Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

um… did george ever test positive?

ruh roh… stupid leakygas.

honestly, who’s left? is hincrapie the only one still active?

vaughters? was julich ever on postal?

not trying to defend “tricky” Beltran (iirc his nickname) But…

What if it’s a false positive?
Does he get to ride? Does ASO go, oops sorry?

Just curious as the B sample has yet to be tested. I realize a false positive is rare, but it can happen.

i heard he has an invisible twin.

so that explains everything.

is that a free market positive or a government knows all positive?

Government knows all positive; the police are involved, and for whatever reason, the French government runs the anti-doping group.

I’d be surprised at a false positive; I read an article noting that 20 of 180 participants were “at the limit” for red blood cells, and the clear implication was that these 20 had done a pretty good job of doping to a generous limit, which means it’s set up for low false positives and high false negatives.

Or, “to set up an allowable level of cheating.” Just like the Olympics, sad to say.

Since you asked…

Tyler, Flandis, Heras, now Beltran. Frandreau never got the test but still admitted to it.

I’m curious to see which lab they are using, if they are still going through the LNDD. One of the things all the arbitrators agreed upon in Floyd’s case was that they screwed up the first test.

Maybe this will help: http://tinyurl.com/2aook5
I don’t think it’s banned yet.

I sometimes drink Red Bull but I promise to stop.

Soon.

Christian Vandevalde(sp?)currently 3rd GC in TdF, Bobby Julich, Tom Boonen, George Hincappie are are former US Postal and current riders. US Postal was an active Pro team before the arrival of Lance Armstrong. Pre TdF Lance members (1998)are Hincappie, Andreu, Ekimov and Hamilton. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/cycling/1998/tour defrance/news/1998/08/02/us_postal/#more
Here is food for thought. Was dopeing happening before, during or after Lance? Was Lance doped when he won the World Championship, at age 22, or his top 5 placings in the spring classics, pre-cancer? Hypothetically speaking, who first introduced Lance to EPO and blood doping? Was it Frankie Andreu, Tyler Hamilton, Ekimov or George Hincappie? Maybe it was Lances first Pro team Cofidis, just before Lance got Cancer? I don’t know if Lance was clean or doped. Really, it’s not important. Dopeing in sports far excceds anything Lance supposedly did or did not do. Here is a quote from a former 5 time TdF winner, Jaques Anquetil “Things started going downhill in 1967, when he publicly admitted to having used doping. He basically said that he did it because everyone did it…” and “If you want to accuse me of having doped, it’s not difficult. All you have to to do is look at my thighs and buttocks – they’re veritable pin cushions. You have to be an imbecile or a hypocrite to imagine that a professional cyclist who races 235 days a year in all weather can keep going without stimulants.” http://www.cyclingnews.com/features.php?id=feature s/2008/anquetil_book
So, shall we continue to whitch hunt Lance or look at the root of the dopeing in sport?

So, shall we continue to whitch hunt Lance or look at the root of the dopeing in sport?

I would suggest starting with a spell check and, perhaps, a grammar text.

Hey Lance, yes cycling has been dirty for a long time. Read the book “From Lance to Landis” and it talks about when the EPO use started. That book has the Motorola team getting their ass kicked in the early 90’s and claims that Lance started the doping in 1995, that’s when he started winning stages in the TDF. The book also discusses when Lance came back from cancer, the pressure that was put on Andreu to dope in 99. Look at all the other dominant cyclists from Lances victorious years, Ullrich, Vinokourov, Basso, Landis, they’ve all been popped. You’re telling me Lance was so awesome that his team-mates doped and his competition doped but he didnt’? Pull your head out of the sand…

Skibby, Cycling has been around alot longer than Lance Armstrong and so has Dopeing. I never stated, quote Skibby, “You’re telling me Lance was so awesome that his team-mates doped and his competition doped but he didnt’.” <—–Tuffy, what do you think of Skibby’s grammer. This shows that you didn’t fully read my comment nor made an effort to try and understand the real issues of doping in the peloton. Lance was an symptom just as Ricco is an symptom of why people find it neccessary to cheat. Cheating in the TdF and cycling started long before any of us were born. So, continue on with the Lance Armstrong witch hunt ,whilst ignoring the real issues, and may you find success and happiness in your endevours.

it’s grammar….

I’m not ignoring the real issues, I could give a crap about Lance. I just find it hypocritical that Lance is considered this cycling god when he obviously doped. People cheat, always have, always will…

That Lance to Landis book has it all wrong. If you put the pieces together it’s much darker than the picture Walsh paints. First off, if you believe the stories around Frankie he was nothing like the saint pushed to doping by the evil Lance.

I’ve heard stories about Frankie back in the days of 7-11 and Motorola, long before Lance was out of the Junior ranks, being a big drug kingpin. He’d go down to Mexico and bring up a boatload of the gear. He was a huge supplier to the European and American Peloton.

I’ve heard a particular story from several people on Motorola or close to the team who claim Frankie rolled the team van on his way back from a run South of the border. He was able to stash the drugs in the desert before being picked up by the local constables.

The 7-11 team was not a bunch of pure innocent choir boys before they went to Europe. I know from first hand experience. I was asked by a mutual friend to deliver hypodermic needles to the team at a stage race back in the mid eighties. I had heard the stories about the drug use of the team for years, but it didn’t prepare me for what I saw. I can’t even begin to describe the look of junkie jones in their eyes when I delivered them their kit.

If I had any doubt that performance drugs were addictive I no longer did after that rendezvous.

From all I’ve heard over the years, Frankie supplied the juice. It fits as to why Lance paid for Frankie’s salary to join him on Cofidis. Do the math: all those apartment buildings he owns in Dearborn don’t just buy themselves.

Now what happened after cancer is anyone’s guess. But at some point Lance became allied with Ferrari. Rumours abound that he paid not only for Ferrari’s services but to prevent Ferrari from performing service on any of Lance’s competitors.

I don’t know what went down. I’d like to believe that Lance just paid off Ferrari to keep the field clean. But I just tell myself that so I can look non-cyclist in the eye and tell them cycling is clean.

But it’s plausible. Frankie and Lance form a dealer / junkie friendship. Lance gets cancer from abusing corticosteroids. Lance goes clean ditches his junkie friends. Frankie goes for revenge in an effort to make himself look saintly in the eyes of his “naive” wife.

Or maybe Frankie just felt left out when Lance started hanging out with the cool kids.

Who knows. I do think though that Lance didn’t fund the UCI anti doping program, but indirectly funded the US anti-doping program through Tailwind’s implicit “ownership” of USA Cycling which is why many believe they had a conflict of interest and overlooked any questionable test results.