yawn.

Charles..

It's kind of a strange year for other sports too. The new scandal brewing over the gambling Ref in the NBA. Michael Vick and the Dog Fights.

Maybe the cycling world needed to have this happen to clean up the dopers and get back to the way it was intended.

Off-topic: riding my mountainbike this weekend, my rear derailleur literally just fell apart. It was a long walk home.

Tight butts drive me nuts.

Charles my idea of bicycling is riding the beach cruiser on a flat, level, paved surface. anyone who competes in Tour De France or any other completion is a great athlete, at least way better than me :)

Charles

Good to see you post on a happy subject that is near and dear to your heart...

re: #6 song_and_dance_man

re: #3 Ginn

Don't forget Barry Bonds and the asterisk Home Run run tainted by allegations of steroid use.

Yeah! I did forget.

Brother...

Didn't they say that the TdF was damaged when the last doping scandal hit, and yet it's still there. The riders and the tour has to decide whether they want to continue down this current path, or give in to the dark side. I pray that they don't decide to throw their arms up, but the riders themselves have to make a stand and call out the riders who are doping and engaging in illegal behavior.

Just once, I'd like to see all of the participants in the Tour de France test positive! Watch the fun go on from that point!

Does my last comment really need the sarc tag?

You mean, the French actually let a foreigner win the Tour without accusing him of doping?

re: #14 RememberSekhmet?

Heh.

re: #5 MandyManners

Tight butts drive me nuts.

Tight nuts do the same thing to me ,,,

OOOPPPSSS ,, did I type that out loud !?!?!? sorry !

TOUR DA BORE

who cares esp since the frogs are such poor sports

only the french would have a national race were the leader gets YELLOW

I say just test everyone every other day. I can't believe how dirty cycling is... As a cyclist, they are amazing athletes but I'd like to know for the sake of the sport who is dirty and who isn't.

I say just let them jam all sorts of roids and see who is fastest. No holds barred. Heck its either that or a forever game of cat and mouse.

Sports is not what it used to be. Maybe we need more competitions that emphasize academics. Steroids, transfusions and doping don't make you smarter. Bring back the G.E. College Bowl.

Kids' pastimes + big money = corruption clinging like a staticky sock right out of the dryer.

sorry to burst your bubble but pro sports was always like this remember the chicago 'black' sox who throw a world series. the reality is there are always some who will cheat for money.

Sangria doping!

The Discovery Channel sponsored the winner? Stand by for another scandal!

Along with them embracing the global-warming myth this year, and tonight's turning of the sinking of the S.S. Indianapolis into a PETA-like plea to stop libelling and killing sharks, they are also being accused of faking this survival show, "Man v. Wild." Man, it's HARD out here for a pimp!

---
Discovery's 'Wild' storm: Authenticity questioned
By Andrew Wallenstein

July 24, 2007

Discovery Channel is re-evaluating one of its most popular series, "Man vs. Wild," after allegations surfaced that its survival-expert host was bunking in motels when he was supposed to be braving the great outdoors.

The network issued a statement Monday in response to an investigation launched by British television network Channel 4, which carries the program under the title "Born Survivor: Bear Grylls." Channel 4 confirmed that host Bear Grylls had partaken of indoor accommodations on at least two occasions when his series had depicted him spending the night in the wild.

"Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the 'Man vs. Wild' show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field," the network said in a statement.

The production company behind the series, Diverse Television, is cooperating with the Channel 4 investigation, which likely will address a range of allegations that called into question "Wild's" authenticity.

In each episode of the series, Grylls is airlifted into the wilderness with only a few tools to aid in his survival, such as a flint or water bottle. A former British special forces soldier, Grylls is typically depicted as subsisting for several days without intervention or interruption while cameramen follow him offscreen. He has been stranded all over the globe, including Utah's Moab desert and the Costa Rican rain forest.

But among the charges made against Grylls is that a raft he is depicted as having built himself actually was constructed and then disassembled by consultants to the show in order for the host to put it together. In another episode, Grylls happens upon what are referred to as wild horses that were said to be brought in from a trekking station.

The brouhaha could become a PR nightmare for the channel, which in recent years has abandoned contrived unscripted formats in favor of the scientific explorations that first made the Discovery brand famous. "Wild" in particular has emerged as one of its main attractions during the past two seasons.

But the company gave no indication about parting ways with the series, only making certain unspecified alterations.

"Moving forward, the program will be 100% transparent and all elements of the filming will be explained upfront to our viewers," Discovery said. "In addition, shows that are to be repeated will be edited appropriately. Bear Grylls is a world-class adventurer and a terrific talent."

A spokeswoman for Discovery declined to elaborate on what exact measures will be taken to address the concerns raised about "Wild."

Among the likely possibilities: a disclaimer that will precede each episode explaining that some of the events being depicted are dramatized.

On July 13, Grylls spoke at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour about production of the series but gave little hint of any shenanigans behind the scenes. At one point, he described what it was like to bed down in the wild.

"Often at nighttime, they will get helicoptered out, and they might have to recharge camera batteries and hand in footage, and then they leave me a little minicamera for the night stuff, and they come and rejoin me in the morning," he said.

#14 -
Just wait.

Charles -
I know the doping thing is a downer but (and I'm not pretending this is even remotely an original thought -- it's been expressed countless times in these comments and elsewhere) it sure seems that guilty-until-proven-innocent-beyond-a-shadow-of-a- doubt has become the rule where the Tour is concerned. I find it hard to turn on these athletes on the report of some cyclist-turned-"journalist" or the leaked word of a testing lab that bent itself into a pretzel trying to smear Lance. Maybe that's exactly the point you're trying to make -- that Ras and Vino were maybe ripped so Contador's victory is suspect. Since this is the only sporting event I ever follow with much sustained interest, I tried to put such thoughts aside and root for a winner among those who survived the purge. I'm continually hopeful that if injustice has been done it will ultimately be rooted out. Of course that can never make it up to those who may have been cheated out of their place on the podium ...

re: #22 yochanan

Yes, and those Black Sox were crushed by the authorities. Crime is nothing new. Neither is punishment.

Some questions about all of this:
- Performance enhancement seems to work. What if it weren't harmful?
- The sport of boxing, for one, is unquestionably harmful. So is ballet, for that matter. People can do that to themselves but can't take drugs? Maybe spectator guilt is just too high if the performers/entertainers have to poison themselves to reach the top.
- Is the military paying attention? I've read they handed out bennies in WWII.
- Does the same disgust and horror apply to musicians and their performance enhancing drugs?

P.S. I love TdF. Watched the whole thing.

In fact the French play sport the way it is meant to be played, in all sports. Not usually amoungst the very top players, but usually the best to watch. Anyone remember Henri Laconte, the tennis player?

After reading the new Floyd Landis book, I'm not really convinced that he was dirty in the 2006 TDF. After watching the 2007 TDF, it was pretty obvious that anybody even suspected of illegal activity was convicted before a trial. It's a shame that a year has passed and last year's race still hasn't been settled yet. If Floyd comes out clean, he's already lost millions in endorsements, etc., that he'll never be able to reclaim.

Charles: Ummm, did you mean Tour de Farce?

By far, the thing I found most disgusting about the tour was seeing Red Ken on the podium. That man turns my stomach.

It's not just cycling, it's all sports. Look at Barry Bonds about to take the home run record. He might as well be going for the ho-hum record. Who cares when it is just a matter of who takes the most steroids? Maybe we should rethink the place sports have in our society. After all, they're just kid's games. It's not life and death. We take those matters much less seriously.

As a cyclist for the past twenty five years or more, this latest embarrasment to the sport is just another nail in the coffin, and it really sucks.
Was at the '98 TdF - prologue and stage one - whilst visiting Dublin, Ireland, just before the shit hit the fan in that year.
Everybody said that was the end.
Some said it would clean up the sport for good.

Did'nt happen.
Drugs and pro cycling go hand in hand - since the beginning of time.
All of the people - the promoters, managers, doctors et al have turned a blind eye or worse still actively collaborated in the whole drug scam.
clean up the sport - where the hell do you start.

I think they should have canceled the race the moment the Reuters van caught fire.

(Just in case, this is meant to be humor)

And yet I watch.

As a life long cyclist I can still thrill at seeing someone accelerate the way these riders can at the drop of a hat, drugs or no. I still thrill at the climbing, drugs or no. And riding 100+ miles a day for three weeks? I don't care if you ate an amphetamine the size of a hockey puck, that's tough sledding.

Still nice to have thrills in life, drugs or no.

Think I'll go for a ride!

I was pleased to see how well all the trees were doing along the streets of Paris.

You know, the ones the French planted so the German Army can march in the shade?

Late to the party, as usual, but I thought that the final ITT was great drama, salvaging an otherwise ugly TdF. And the success of the South African based Barlow World team was indeed a welcome revelation.

I am pleased with the way the organization handled things, but not so much with Rabobank's handling of the Rasmussen affair. If his sins were committed in May and June, why was he even allowed to start?

Anyway, a great set of new young riders has emerged. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next year.

How much longer fans will remain loyal to a race where cheating has skewed the results for more than a decade.

How much longer will we have to endure the unfounded accusations against the American winners who "skewed the results"?

Obviously just a cheap shot against Armstrong (7 time winner, no positive doping tests evar AFAIK) and Landis (last year's winner, 1 partial positive test of dubious quality/identifiability).

Big Dan

Whenever someone brings up the topic of drugs and the Tour, I try to politely ask them to describe the testing procedures of other pro sports and what sanctions the dopers get. Does baseball test the winning pitcher (or even one who throws a complete game shutout) of every game or the hitter who gets a couple of home runs. Does hockey test every player immediately after getting a hat trick? What about football or basketball?

Yet the winner of every Tour stage is tested plus some random riders. 188 riders started and only two tested positive (Rasmussen was fired by his team for lying about his training location and missing out of competition tests). Out of a much smaller sample of elite amateur track stars, how many have tested positive for drugs - I suggest a greater percentage than that found in elite riders.

Cyclists testing positive in the Tour will be banned for two years and forfeit one year's salary. Baseball players will receive a 50 game suspension (less than 1/3 of a season) for the first offense and only 100 games for a second positive test. NFL players receive a four game suspension for the first positive test. NHL hockey players will only receive a 20 game suspension (1/4 of a season).

Someone please tell me what sport takes performance enhancing drugs most seriously? The big complaint I have is that there needs to be a separation between the owners of the Tour (and L'Equipe magazine) and the testing lab.

I don't know, but if I had a pack of sweaty Frenchmen in tight bicycle shorts panting behind me, I think I would have been able to win this race too.

Seemed to me that things worked out just about as well as could be expected. Sinkewitz caught, but abandoned before being bounced. Vino caught and bounced. Cofidis guy caught and bounced. Rasmussen properly hounded out.

But what difference did that make to the race itself, other than raising some questions about the stats? Vino had already cracked. Sinkewitz and Cofidis guy were footsoldiers. As for Rasmussen, things worked out just as they would if he had crashed on the course, or abandoned due to illness.

It sounded a lot worse than it was, especially if all one had as news sources were the doping-crazed MSM. The crowds were big. The racing was exciting, for the most part. Hard-working clean guys Evans and Levi finally got podium spots. As for Contador, any youthful indiscretions he might have committed while on the Liberty Seguros B team are long since forgiven...