Tour de France and the drug scandal

[Sae]

So yesterday the lid was blown off the TdF and out of the top 10 contenders 5 are gone from the Tour including my two favorites Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich.

I was so disappointed I didn't want to watch it today, but found myself parked in front of the tv anyway to see the explanations for the expulsions.  To my surprize...its still exciting and maybe a new hero will emerge from the underdogs.

Vive la tour!  Sans drugs.

Still..the drug thing is alarming, for someone like Jan Ullrich, who maybe be proved innocent this Tour was probably his last chance at winning now that Lance retired.  What a possible huge miscarriage of justice.

Lance remains surprisingly quiet.  I say Lance was clean, at least post cancer anyway. Cliff..thoughts

I must now cheer for Hincapie or Floyd Landis (can you believe his missed the start today!)...or   What to do...cheer for the sprinters?  I am so lost.

Sae
(who thought Ivan Basso would have won anyway)

[Basquo]

For the last 7 years we've heard nothing but TOUR!TOUR!TOUR! all over the Austin news...this year, without Lance in it, I had no idea it was even happenning; seriously, this thread is the first reminder i've seen that it's that time of year again!

[Val]

I am so disappointed with this whole new drug affair that I won't be watching The Tour this year.  It is just too much!  Besides, I was tremendously disappointed with Lance for all this fighting with his insurance company and the thought that he may have been on drugs the whole time.  Several books are out in France where people very, very close to him state things that makes one really wonder who was not on drugs --- they call it "Le Pot Belge" --- in the Tour anyway. 
And the truth is that if you condemn Lance, then you'll have to incriminate (perhaps) the whole organization of The Tour. 
What a sad state of affairs for such a magnificent event!  Stil, it should remain the number one cycling happening in the world for the time being...

Val
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[Sae]

I agree Val, except I've decided to watch what I can (weekends only, unfortunately I don't have the right cable package).

Today was unreal and bizarre.  The leader from yesterday Thor was cut accidentally at the finish line and its still confusing whether or not he'll ride tomorrow.  They say he was cut from a foam or cardboard hand on a spectator.  WEIRD.  Blood everywhere.  I watched the replays over and over and its hard not to think of the Olympics when the marathon runner was attacked.  I attempt to avoid the conspiracy theories.

I think there's significant doping in cycling , but I find it hard to consider Lance would do that after his cancer and all that.  I'm not a fan of Lance, although I would never deny his merits either.  Great...no doubt.  Ferocious for certain.  I've read all his books and I just think being alive means more to him than cycling, I really do.

I will continue to watch, for surely there are those who are drug free.

Sae.

[Cliff]

SAE,

The more folks who are caught under this scandal, the worse it looks for Lance (I think).  If you have half the top guys doping, it's hard to believe that somehow Lance was exempt from this.  You add to that the positive test result of previous blood samples, (granted from suspicious newsreporting), and his former personal assistance making doping claims, then I think I am more likely than not to believe that Lance was doping (maybe not all years but at least some of the years, and probably towards the tale end).  What a shame.

Shame on all of those guys.  It's like you can't watch sports these days without wondering who's cheating and who isn't.  They need to make the penalties very harsh for those that supply the performance enhancements to athletes.  Stop it at the source cause clearly they can't do much to stop the demand.

Cliff

[Joe K]

With regards to all the drug scandals, why exactly should we increase penalties for those who supply the drugs?  Talk about avoidance of responsibility.  Nothing goes into my body that I don't know and approve of, period, end of discussion.

If you are a professional athlete, paid to perform and you are caught using illegal drugs to enhance your performance, I'd say maybe you get one strike.  Second offense, banned from the game for life.  You want clean sports?  Then hit them where it hurts the most, which would be their bank accounts.

I'm amazed that some of these people are paid hundreds of millions of dollars to play a sport and yet they still need to cheat.  The sport will always be better without them.

[Cliff]

The reason why I believe the supplier should face harsher penalties, than they do currently, is because the suppliers, (manufactureres, doctors, etc..), constantly make modifications and enhancements to performance drugs to make them undetectable by current testing methods.  So if you solely focus on the athlete, then chances are you are only catching a very small percentage of those who are actually doping, (and almost always well after when the athlete started doping).

Both sides should be punished as both sides bare responsibility for keeping sports clean.  Almost all of these drugs are illegal, or at least not to be prescribed in the manner in which they are.  Punishing the "dealer," is also making that person take responsibility for their own illegal actions.