It seems to me that if a rider has a positive dope test during a stage race then the rider’s time that applied to the team classification should be thrown out too. I haven’t really thought of it much before, but if winning the team classification is going to have some sort of status, then the results should reflect the real results and not the results of someone that was disqualified.
It is not the same as being DQ’d for hanging onto a car or sprinting irregular. I assume that if you are positive one day during the race, then you are positive all the days. I actually think harsher than that. If your are positive once in your career, then you have to be assumed to be positive for your whole career. And all your results should be nullified. Sorry, but that it is how it is.
I know the RadioShack guys are riding for team classification now. Jens Voight wouldn’t have made such a huge effort to finish 6th today if that wasn’t the case. I wonder if anyone out there will go back through the results and recalculate the team results minus Frank Schleck’s contribution. It would be interesting to see how much time that the RadioShack team would gain to their time.
Think if Lance’s deal goes badly, they will go and refigure the team results from the 2010 Tour and see if RadioShack still won?
I believe the team GC is a rolling cumulative time for the top 6(?) guys on the team. He is no longer in the race so whomever was the 7th guy on the team just became the 6th and their GC time is now counting instead. The tour just got harder for that dude.
Good read.
Q: How about if a doper tests positive then his ENTIRE team is thrown out of the Tour?
Comments welcome….
Mark-The team GC in a stage race is the top 3 riders on each team, from each stage calculated, on a daily basis. It isn’t a rolling GC order. The reason for this is that each rider can still contribute no matter where he is in the overall. So, Frank’s time is calculated into the RadioShack GC.
Technically, Frank Schleck has just withdraw from the race. After the B sample is tested, and maybe after another year or two of appeals, then the results might have to be adjusted if they took the positive into account to team GC.
Perhaps he’ll just be given a warning and allowed to race the Olympics. Hey, why not?…That’s how Hope Solo (Womens US Soccer) was treated.
Surely the same rules should apply to all, no?
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/07/09/hope-solo-gets-warning-from-usada-after-drug-test/
For me the saddest thing in all of this is how the sport of cycling continues to tear itself down, and too often with the encouragement of it’s own fans.
The doping problem is present everywhere, but it gets to much coverage and emphasis in procycling….all sports should have the same standards, you get caught you are out for good. This will never happen because to much $$$ is invested and people in general have problems with their mental status quo…..a woman who wants her boobs enlarged is as nutty as a guy who wants steroids to get bigger muscles or EPO to pump more redbloodcells in his system..they are all nutts…it’s just sad but true..
Jealousy rules….
It is all going to be a mess,, I wounder how Trek is going to change/deal with the Lance shrine in the Waterloo Facility/
I would like to get your two cents on what Frank Deford had to say today on his weekly sports view on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/18/156903770/doping-in-baseball-the-needle-and-the-damage-done
all those RSNT fuckers are dirty anyway
I do not think Schleck was DQ’d, he voluntarily withdrew.
Shaun W – Hope Solo was able to prove her positive came from a prescription from her doctor. The rules say cyclists are responsible for everything they ingest – not sure if that applies to other sports as well.
Bill, that’s kind of my point, cycling has gone so far (OTT IMO) and it’s backfiring. We’re creating such damaging bad publicity for things that would be nothing in other sports. For the public “Drugs is Drugs”. Despite the facts, Frank Schleck will be considered the same as Ben Johnson.
My final point is the hypocricy of cycling fans who, (excuse the pun) fan the flames and then merrily sit down to enjoy a game of football.