First Things First
I love watching Le Tour. To me it is one of the top five sporting events in the world. 2008 will be the third Tour I've followed and it's going to be great. Unfortunately, there is a dark side.
Like pro baseball, pro cycling is full of cheaters. According to many former pros, teams will take drugs to win and try to foil the drug testing using different techniques. Teams will even go as far as using a catheter to inject someone else's drug-free urine into the riders' bladders to pass the post race drug tests. Yucky!! Taking any substance at abnormal levels with the goal of artificially enhancing your performance is considered "doping."
After the recent scandals I'm confident that someone will get popped for doping this year. While I wish that the sport were squeaky-clean, I thought it would be fun to guess which teams will be caught cheating this year. Who will be popped for doping in Le Tour?
In Defense of the Sport
Dopers are full time losers, but legit cyclists are full time bad asses.
Cycling is also an incredible team sport. You need only watch one full race to see the sacrifice and humility it requires to be a valued team member.
"Pathetic! Dopers are an embarrassment!"
Beltran's Busted!
"I'm a dick!"
What are the American Teams Doing?
Both Americans teams, Garmin-Chipotle and Team Columbia, and few others have adopted policies of complete transparency. That means no secrets, unprecedented media access to the athletes, and required drug testing every two weeks. Is this fair to the athletes with clean records? Must they be guilty until proven innocent? Does public interest outweigh athlete privacy?
Which Teams Will Cheat?
Pick the teams you think will most likely get caught cheating and vote them UP the list.
Will the Tour favorite be caught cheating?
2007 winner, Alberto Contador, will not race this year because his team was not invited due to doping scandals while the team was led by different management. He believes that Cadel Evans, 2007 runner-up by only 23 seconds, will be this year's winner. Cadel Evans has never been accused of doping, hopefully he and his team show that pro cycling can exist without cheaters.
South of the Border
Hilarious dutch Michael Rasmussen commercial !
Whatch a Rabobank Tour de France cyclist explaining his whereabouts while cycling in Holland! Remember the Rasmussen incident in 2007..:0) Tranlslation dutch-english: - Dutch team manager sees 'Tour de France Controle' on his mobile phone screen - he gets out of his car ans shouts 'controle , eruit jullie'( A check, get out you all!) - The mexicans get out and the manager shouts 'spelen!' ('Play!") - The mexicans start to play and the Team Rabo cyclist says : "Hello, yes I am still in Mexico' Followng text: 'We know all about it, do you? You read all about it in the tour guide''. Uploaded by www.pellenaars.eu
Runtime: 0:47
88364 views
10 Comments:
A Drug Free Tour
Can Le Tour ever be free from doping scandal?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byYes!
triathlontraining says:
It would need big punishments for cheating individuals/teams, continued doping checks by independent labs, and possibly cooperation by the pharma industry.
Posted July 06, 2008
Food_Junkie says:
Yes; but it will take a shift in the entire culture of pro-cycling, not just Le Tour de France.
Posted June 24, 2008
No!
Nick says:
Some teams will do the right thing but there will always be dopers. Lot's of guys that suck think they don't suck and find ways to justify doping.
Posted June 25, 2008
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