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anyone been following this?

Its been a strange one this year. But some great mountain stages in the Alps. Landis suprised me on his comeback today, he's one tough rider with a bad hip and all, he should win now with the Trime Trial on Saturday.

I should pick up a decent return on backing Rasmussen for King of the Mountains.

I'm going for Caspers to win the final stage in Paris on Sunday.

Always liked watching the Tour de France in the past, IMO the ultimate test of physical endurance in the current sporting world. Unfortuantly in the past few years its been a procession following Armstrong.

This year has been a blinder though and today the best of the lot. Landis's performance today was amazing after cracking yesterday, add to that a complete outsider holding onto yellow after a breakaway on a flat stage it has been a breath of fresh air.

Im with you i think Landis will win the time trail and therefore the tour on Saturday but its still all up for grabs.

I have been watching it. I love the Tour every year. Landis coming back was amazing, he looked almost dead the other day. What a comeback

Landis has been suspended after a positive drugs test.

Is anyone clean in cycling now?

Jesus, I didn't expect that.


Armstrong was clean

Lol, I expect this is more of a French reaction "An american won again, well we couldnt smear Armstrong, maybe we can smear the new guy".

Seems it the same old story, I guess he probably is guilty as his team dont seem to be providing him with any support. No surprise I guess, drugs have been part of cycling for so long that its gonna take years before its totally clean, & suspicion will always still be their. Such a shame as its a great sport

 ;iagree; :goodpost:

yes and now we know how he did it....he was found positive after stage 17...hos amazing comeback wasn't just inspired by God...allegedly...

lol 

i'm a bit gutted about this, i was an avid fan of the tour from childhood and looked forward to it every year.

It was ruined for me by all the drugs scandals and just not being able to beleive the winners were capable of winning without drugs, bjarne riis is the prime example of this as his win quite probably came with the aid drugs but he didn't get caught, he his happy to walk around as a former tour winner getting interviewed and moaning about the drugs in the sport. I wonder how many actually did do it clean?

Then along came landis and did something spectacular and i have to say my interest was reignited and now it is just blown out of the water. I think this may be the nail in the coffin for cycling as a high profile sport unless they test every rider everday.

There was a guy on R5 just now, he said  " is the Tour too physically demanding for anyones body to withstand without the use of drugs". He thinks the whole idea should be re-thought.   

I don't agree with this, Armstrong and Indurain never tested positive.  It annoys me when every cyclist is tainted by the cheats actions. My mate and myself have a long running debate over this.  I have the view that there is still decent and honest athletes in sport, he believes the massive money involved in world sport means everyone is using performance enhancing drugs.  Jan Ullrich in my opinion isn't a drugs cheat, he used a recreational drug which is different. David Miller on the other hand should have been banned for life

I agree Sark, how can it be too demanding?  All that could happen in a clean event is that the times are slower - someone will still win. 

i know it is just tainting indurains legacy but the year that epo tests came about is the year he stopped winning and blew up in the mountains. I hope he was clean but just too much has gone on now for the whole sport not to be tainted.

Not testing positive is not proof of not taking drugs.

It is proof that you haven't been caught.

Only a fool would try to compete in the Tour de France without being doped up to the eyeballs.

Being skillful in avoiding positive tests is as important as the actual cycling.

Certainly in the past 10 or 20 years, the top performers seemed to be the ones who had the cleverest doctors & the best drugs.

The problem in cleaning up a sport that has such a long drug taking history, is that those involved in running the sport are ex pros, who themselves were heavily involved in drugs themselves.

If Landis is guilty, he was committing career suicide.  It is like jumping into a swimming pool with thousands of crocodiles.  You are going to get eaten, it is unavoidable.  He must have known he was going to be caught because he is tested so often during the Tour. 

He isn't stupid, this makes me think perhaps he is telling the truth.

who knows what the truth is, but its possible he's guilty, remember he was in the shadows of Armstrong for years, his chance was this year, ambition can make you do stupid things, add in the fact the pressure & stress the riders are put under by teams & sponsors, & well this makes anything possible.

I hope for his sake he's innocent, but I'm so disillusioned with cycling that I'm far from caring at the moment.

I thought the same about Tyler Hamilton.  I think he was telling the truth as well.  Am I right in saying Hamilton's ban was longer David Miller's was?

I am firmly of the belief that in the types of sports where power or endurance play more of a part than skill drug taking is the norm and 'clean' athletes are rare.

The mistake that leads to a positive test is not the drug taking itself but rather a technical error in the timing of the doping or in the use of a masking agent.

It is a great shame, and there is little that can be done.

I used to be an athletics fan but I can't watch it anymore, the cynic in me is always suspicious of any outstanding performance.

not sure Sark. Hamilton was a big hope, but I don't know the full story of his ban. Did you see any of the interviews with Miller on TV? He came across as being a lot more humble & sorry for his past actions.

I saw one interview with Miller. But, I can't help but think he only admitted his drug crimes because he was forced into it. He would still be a happy world champion now had he not been caught. I can't see him owning up to taking drugs unless he really had to like he did

let's hope landis is innocent. Discovery channel were preparing to offer him a huge contract for next year to replace lance , be a bit of a let down for Landis. I believe that the majority of riders in the Tour are just naturally talented and believe that the strict testing of riders has helped to create a cleaner tour. Look at how many riders were caught before the tour riders like Basso .
Cycling has gone from a sport that was plagued with drugs and doping into the forerunner of drugs testing in sport. If football took the same approach as cycling would Rio have missed his drugs test ? You didn't see Landis getting time to go for a shower after winning stage 17 he was lead straight to the caravan to give a urine sample , My only hope is that other sports take on this military esque drugs testing procedure.

I recently went to a drugs in sport conference lead by the people in charge of cleaning up english sport.  On that they said a survey was done at a recent olymipics and the athletes were all asked just one question, If you could take a drug that would guarantee you would win the gold medal and you could never be caught but you would definitly die before you are 30 would you take it?  Over two thirds said yes.  That to me was a scarey statistic and shows how far these people are willing to go.