Here we go again... another scandal on TDF

[Denise223]

Amanda:

I was hoping that exact thing -- perhaps if Floyd has been receiving cortisone injections in his hip for pain....?

I refuse to believe it until all the facts are in and we know for sure.

Can't Floyd's "B sample" be tampered with??

Denise

[Selkie]

[QUOTE=Aggie_Ama]As my July Secret Sister knows, there is a popular bumper sticker here that says "Texas is Bigger than France". Hehe, I guess the anomosity is on both sides of the ocean.....

QUOTE]
Aggie - Where can I get myself one of those bumper stickers? I've got no beef with the French, but I love Texas bumper stickers!

[Aggie_Ama]

Suzanne-

I found it online here: http://www.texasterritories.com/texastshirts.asp

I don't know how much the shipping is, another place I found wanted to ship it UPS. That was $7.03.

I bought it at a place called "The Texas Store" in our local mall. I have found some places will just do a phone order and send it by mail. Their number is (512) 250-0356. If the first place wants an arm and a leg for shipping (and you really want one) I could pick one up and mail it like a letter, it is a $2.00 sticker and I am the type who thinks the shipping shouldn't be more than the product!

Some sites claim it is a pro-war/pro-Bush sticker. I didn't realize that, I just thought it was darn funny. Lance is rumored to have the shirt.

Back to Floyd talk....

[oroight]

Bigger bummer for Vino who had a real chance at a podium place in this years TDF - but was excluded because too many of his teammates (now cleared - just several days after the tour is over) were implicated.

Quote from another forum;
"Cleared" of anything illegal under Spanish law -- but blood doping
isn't illegal, and in Spain neither is other doping. That just means
they won't face criminal prosecution; they still face sanctions.

[Eden]

Quote from another forum;
"Cleared" of anything illegal under Spanish law -- but blood doping
isn't illegal, and in Spain neither is other doping. That just means
they won't face criminal prosecution; they still face sanctions.

My comment was based on this

Joseba Beloki, Isidro Nozal, Sergio Paulinho, Allan Davis and Alberto Contador have all received a written document officially clearing them of any links to the ongoing "Operación Puerto," the Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco reported Wednesday.

The five riders received a legal document signed by Manuel Sánchez Martín, secretary for the Spanish court heading up the "Operación Puerto" investigation, stating, "there are not any type of charges against them nor have there been adopted any type of legal action against them."

As they were cleared of any links to Puerto I would assume that means there is no evidence that they did blood dope, even if it is not illegal in Spain, therefore no reason to sanction them. It could be a quirk of the translation and the statement certainly did not go into much depth, so it is possible that they are still under suspicion by WADA and the UCI. In any case its still ashame that Vinokurov had to miss the tour as he was never implicated in any wrong doing.

[HappyAnika]

I'm postponing judgement until I know more facts, but I find the lack of facts frustrating. Granted I haven't done a thorough search, but none of the news articles ever talk about who does the testing (TdF? WADA?), who has access to the samples, how they are handled, conditions under which they are obtained . . . The whole thing seems shrouded in mystery so why should we believe what the test results are if we don't know anything about the process? (This is the science geek in me talking . . .)

[restrec]

As Greg lemond and Alex Steida said today in an interview. Landis win on Stage 17 did raise suspicion. We thought it was physically impossible for a potential winner of the tour to be on a escape like Landis was and 3 or 4 teams in the pelothon couldn't catch him. Today we have the answer: positive for testosterone and initially fired from his team. Next he'll loose the yellow jersey. He who has raced before know perfectly that racers who escape the peloton do it only with permission of the peloton. A guy with a bad hip who can only do cadence persuits and no explosion racing like standing on his bike for a long period of time, could only win the tour being doped. Armstrong was very lucky not being caught. What a disgrace !