Sugar420

anybody out there digging it? i wouldnt normally pay any attention except for last year's madness and so thins year i have sorta been watching since one of the guys where i live is a huge fan so i got somewhat interested. im heartbroken over my boy valverde.

sput·nik

Of COURSE i am.


i dare not even bring it up here though, for shame. The only other person who might get in on the word is Cloudy, but since he has no americans to chase, he's likely lost interest. Levi never had a chance, and he's never been involved in any pacemaking for Contador.. hardly been worth much of anything for the team other than respectably just being a face towards the front.

Wasn't surprised to see Valverde fail...
after the Alps I thought Cadel had it for sure, but the first day in the Pyrenees shows it all to be quite different.


Rasmussen & particularly Contador are genuinely exciting to watch, Conto dancing away spinning his high gears, in and out of the saddle and Rasmussens attacks on the front9 in stage14to 'Beille were inspired & made him seem far more deserving of the Yellow than I had thought before. But it makes for a bit of a disappointment for some people that both he & Rasmussen will likely finish outside of the top 5 in the TimeTrial on Saturday and yet still win the GC (although personally I loved it when Pantani won.. pure climbers are much fun to watch.)



but now Vino just got tapped for homologous blood doping today, from a test that was administered after his TimeTrialwin on Saturday... Kloden pulls out as well along with the whole Astana squad......

sad news to a beautiful 2+weeks thus far.

__________________

and those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music . . .

Mango

Well, I normally watch it every year, and nah I'm not an american chaser. I didn't want any americans to win last tour with the expection of George, however I knew that wasn't likely. This year I had my hopes on Thomas Vockler, and Andreas Klodin.

However, I haven't been able to watch much of the tour this year sadely because I planned my 2 week vacation right on top of it. Then when I got back I had work, so I have to try and catch the end of it.

Mango

Shit well I didn't hear about the blood doping. I wasn't gonna watch the race till later tonight.

sput·nik

photos gratuitously borrowed from the glorious www.cyclingnews.com - the first WWW cycling results and news service ...shame on me but they're the best!











Cheers ANyways Vino! Everyone else is still doin it!

__________________

and those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music . . .

sput·nik

and p.s.s. tomorrow is going to be fucking amazing! finish up the Aubisque!

__________________

and those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music . . .

notepad

I stopped watching this a few years ago when most of those guys were doping..




but did I see a dog get hit by some rider a few days ago? (/me calls peta)

sput·nik

got to understand that doping is part of the sport culture, particularly in some sports more than others.


the word throughout cycling, if you've paid attention in recent years, is that more advanced doping has been rampant through the sport in the majority of the last 2 decades, beginning with EPO in the 90s. Blood transfusions have probably been common for some of the top riders off & on for years as other methods have been more scrutinized by testing... steroids like Cortisone (injectable, not just the topical creams for inflammation) and Amphetamine/Painkilling combinations have been popular since the 70s and 80s.


It's a beautiful 3 weeks every year, and the stateside TV coverage has grown from miniscule bits & pieces on weekends to daily stage coverage ever since Armstrong ran the race for 7 years straight and finally drew some more American interest to the sport, or atleast the TdF itself.

and speaking of, Armstrong may once again have a fear of his glory crashing down after years of fighting allegations, because Vinokourov is one of the select riders who has worked with the scandalous italian Dr. Michelle Ferrari, a longtime Armstrong partner, and consistently been subjected to scrutiny because of it although nothing has ever come completely into the light. Well who knows..
I feel like the top riders are still riding on enhanced blood, but I don't care.

tis all a great spectacle regardless, with massive history behind it, through the green hills & huge mountains of France, Spain, Italy,

a beautiful antithesis to thuggish american urban commercial sports.

__________________

and those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music . . .

Mango

ah, that should make for quite a day

Cerebro

Pretty exciting.
The Aussies have had a bit of a bad tour.
McEwen's win was awesome, I thought Roger's was looking good until he popped his shoulder.
Rasmussen and Contador fighting it out after a rest day should keep me awake until about 2am. Maybe Cadel can stay close enough to murder them in the time trial.

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The Don

fucking hell I watch it

Rasmussen! Rasmussen!

The Chicken from Denmark

What a race

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sput·nik

to the very top of the Aubisque, what a looooong last kilometer.

A fight it is/was, a strong team race once again, mechanics & strategy.

Can't be surprised by the winner.. a final dominating display of strength in the mountains, but I needn't say who incase yall haven't watched it yet.


timetrial will of course be interesting..

__________________

and those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music . . .

sput·nik

update: sadface.

www.cyclingnews.com presents even more terrible news from the 94th Tour de France

__________________

and those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music . . .

The Don

aye sadface in deed

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Cerebro

Holy shit!
What's it going to take to get drugs out?
Is it like trying to get guns out of America?
Cadel, Cadel, Cadel. One man's loss is another man's gain.

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Cerebro

About to go see if Cadel can get 1:50 back.
I'm very nervous.

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Cerebro

Contador leads Evans by 23sec, who is only 8sec in front of Levi who went ape-shit.

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Mango

I'm curious to see if Evens will try anything tomorrow. I'm leaning towards he wont, but we'll see. Levi already said he isn't going to try anything.

sput·nik

meh, it's paris mang.

the sprinters teams, let alone disco, would never let a break get away with anything more than 5 seconds like when Vino snuck out 2 years back. george hincapie will go with anydangerous breakaways, and would kill evans in a sprint finish.



tough to watch it finish this way... hoping these "rumors" that are swirling about positive tests at D'Beille last sunday don't turn into anything.

__________________

and those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music . . .

sput·nik

well as a followup, seems that Prudhomme quashed the speculation that was mostly targeted at Soler, the columbian King of Mountains.

I ran into a danish guy last night and we were yukkin it up, and he thought he heard rumors about Contador and Boonen, of all people, but that was tough to swallow given Tom's usual anti-dopin rhetoric.


but yeah... weather reports indicate heavy rain all day.
the Champs-Elyssee is regarded as one of the most dangerous roads to ride&sprint on... probably gonna be a mess.

__________________

and those who were seen dancing
were thought to be insane
by those who could not hear the music . . .