Tour de France renamed "Tour de Amsterdam"

[Will]

Anyone like Cycling?

Well the blue ribbon event - the Tour de France - has decended into utter farce.

Not only has cycling never seen anything like it, I would ask "has any sport???"

I've heard of "The pot calling the kettle black", but in this case you might as well just call everyone Pot!

Why do companies like T-Mobile and L'Equipe sponsor this event when it would make much more product placement sense for people like Glaxo Smithkline and Beechams?

Now I know what the commentators meant when they talked about riders being "High in the mountains" and "Speeding in the Peleton".



Click here for the details.

[bigdjiver]

(spelling may be a problem in this post) I used to love the Tour de France - not he bunch sprint finishes, but the long breakaways where cyclists from different teams are cooperating and competing at the same time, and the frightful man vs mountain stages. I could almost have a hero in Lance Armstrong, who recovered from cancer to win it so many times, and try to take example from the moment when Guerini was leading up the Alpe de Huis with the cream of the worlds climbers on his tail, and got knocked off of his bike by a spectator. He just climbed back on his bike, without recrimination, and got on with it.
I don't think I will be watching this year.
( I liked the spin in the article Chris Boardman - Tour leader. Quite true. As I remember it he won the first stage, which was a time trial, his speciality. Time trial winner, or Stage winner does not sound as good as "Tour Leader" though, does it.)

[El Salsero Gringo]

I have found the TdF a little unnerving since reading (can this really be true?) that because of the punishing regime, the average life expectancy of the entrants was shortened to 50 or so, againt the expected 80-85 for a healthy male of that age.

[David Franklin]

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has given a positive drugs test, according to his Phonak team.

Tested positive for testosterone, apparently. Sadly, I think the TdF has completely lost the drugs battle.

[under par]

Tested positive for testosterone, apparently. Sadly, I think the TdF has completely lost the drugs battle.

What a shame.. drug cheats do nothing for any sport but TdF is sliding lower than a really low thing

[Will]

Absolutely. I have to say I told you so but......

From now on, I want anyone who does the London to Brighton cycle ride tested before they can go harranging people for sponsorship!

[Sheepman]

From now on, I want anyone who does the London to Brighton cycle ride tested before they can go harranging people for sponsorship!

But have you tried cycling up Ditchling Beacon? You need to be on something! (Preferably something with a big engine. )
It was on the TdF route some years ago, and the riders were complaining that it is tougher than the Alps!

Greg

[RogerR]

I worked for Raleigh in Nottingham years ago. One of their team cyclists always said he never took a drink from anyone except his wife, as most of the rest contained prohibited substances. That was in the 70s obviously isnt going to improve.

[Jhutch]

Sadly, i don't try to assume that anyone in any sport is 100% clean

The doctor that was involved in the shenanigans before the tour doesn't just treat cyclists yet no other sports have been named As for the whole thing (called Operacion Puerto) well, quite a lot of the cyclists banned have had their bans lifted (including Ullrich and Basso, arguably the two biggest names involved), which makes me wonder exactly what is going on As for Landis, i just don't understand it. Why take drugs when you are obviously going to be tested? It just makes no sense - was he hoping that with all the other stuff going on that the tour authorities would brush it under the carpet? Bit of a shame really. At the time i just liked the attitude of being down one day but deciding that, if you were going to go down, then it would be with all guns blazing. Ah well

Problem is that with any sport there are always going to be those who will try and cheat to get ahead. Some positives may even be surpressed due to who a person is and the consequent effect on the sport - i have heard all kinds of rumours about various people but then it is easy to make up conspiracy theories if there is a reason to cover up something which is carried out behind closed doors.

[StokeBloke]

A short while back I heard (what may be an urban myth) of cyclists who were altitude training for a few weeks. This thickens the blood and allows it to carry more oxygen. This blood was drawn from the cyclist over a few days, and then transfused back at normal racing altitude just before a big event. Obviously this would be completely undetectable as it was their blood in the first place!

As for the steroids, I understand the idea is to use them to build muscle mass and then stop using them before an event, thus giving your body enough time to get it out of your system.... obviously if you mis-time it....

Maybe the time has come to allow drugs in sport. We seem to have reached the edge of what is possible for humans.

[Dreadful Scathe]

Maybe the time has come to allow drugs in sport. We seem to have reached the edge of what is possible for humans.

but then it would be a test of drug effectiveness and the human aspect would be lost somewhat. At the moment athletes are extremely fit normal people, when they are forced to use drugs to compete with others there won't be anything normal about them anymore - they'll die much younger and it will no doubt effect any children they have too.

[Barry Shnikov]

but then it would be a test of drug effectiveness and the human aspect would be lost somewhat. At the moment athletes are extremely fit normal people, when they are forced to use drugs to compete with others there won't be anything normal about them anymore - they'll die much younger and it will no doubt effect any children they have too.

Yes. It would open up a vista of rather improbable super-humans, brought up (and possibly even bred) to maximise their sporting capabilities and ability to shrug off the negative effects of drugs and other medical procedures. Why shouldn't such athletes be surgically enhanced as well? You can imagine what US football would do if it were not inhibited in this way - they already look like freaks, some of them. Then all sport would be is a simple spectacle, like Roman circuses, rather than an opportunity to celebrate what the human body is capable of. The only thing stopping this is the general feeling that it wouldn't be right.

[StokeBloke]

Yes. It would open up a vista of rather improbable super-humans, brought up (and possibly even bred) to maximise their sporting capabilities and ability to shrug off the negative effects of drugs and other medical procedures. Why shouldn't such athletes be surgically enhanced as well? You can imagine what US football would do if it were not inhibited in this way - they already look like freaks, some of them. Then all sport would be is a simple spectacle, like Roman circuses, rather than an opportunity to celebrate what the human body is capable of. The only thing stopping this is the general feeling that it wouldn't be right.

In the future there will be no wars .... there will be ... Rollerball

[Beowulf]

Yes. It would open up a vista of rather improbable super-humans, brought up (and possibly even bred) to maximise their sporting capabilities

Ok.. why am I thinking of an episode of Buffy the vampire slayer now? Was it Buffy or some other TV superhero who spoiled the coaches plan to turn their star players into amphibian super human hybrids?)

It may be science fiction.. but I bet in some military lab somewhere someone is researching this stuff (the super fit uber strong humans stuff .. not the creature from the black lagoon stuff.. that would just be silly. I mean an amphibian ... in the desert? ludicrous )

[John S]

For the latest developments in gene-assisted sports performance, read this - truly scary and it's sad that all the dedicated and genuine sportspeople who work hard and sacrifice so much will be beaten by genetically-modified humans for whom winning is everything:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/s...002942,00.html

[StokeBloke]

For the latest developments in gene-assisted sports performance, read this - truly scary and it's sad that all the dedicated and genuine sportspeople who work hard and sacrifice so much will be beaten by genetically-modified humans for whom winning is everything:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/s...002942,00.html

Interesting article, it is already happening though it seems. Just a little more naturally.

[Jhutch]

A short while back I heard (what may be an urban myth) of cyclists who were altitude training for a few weeks. This thickens the blood and allows it to carry more oxygen. This blood was drawn from the cyclist over a few days, and then transfused back at normal racing altitude just before a big event. Obviously this would be completely undetectable as it was their blood in the first place!

Yes this is a form of blood doping. Incidentally, the Colombians were very good on the climbs in the 1980s. This was put down to them having lived at altitude (although i dont know where the top people lived). Their demise in the early 90s has been attributed by some people to blood doping meaning their natural advantage was nullified. This would seem plausible but i dont know whether all the details are correct (ie countries sometimes have several athletes come through at once and then none for a while).

Yes. It would open up a vista of rather improbable super-humans, brought up (and possibly even bred) to maximise their sporting capabilities and ability to shrug off the negative effects of drugs and other medical procedures. Why shouldn't such athletes be surgically enhanced as well? You can imagine what US football would do if it were not inhibited in this way - they already look like freaks, some of them. Then all sport would be is a simple spectacle, like Roman circuses, rather than an opportunity to celebrate what the human body is capable of. The only thing stopping this is the general feeling that it wouldn't be right.

Someone suggested this to me but i dont understand the attraction of watching people push themselves as close to the edge of death as possible - in some cases not knowing where the edge is in either the short or long term.

[SteveK]

Yes. It would open up a vista of rather improbable super-humans, brought up (and possibly even bred) to maximise their sporting capabilities and ability to shrug off the negative effects of drugs and other medical procedures. Why shouldn't such athletes be surgically enhanced as well? You can imagine what US football would do if it were not inhibited in this way - they already look like freaks, some of them. Then all sport would be is a simple spectacle, like Roman circuses, rather than an opportunity to celebrate what the human body is capable of. The only thing stopping this is the general feeling that it wouldn't be right.

Isn't this what has been happening in US baseball recently - I got the impression that steroid use was rampant with the "sport":
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Bush hopes for new baseball era

Cycling and athletics seem to be cleaning themselves up, whilst other sports seem not to have addressed the problem so carefully.

[StokeBloke]

Isn't this what has been happening in US baseball recently - I got the impression that steroid use was rampant with the "sport":
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Bush hopes for new baseball era

Cycling and athletics seem to be cleaning themselves up, whilst other sports seem not to have addressed the problem so carefully.

Baseball? Is that the one that's like rounders but with a longer bat?