Leipheimer doping

Crankyfeet

Sastre and Moreau beat him (he came like 13th) in the 2005 TdF final ITT. 2006 of course he was SICK (6 minutes behind Gonchar in both ITT's). 2004 he was again 3-4mins off Lance in around 13-14th place.

Eldrack - So we got fast cadence for Lance... and now at 35, after 11 years as a pro, Bruyneel teaches Levi how to hug his elbows together...

The rediculous spin these guys come out with to explain sudden performance increases is only surpassed by the gullibility of a willing fan base.

And name one instance where Levi has made a public stand against doping. He can't do it because he cares about his reputation in the peloton, and he knows they would all disrespect him for lying. Just stay quiet or evade the question. Omerta rule number one.

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snood

Here say Matt Johnson won 1996 Senior Men's National Criterium Championship. Levi disqualified?
http://www.bicycletrader.com/archives/18articles.html

Some say Levi positive for asthma medicine in 1996.

He race for Nutra Fig in Tour of China November 1996. http://www.cyclingnews.com/results/.../nov96/toc.html

thunder

you gotta be careful, it did seem as tho it came from nowhere, but, he did have results in 2001 and a fair few in the proceeding years. The win in the Dauphine GC was built on the back of a tt win, or he came seconds.

Lots of good tters have left the peloton. Where was Gonchar, where was Ullrich, Armstrong, Landis, Basso, Vinokourov.

All would have likely kicked his arse by a minute. So you need to reconfigure your baseline.

I agree, it was BS, but we have to try and bring all the information to the surface, not just the stuff that suits the popular opinion on CF.

Ofcourse, the popular opinion on the Paceline would be different, but they probably could not real off his wins like 99 Tour de Beuce tt etc, where he won quite a few domestic tts. Might have won a Sea Otter tt also.

Crankyfeet

Wow... that reads like Team Blood Bag...


Point taken though.

What about Contador's ride in the final TT '07? Was it just the tailwind on an A-B course that saved him? Or can the guy TT?

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Trev_S

Contador TT's pretty well but not one of the gun TTer's



Here is a comparo of Leipheimers TT times for the last 3 TDF's
I've added Evans & Popovch's times in for comparison since they also did the last 3 TDF's


TDF 07
st13 :- 54km
Evans 1:07:48
Popovych 1:08:50
Contador 1:08:52
Leipheimer 1:09:13


st19 :- 55km
Leipheimer 1:02:44
Evans 1:03:35
Popovych 1:04:45
Contador 1:05:02



TDF 06
st7 :- 52km
Evans 1:03:32
Popovych 1:04:59
Leipheimer 1:07:48

st19 :- 57km
Evans 1:11:26
Popovych 1:12:43
Leipheimer 1:13:47



TDF 05
st1 :- 19km
Leipheimer 0:22:04
Popovych 0:22:09
Evans 0:22:32


st20 :- 55km
Evans 1:13:52
Popovych 1:14:55
Leipheimer 1:14:59




In summary, Leipheimer has only ever beaten Evans and Popovych twice.
One was the shorter 19km prologue TT in 05 the other his "phenomenal performance" (as Paul Sherwin kept saying on the TV coverage)
Otherwise Evans beat Leipheimer by 2mins or more in nearly every TT, likewise Popovych always had a little time up his sleeve over Leipheimer.

Leipheimer was sick in the 06 TT?? was that the case for both TT's?
10 days between the 2 and he got belted in both of them.
His results looked reasonable in the mountains stages just prior.

thunder

contador an u23 Spanish tt champ as an 18yo.

top flight prologue rider, needs some more years to be top flight as a pro, in the long tt in the Tour.

limerickman

I heard a very interesting interview with Ger Hartmann.

For those of you who do not know who Ger Hartmann is - Ger is the most sought after sports physiotherapist in the world.
Athletes like Paula Radcliffe, Wilson kipketer, Sonia O Sullivan, Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, the US 2004 Olympic team, all availed of Ger's expertise.

On radio here yesterday, the subject of sport quickly turned to doping in sport and Hartmann said that the war on doping had thrown up some very interesting research material.
He said that, from speaking with several researchers, that it was their conclusion, based on the most recent eveidence, that the benefits of the use
of EPO/HGH are now believed to last a lot longer than had been previously thought.
He said that the latest research says that athletes can benefit from EPO/HGH usage for up to two years after they start using it.
Very interesting stuff.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

thunder

Millar is still doped!

thunder

in all seriousness, you could expect athletes to reach new levels after their body has pressed thru plateaus previously unattainable because of EPO etc.

hawkeye87

LOL!

I still remember thinking, "you have to be kidding me" when Bobke and the rest of the Versus squad were picking George as the next heir apparent. I know the favorites were sidelined, but George was a lieutenant, not a general.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -- Wayne Gretzsky

earth_dweller

I know I'm in the minority on this one, and surprisingly given my view of Discatana, I think that Leipheimer is (relatively) clean.

I still don't understand why he joined the team, but I don't think he's doing the full regimen.

Crankyfeet

Look... if we're going to use spurious subjective evidence to state that he is chock full of chemicals and syruped blood, you can't just turnaround and use those same methods to say he's mildly doping... . That's just random...

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earth_dweller

Yeah I know.... he has been working with Testa for years, who is reputed for being clean.

Crankyfeet

I think there are very few pros that have a hard and fast rule to never use any PED. That's not a moral judgment on them, I think it is just the nature of the business. Of course, this is all supposition. But Jaksche's account of changing to different teams, and part of the reason was to see what the new team's medical program could do to improve the rider's performance, seemed to fit with human psychology and the evidence. The look on Levi's face last year after his TdF stage win and podium GC finish was like euphoria that he had been blessed by the Disco/USPS PED Program. Of course he could have just been happy that he did well... , but that doesn't fit with my thesis...

I'm not surprised he followed him to Astana.

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