Face It. Contador is a phenom.

poulidor

Shoe boxes are good to be on peak on mountain stages... or flat ITT

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6 samples with EPO have banned Lance Armstrong of TDF !

Wayne666

But you see Astana was not banned over doping anymore than Unibet was last year. Astana was simply the best choice of which team to ban because they are not a traditional European team and they had the doping problems. After Paris-Nice was run independent of the UCI and the teams sided with the organizers the ProTour effectively was dead. That was when the Giro and Vuelta let Astana back in, for them the Astana decision was never a stance against doping. ASO is persisting, maybe not so much as a stance against doping, but because Astana shit on their race with their doping fiasco last year.

thecyclist

I think they showed his hematocrit readings from the 2006 Giro.

I don't remember the exact numbers but I believe it was around 41 or somthing and pretty constant. Think it increased by 0.1 at some point.

limerickman

I would disagree with the view that Astana were chosen because they were not a "traditional european team".

Several years ago, the FFC took the enlightened view (in my opinion) to introduce very strict doping controls : this brought about a couple of reactions.
One reaction tot his new culture was the whoelsale migration of riders located in cities like Nice - to places like Girona (Armstrong/Hamilton etc), Switzerland, etc.

However, even these new controls couldn't disuade the likes of Phonak, and many others, from breaking their drug habit.
The ASO, for a long time, refused to folow the lead of the FFC.
After the debacle of 2006 (Landis) and the debacle of 2007 (Rass/Contador), the ASO have (correctly in my view) realised that the FFC view, will ultimately protect whatever credibility a TDF may have.

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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.

Wayne666

Yes, but I mentioned the doping problem as well. And what I really mean by "traditional european team" is that the other likely choice to exclude was Rabobank but that was not going to happen when you have Astana as an option.

I guess we'll never know if in the absence of the fight with the UCI over the PT if Astana would have been invited or not.

limerickman

I took you up the wrong way - ignore my previous post

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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.

poulidor

ASO didn't need ASTANA to kill Pro Tour, they already have all the aces in their hands, they can have pulled out all of their races outside of PT calendar.
In the same way if UCI wanted to save its PT they can have easily accept just 16 PT teams. But the uniq reason of UCI fight was to control TDF and its rights.
That is why UCI and McQuaid look totaly fool and stupid to people unaware of that.

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6 samples with EPO have banned Lance Armstrong of TDF !

Wayne666

I agree the basis of the fight is the UCI trying to get at the TdF's "rights", meaning their money.

Yes the organizers hold all the aces but to bring the issue to a head they chose to exclude teams (Unibet last year, Astana this year). Like you said they could have just pulled their races from the UCI but perhaps the Italians and Spanish had not desire to go that route? Or they were just trying to break the UCI over the fundamental right to choose who decides which teams get to participate in which races.

Even with the death of the PT the UCI is still insisting it is they who get to say who gets into which races, which may very well be why ASO has pulled the TdF from the UCI as well. Or it simply could be that with their success at Paris-Nice, ASO has decided to break and form their own league without UCI?

poulidor

One of the reason to Unibet exclusion was because UCI took one more teams in PT when GTs organisers had already requested to diminish it breaking one more time the agreement to do it next year.

Astana exclusion is not principaly linked to this but essentialy to protect TDF. To have doping stories every year in our country is not good fo us and for the image of France!
And as French we have to support for years the same BS repeated, false tales and the stupid myths,... Don't forget that France is in front of fight doping since Festina's affair.
And sometimes we are proud to act when others are putting their head in sand even if we are paying it, that is the francais!

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6 samples with EPO have banned Lance Armstrong of TDF !

Wayne666

I think it goes beyond just protecting the Tour from another doping scandal. That is why both the Italians and Spanish excluded them too, up until Paris-Nice which effectively defeated the ProTour, then they were let in.

Cobblestones

A fair summary of this would be:

Cowblood, Hemapure, Nike are TEH EVIL!!!

earth_dweller

swish

TheDarkLord

swoosh

Crankyfeet

I want to believe that France and ASO are going to be at the forefront of cleaning up cycling... but it is statements like these that give me doubts. ASO wants a clean peloton... and no doping stories. Maybe the doping stories ARE needed to flush this cancer out.

I just hope there isn't more sweeping under carpet for PR reasons. ASO's obvious angst at the last two years of scandal suggests they don't want more scandal. So if they get another Vino-like positive test... are they going to be motivated to reveal it to the public?

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