn't function and who'll get a hip replacement operation shortly after the Tour.

I'm sure they all make for brilliant marketing stories back home. But they are as credible as those chest-haired, record-breaking former East German female athletes.

I wonder what kind of Ubersportsman they will send next year. Hulk Hogan? The amazing legless cycling wonder? Strike's 96-year old granny?

shes 99 and she still drives. It would be funny but its true.

[doc_bean]

I consider cycling as much as a sport as I consider ice hockey is a form of figure skating. Do you have to be in great shape and an athlete to participate? You bet. Its racing, not a sport. Its as much as a sport as rednecks driving in circles for a couple in cars plastered with stickers for hours and crossing a line.

So athletics aren't sports either ?

Ice hockey, basketball, football and such are games, besides being sports, that doesn't mean cycling isn't a sport.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Why not just ride motorcycles instead then if it isn't about human natural ability?

France has a bad enough tongue-in-cheek reputation of rolling over and accepting defeat, I don't think by giving up and accepting steroids would really help with that perception.

And there I was, hoping to go against the French reputation of basing their view of reality on opinion, instead of the reverse.

I was trying out this stuff that the rest of the world is so exited about. You know, about that 'if reality doesn't match your opinion, don't blame reality'. But I haven't quite got the hang of it yet.

[Papewaio]

Actually it looked more like negative reinforcement.

Tell a child long enough that they are an idiot and an idiot they will become.