good for them (the testers) - it's nice to see the sides are more even. I agree w/others that the team pulled out to keep other riders out of the fray somehow.

But that is what this is about isn't it? Something that's embedded itself so deeply at the team level is going to take time to eliminate as part of cycling accepted practices. That's why I've felt TGC was so out ahead on this one, that they went the other way to be transparent and non-secretive, not only about their anti-doping practices but about the actual performance of the riders and care practices they DO use. It's been very cool to not only get the updates via Twitter, though we often know the results before we sit down to watch the recorded coverage, but to also see the HR and garmin data from the stages.

I haven't read the whole thread so if it's mentioned earlier, sorry - but I think the "space legs" article from Dr. Lim was really interesting. How at first the team riders were like, ehhhh, whatever. And now they love using them...