Recent content by L'Etranger

That indeed was a cartoon in one of the UK papers this morning -- someone saying "We began to have suspicions when one of his horses won the Tour de France".

You're right, Square-pedaller, "anciens coureurs" would be "former riders". If they wanted to say "older" they probably wouldn't use "ancien" at all, before or after the noun, but go with something like "coureurs plus agés".

Piece in the Guardian today, which seems to have it about right. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/jan/05/lance-armstrong-ready-confess-doping

+1 on the massive respect for Jaksche. Especially juxtaposed with the piece on Wiggins in which all he had to say on the Armstrong/USADA affair is the standard omerta line that it is bad for the sport. Of course, that is half true: cheating your way to 7 TdF wins with the support of the UCI is...

As a pedant in good standing I would normally be tempted to correct you and say "gall", not "gaul", but since it was all about winning the Tour de France, maybe gaul is OK.

The Guardian's news article is pretty good, juxtaposing Armstrong's talking points with WADA rebuttals, and this opinion piece gets it right: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/aug/24/how-lance-armstrong-strongarmed-cycling

Aso It may not signify anything, but I found it mildly interesting that one piece on the Equipe site this morning, about the twitter reactions to the news, says "Armstrong is going to be stripped of his 7 TdF titles". L'Equipe is of course owned by ASO, which also runs the Tour. But it may just...

Some Twitter reactions from selected French cyclists, on l'Equipe's website. jerome pineau @jejeroule44 Avec tout ça je rentre dans le top 20 du tour 2004 pas mal #affaireLA 24 Août 12 RépondreRetweeterFavori Translation: with all this I'm into the top 20 of the 2004 Tour -- not bad...

Well, strictly the blog says that he should appeal rather than that he will, but it does sound plausible, given how unpalatable the other options are.

Originally Posted by L'Etranger Isn't an even more obvious explanation that 2001 was before the creation of WADA, so the UCI could much more easily suppress a positive? wikipedia says this It was set up on November 10, 1999 in Lausanne, Switzerland, as a result of what was called the...

Ashenden intervention Ashenden's comments are certainly welcome, but I was puzzled by this bit. Could a test be covered up? “If procedures were followed correctly, no it should not have been possible. When the system functions properly, results are sent in parallel to the federation and to...

Liam Tancock, 50m world backstroke champion.

Someone with a name like Max Testa should really be able to spot an enlarged testicle.

Perhaps, but he is of course minimising people's chance of being able to say "I beat Lance Armstrong", in his time-honoured way. So is he there to give people that chance, or is it rather so that he can say "I won" (and thereby leverage his fame and revenue potential)?

I think you are losing the plot on this. How many people watch a 50km cross-country ski World Cup race, a rowing or canoeing race or a 3,000m steeplechase? But the athletes that win world and Olympic titles in those events are absolutely top class athletes as well. In many cases they test as...