Vuelta Time

[ATP]

Time to pedal around another European country really fast.

Stage 1 Results

Looks wide open this year. Any predictions?

[JayTux]

Only prediction in the cycling world now from me is that Lance Armstrong DIDN'T do EPO, if he did, then everything will just turn upside down...whatever.

[TenSeven]

I am interested in watching Danielson to see how he'll do.

[TenSeven]

I think that I picked Oscar Pereiro (Phonak) a couple of months back?

[TenSeven]

"Leonardo Bertagnolli (Cofidis) took advantage of a well-timed attack on the slopes of the Category 2 Alto de San Jerónimo to win the second stage of the 60th edition of la Vuelta a España, a 189.3-kilometer race from Granada to Córdoba.

Nearly caught by a strong chase group on the final 12.7km descent to the finish, Bertagnolli was joined by Bradley Mcgee (Francaise des Jeux) with six kilometers remaining.

McGee, clearly the stronger of the two, gambled with a long charge to the line, but the Italian caught and passed the Australian for the win. On the strength of his third place finish in Saturday's opening time trial, McGee has taken over the leader's jersey from Rabobank's Denis Menchov"

(Velonews)

[TenSeven]

Hincapie won the GP Plouay today. Good year for him. It should be a great World Championship.

[RR]

Wow...bike racing rages on the slopes in Spain. Awesome results for OZ. I'll miss a lot more as I'll be web-disabled at Hermit Lake most of next week.

[TenSeven]

Originally Posted by RR

I'll miss a lot more as I'll be web-disabled at Hermit Lake most of next week.

What a great way to be out of touch.

[RR]

Originally Posted by TenSeven

What a great way to be out of touch.

more or less a continuation of my natural condition....

[TenSeven]

Originally Posted by RR

more or less a continuation of my natural condition....

lol!!

[ATP]

Not to hijack my own thread (I'm picking Sastre, b/c CSC kicks tail.) and not to badmouth LA, who is an inspiration to many who would be perfectly happy to lead a functional life with the help of exotic drugs, but...

Originally Posted by JayTux

Only prediction in the cycling world now from me is that Lance Armstrong DIDN'T do EPO, if he did, then everything will just turn upside down...whatever.

I don't buy that. EPO use was rampant at the time; Lance had already used it to survive chemo, so there was less stigma for him. Add to that his access to the best scientists in the world at enhancing blood and scientifically customizing training, and I can't help but think that he had the best opportunity of anyone to use and not get caught.

More to the point, this time, as opposed to with prior charges against LA, there was a positive drug test. This doesn't mean Armstrong isn't the best cyclist in the world or that he didn't work harder than anyone else; it just means he, likely along with many others, cheated. Drugs have been in cycling since the Tour de France got its start; they're still there. The difference is that they're trying like hell to catch folks now, as opposed to say, baseball and football, who still don't do blood testing. Don't be suprised if next year's UCI tour catches a larger number of dopers, after the latest WADA testing procedures get unleashed at the winter olympics.

Too bad Georgie gets caught up in the negative press and gets a less-than-warm reception after winning France's big one-day race, and too bad L'Equipe will do anything to nail LA, despite all the good he's done for their race (they are part of the same company that is chief sponsor for the TdF).

[TenSeven]

I'll sit on my opinion until there are more concrete facts.

I like Sastre as a pick. I think that CSC will be gunning for the big win since they have been close in both the Giro and the TDF. They brought back the escape yesterday.

[djming]

Originally Posted by ATP

More to the point, this time, as opposed to with prior charges against LA, there was a positive drug test.

One can go back and forth about the "testing" protocol, validity of the samples, the reputation of the source that leaked the results, etc all day.

However, the bottom line is that, technically speaking, LA did not have a positive drug test. The allegations are that a few (6 out of 17) of his "B" samples from 1999 came back positive for EPO. However, this does not result (again, in the pure technical sense) in a positive test. For a test to be positive, BOTH A and B samples must register positive. Since the A samples no longer exist, LA did not have a positive test.

[ATP]

Postive A/B,...whatever. There is scientific data that indicate that LA used EPO, when it was Verbotten. The lack of adequate testing at the time doesn't change that. It's conceivable that deep freezing the specimens could be an issue, but there's no reason to suspect that, aside from innocent-until-proven-guilty scepticism.

There won't and shouldn't be any sanctions. You can't expect a rider of top caliber to give up an edge when much of his competition is almost certainly engaging in doping as well, b/c there wasn't a test then. It makes for a double standard, especially when there were a limited number of samples available for testing (many from Armstrong) and then only one name was publicized. It doesn't help L'Equipe's reputation or the story's believability that they single out Armstrong when 6 other cyclists tested positive during the research, but don't have their names released.

Cyclingnews had an excellent discussion on the affair and doping in general.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...g05/aug25news2

[clg898]

I wouldn't be surprised if LA did use EPO; however, there is one nagging question that makes me hold out hope that he really didn't. The test was developed in 2001. At that time they went back and tested all of the US Postal team's samples from 2000, a year before the test was introduced. None of the samples from 2000 tested positive. Could they have used in 99, but not 2000? Sure, I suppose they could have, but why stop when there was no test for it in 2000? Why, even after 2001, has Lance continued to dominate the field? He has just gotten better. If you look at Bonds, Sosa, Giambia, etc. in baseball, you see a dramatic drop in their performence in the past year since baseball started getting somewhat more serious about steroids. We haven't seen any decline in performance from LA. If anything, he's only gotten stronger each year.

For that reason, I tend to give LA the benefit of the doubt when he says he didn't dope.