All I have to say is that if it was me positive for clenbuterol, do you think that I wouldn’t be serving a suspension? And for how long wouldn’t I be serving that suspension for? What about the plastic?
Here is what some cycling journalist have to say about today’s news.
And, Tom Boonen.
Here’s a link to a Velonews.com story about who Lance beat in 2005. Disgusting.
This isn’t so, so bad. All three of these guys are happy now. Obviously, Alberto is happy. And since Andy didn’t really want to win the Tour de France, at least that way, I assume he’s happy. And Menchov didn’t want to get 2nd instead of 3rd, so I guess everyone on the podium is happy by this ruling.
Here’s a list of how that podium of the Tour de France would have looked during Lance’s reign to Floyd’s problem. Anyone that was every positive was left out of the results. I’m so glad that this year we don’t have to do that. Makes the sport seem so much more clean and fair now!
1999
1. Lance Armstrong (1)
Alex Zulle (2)
2. Fernando Escartin (3)
Laurent Dufaux (4)
3. Angel Casero (5)
2000
1. Armstrong (1)
Jan Ullrich (2)
Joseba Beloki (3)
Christophe Moreau (4)
Roberto Heras (5)
Richard Virenque (6)
Santiago Botero (7)
2. Fernando Escartin (8)
Franciso Mancebo (9)
3. Daniele Nardello (10)
2001
1. Armstrong (1)
Ullrich (2)
Beloki (3)
2. Andrei Kivilev (4)
Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (5)
3. Francois Simon (6)
2002
1. Armstrong (1)
Beloki (2)
Raimondas Rumsas (3)
Botero (4)
Galdeano (5)
2. Jose Azevedo (6)
Mancebo (7)
Levi Leipheimer (8)
Roberto Heras (9)
3. Carlos Sastre (10)
2003
1. Armstrong (1)
Ullrich (2)
Alexander Vinokourov (3)
Tyler Hamilton (4)
2. Haimar Zubeldia (5)
Iban Mayo (6)
Ivan Basso (7)
Moreau (8)
3. Sastre (9)
2004
1. Armstrong (1)
Andreas Kloden (2)
Basso (3)
Ullrich (4)
2. Azevedo (5)
Mancebo (6)
3. Georg Totschnig (7)
2005
1. Armstrong (1)
Basso (2)
Ullrich (3)
Mancebo (4)
Vinokourov (5)
Leipheimer (6)
Michael Rasmussen (7)
2. Cadel Evans (8)
Floyd Landis (9)
3. Oscar Pereiro (10)
2006
Landis (1)
1. Pereiro (2)
Kloden (3)
2. Sastre (4)
3. Evans (5)
I find it amazing that Armstrong is so good that he is able to beat all those others while being clean.
I was going to say the same exact thing but someone beat me to the punchline. I doubt Armstrong could have been clean and beat all these dopers, lets get real here. Also I hear everyone in the sport from athletes to officials saying the sport is getting cleaner. The results say otherwise. How many world champion mtn bikers have admitted or been busted for doping?? I bet at least a third of the champions have been popped.
It’s been said – euro racing is becoming more of a joke. If they don’t do something serious how far could the sport fall.
Do we want the world championships in Richmond? Hell no – not if there gonna let that Spanish bastard right back into the sport.
BTW Cavendish has it right on Ricco…
UnF’ing real! As much as I love the sport, I am not sure I care to watch the Tour this year. You can be pretty sure that what you are watching isn’t real and that the results may, or may not, stand up a year later. It is like the WWE on two wheels except that the story appears to be written by lawyers and bureaucrats. What a joke!
Bottom line is the TdF CANNOT have another Floyd Landis affair – where the winner is dethroned – too many sponsors would bail. There is way too much money at stake – billions of Euros – multiply that by the current exchange rate of 1.35 for every Euro!
Is it more than a little ironic that on the same day that McQuaid, Verbruggen, et al threaten to sue Floyd visa vis his calling them out on protecting star riders that the UCI basically says “meh” when the RFEC (surprise, suprise) decides not to sanction Contador. I generally try to avoid expressing sentiments which suggest that cycling is going down the tubes, but now it just seems to hard not to. Just an thought, but what if the other riders refuse to race with Contador in the peleton?
In my earlier post (comment) I asked whether or not we want the Worlds in Richmond, VA. I was actually trying to get involved since I live very close. Now I just feel like organizing AGAINST the damned thing.
I think it was the year before when I was watching the TdF listening and Phil Liggett was commentating and on some mountain climb and said something like . . . They are on record pace once again this year, oh how do they do it? . . . Yes, Oh how do they do it. So I went back to compare times over previous years. It used to be real easy to find those numbers, not so much anymore. It’s funny how all the information has dissapeared.
All of this is making Floyds story look more like the truth. A guy like Tom Z gets two years and Contador gets nothing. I guess some riders are protected.
Every single one of those guys you listed are unclean, except Lance.
I’ll stick to football, baseball, soccer and hockey. Those guys are pure.
If you’re going to say Leipheimer wasn’t clean in those years then you can’t really hope that Armstrong was. It’s one thing to say that all this smoke doesn’t equal fire (in LA’s case), but at this point it’s like the smoke is coming from the smoldering ashes of the burned down house.
The rules are simple. If you have ever had a positive drug test, you are removed from the results. Levi was positive at Elite Criterium Nationals way back, thus removed.
Any one who thinks football, baseball, soccer and hockey at the professional level are any “cleaner ….”
You are delusional, they simply aren’t tested 1/100th as much for 1/1000 of the compounds that WADA checks for regularly in professional cycling!
There’s a bunch of guys on that list that have returned + tests.
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Armstrong HAD positive tests that he paid to have kept silent.
That makes the greatest riders of this period, Escartin and Azevedo with 2 wins each.