Tour de France 2007

No. Discovery will defend.Any "attack" will come in the ITT on Saturday.

midwaste wrote:

Jeez, what is Disco's plan now. Leipheimer has a legitimate shot at 2nd. Do they attack (or send Levi in a break) even though they are defending the yellow jersey?

[quote]Gasbag wrote:

No. Discovery will defend.

Any "attack" will come in the ITT on Saturday.

[quote]

Agreed. The stages on Thurs, Fri, and Sunday are flat and not suited for Levi (or AC) to gain time on Cadel Evans. The ITT on Saturday will sort out the final GC. You just go full throttle on that one. If Levi leapfrogs Evans and AC (unlikely), then so be it.

Question: Why didn't the T-mobile team withdraw when they had a rider test positive (even though he was already out due to a crash)? Astana, Cofidis, and now Rabobank have withdrawn based on the tour's code of ethics when they had a single teammate caught in a doping problem. Why didn't T-mobile withdraw?

tour watcher wrote:

and now Rabobank have withdrawn based on the tour's code of ethics when they had a single teammate caught in a doping problem.

Do you have a source for Rabobank withdrawing? This article says only Rasmussen is out and the rest of the team will start the next stage:

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Do you have a source for Rabobank withdrawing? This article says only Rasmussen is out and the rest of the team will start the next stage:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/news/?id=/news/2007/jul07/jul26news

Phil Liggett's column (dated July 25) states that Rabobank has packed their bags and headed home. He also says that the tour is now down to 135 riders (which would only be true if Rabobank is gone as a team).

Now that I'm looking, I don't see anyone else mention that Rabobank is gone as a team, so maybe Liggett just assumed that Rabobank is gone as a team after Rasmussen was fired. But it was Liggett's comments that I had read.

at this rate some french guy sipping a gin martini, smoking a cigarette will be cruising down the champs elysse riding a huffy mountain bike wearing the maillot jaune

"We did all we could do to get rid of him,'' said Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme...

(http://www.smh.com.au/news/tourdefrance/door-opens-for-evans-to-take-victory/2007/07/26/1185339116682.html)

I don't think so Rabobank would took his rider off the tour when he is about to win the race - probably they were 'invited' to go home like Astana...

I'm guessing lier Rasmussen will have to find less orthodox team; maybe discovery...

"I understand now what Lance Armstrong went through for seven years and my respect for him is growing day by day. The only good thing there is to say about the Vinokourov case is that it proves that the system is working and to that I can only add that Ive had 14 negative tests so far during this Tour." said Rasumussen

I can't refind the particular article now, but I read somewhere that the Rabobank team has not officially withdrawn, but they will leave it up to each individual rider if he wants to continue...

This isn't like the other teams who had riders busted and DQed. Rabobank have fired Rasmussen because he lied about his whereabouts, not because they have any doping evidence against him. That is, unless the team knows something we don't.

Phil Liggett keeps on living in Lala-land:

"The new leader of the race will be young Spaniard, Alberto Contador by 1:53 ahead of Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer who is +56 seconds in third.

Thank heavens none of these three riders have ever been remotely suspected in dealing with drugs and could now turn out to be the race’s saviors."

Excuse me??!??! Contador was excluded from the Tour last year when he was with Liberty Seguros, and at least one document ties him to Dr. Fuentes.

I need to throw some white lightning onto my bike chain just in case I am called up to ride the final stage on Sunday. Any of you guys out there want to start a team that doesn't dope. Seriously, no doping. Do you think wejo has the cash to start a Letsrun pro cycling team?

Now that the mountain stages are passed, it's really a long shot for Levi to pass Cadel, especially since he lost over a minute to him on the last time trial. If anything, with another 55km of time trialing to go on Saturday, don't be surprised to see Cadel take the yellow jersey. Disco needs to make the next few stages as easy for Contador as possible.

I was wondering the exact same thing when I read Liggett's comments about Contador.

tour watcher wrote:

Question: Why didn't the T-mobile team withdraw when they had a rider test positive (even though he was already out due to a crash)? Astana, Cofidis, and now Rabobank have withdrawn based on the tour's code of ethics when they had a single teammate caught in a doping problem. Why didn't T-mobile withdraw?

Because Sinkowitz's positive was not during the Tour, it was before it. The riders who tested positive during the Tour had their teams invited to withdraw.

I wear yellow wrote:

I need to throw some white lightning onto my bike chain just in case I am called up to ride the final stage on Sunday. Any of you guys out there want to start a team that doesn't dope. Seriously, no doping. Do you think wejo has the cash to start a Letsrun pro cycling team?

of course he does (if not he knows who has), and I up for wearing yellow with you on the team. is yellow going to be letsrun pro cycling team color?!

I believe Rabobank is just saying that they fired Rasmussen based on him lying about his whereabouts during testing because they know something that everyone else doesn't and thought they could save face by firing him before anything devastating got out. This seems obvious, but it is just another pathetic attempt at placating fans that are beginning to see what nonsense this event is. I have been a long-time fan throughout all the scandals and drama, but this is too much.

not a soy expert wrote:

I personally don't think Armstrong doped. That guy has heart. To win the tour de france 7 years in a row by doping and not get caught is a very major feat. Plus, I think that 2:59 marathon by Armstrong shows he is definitely a tough guy, or do you think he doped for that, too? But yeah, Landis was definitely a doper.

Hmm, let's see -- riders take EPO to boost their number of red blood cells, then take Hemopure or other HBOC to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of each red blood cell, then they extract that "super" blood during the off-season, spin it in a centrifuge to increase the concentration of RBCs, and then reinject (i.e. take a blood transfusion) it for race day. In addition, they take THG and HGH to aid in cellular recovery, and steroids to help repair and build muscle. Then for a little extra edge and recovery boost in races, they stick a little testosterone patch on their testicles. And these are just a few of the methods that we know of; who knows what else there is?

So you take naturally talented athletes (which all of these elite cyclists are), and add in all of the above, and you're talking about an easy 20% improvement in performance (EPO alone is estimated to boost performance by 5-10%).

So you're telling me that Armstrong was able to overcome this margin simply by "having heart." I am fiercely competitive and train intensely hard, and I'm a good tactiction in races; but, will all that heart and dedication allow me to beat Eddy Hellebuyck? Things like training, competitive drive, and tactics make the crucial marginal difference among otherwise comparable athletes. THEY DO NOT make a second or third tier contender (which any cyclist not on drugs is) into a champion, let alone a 7-time champion.

not so fast wrote:

Phil Liggett keeps on living in Lala-land:

"The new leader of the race will be young Spaniard, Alberto Contador by 1:53 ahead of Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer who is +56 seconds in third.

Thank heavens none of these three riders have ever been remotely suspected in dealing with drugs and could now turn out to be the race’s saviors."

Excuse me??!??! Contador was excluded from the Tour last year when he was with Liberty Seguros, and at least one document ties him to Dr. Fuentes.

No kidding! Why did none of the Versus commentators (Phil, Paul, Bob) discuss the Vino case in their stage 16 reports? Nor did Phil and Paul discuss it at the start of stage 16. It's as if they feel not talking about it will make the whole issue go away, and that after removing 2 or 3 cheats they'll be left with a completely clean peloton. Please.

Are you serious? They spent plenty of time talking about it. Watch the pre-race and it's the only thing they were talking about.

Rorkes Drift wrote:

So you take naturally talented athletes (which all of these elite cyclists are), and add in all of the above, and you're talking about an easy 20% improvement in performance (EPO alone is estimated to boost performance by 5-10%).

Estimated by whom? You? What a ridiculous argument

A 20% improvement in performance means that someone who rides a hard stage in 6 hours 22 minutes (like Rasumussen did yesterday) would ride it in almost 8 hours without those drugs. And since the rest of the field (or almost) also finished within 8 hours, they are all also on drugs.

Sorry not 20% Not 10% Not even 5%