Tour de France has become a joke

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This year I have lost all interest in the Tour de France. It seems that all riders are cheating. Why bother following it?
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Tour de France: Doping scandal grows when Vinokourov fails
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Two stage victories after a bad crash left the Kazakh rider with injured knees seemed too good to be true. Now it appears it was.
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July 25, 2007
PAU, FRANCE ?- Cycling fans loved the rider they called Vino. And he loved to deliver results -- just not the type that came out of a laboratory on Tuesday and ended his run in this year's Tour de France.
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Alexandre Vinokourov was a pre-race favorite who excited Tour fans by rebounding from a bad crash in the fifth stage to stay in contention until Sunday's 14th stage. Then he won Monday's stage as consolation. But Tuesday ?- a rest day ?- came news he tested positive for a blood transfusion after winning
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http://www.startribune.com/503/story/1321180.html

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I don't really get it. He had a bad knee injury -- required about 30 stitches. Why would getting a blood transfusion be so horrible? (What is the advantage of having a blood transfusion even if one doesn't need it, btw?)

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sozobe wrote:

I don't really get it. He had a bad knee injury -- required about 30 stitches. Why would getting a blood transfusion be so horrible? (What is the advantage of having a blood transfusion even if one doesn't need it, btw?)

One of the doping ways involves blood transfusions to increase they amount of oxygen the blood can carry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_doping

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Huh.

Thanks for the explanation.

Does anyone think that the results could be related to his injury? (30 stitches, you'd think he would have lost a lot of blood...)

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Next year, race bears.

http://www.worth1000.com/entries/130000/130073SxAW_w.jpg

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To my knowledge he has denied any infusions but the initial test found blood from a second person.

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Twice now. And additionally, there have been "severe suspections" about doping in his team ...

Actually, such was to be expected.
And I think, it's not only be done with cycle racing ...

The one with the best doping doc wins in most sports, it could be.

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A huge number of young athletes were asked a question.
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"You take steroids, go to the top and become famous and very rich.
At age 45 you die of a heart attack. Would you take steroids?"
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85% of the young athletes said YES.

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Add to this, the leader was kicked off by his own team, for lying about his whereabouts during training. As RP and I said to each other, "Huh?!?" Essentially, if the guy hadn't lied (and who knows why he did or why he was where he was), this would not have happened. The guy did not even need to be doping, just lying. It just strikes me as dumb on his part but also a tad overzealous on theirs.

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Well, he was lying towards the doping inspectors - both national and international. He got 4 warnings - three are eneough to get kicked out (due to some faults, however, the national as well as the international counted seperately).

Besides that, he had signed an agreement to give his correct address for training - otherwise .... ee what was done.
(Everyone actually had expected this to happen much earlier, besides his supporters, of course.)

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"France Soir" had a death notice in today's issue, Liberation stops reporting from the Tour - all on the frontpages:

The main thing journalists are doing seems to be, betting who'll be the next.

Professional cycling is a farce.

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As soon as a sport becomes a profession and the salary climbs, most of the idealism and honesty disappears. It is replaced by greed and cheating.
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Some professional 'sports' have very flimsy rules on doping, making money overrules all other thoughts.

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how could anyone possibly believe that people are racing over an entire country and getting these types of time results with OUT dope?

honestly.

Not to mention someone winning... eh.. 5 times? 6 times? in a row?

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The tour de france is ALL about pedal power.

however

We celebrate the sporting achievments of another Aussie.

Go well Cadel, Le wizard de OZ!

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I hear the Wizard dopes with whale gland extract.

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This picture's on the front page of the NYT:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2007/07/26/20070726TOUR/19236271.JPG

Caption: "Michael Rasmussen, in the yellow jersey, was surrounded by disapproving French riders before the race."

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Soz, if you must post pics of people with camel toe, do us all a favor and post pics of your own beautiful mug. Wink

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Can men have camel toes?

OOH!

I guess they can.

Sorry 'bout that. (Biking shorts are always entertaining...)

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cjhsa wrote:

I hear the Wizard dopes with whale gland extract.

I hear condors die of lead poisoning from hunting kills that are not removed.

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dadpad wrote:

cjhsa wrote:
I hear the Wizard dopes with whale gland extract.

I hear condors die of lead poisoning from hunting kills that are not removed.

That's what happens to things that eat anything they can find. Funny, there were NO condors in the wild for a long time, and the food chain didn't break.... The effort to bad lead ammo in Commiefornia is not about the condors - it is about banning all ammo - and guns - and hunting. The state has lost its mind. Even the pseudo-conservative Gubernator is a gun grabber.

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Tour de France has become a joke

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