Andreas Kloden going to TDF

[krebs303]

Tour de France: The UCI today gave Astana's Andreas Kloden the green light for riding in the Tour. (AP)

 

[whiteboytrash]

Tour de France: The UCI today gave Astana's Andreas Kloden the green light for riding in the Tour. (AP)

No pharking way !!? If ValvPitti drops there is no way they can lets Klodi go ? Surely not........ I give up.....

 

[BroDeal]

Tour de France: The UCI today gave Astana's Andreas Kloden the green light for riding in the Tour. (AP)

Utterly ridiculous. The UCI must die. That organization has turned cycling into a joke.

 

[whiteboytrash]

Utterly ridiculous. The UCI must die. That organization has turned cycling into a joke.

Well at least this time kloden can repeat the visit back to the university and pick his honorary doctorate in hematology.

 

[ElChingon]

May as well let Vino and Kash join in as well at this point.

All I can say is they're lucky I don't live nearby the Tour route. Which leads me to believe some riders won't be allowed to race via fan intervention come July.

 

[krebs303]

I'm looking for verification on this. got it from Cyclingfans, but can't find any more info. not even UCI website.

 

[Anonymous]

you think astana will take the risk...?
they more than anyone cant afford a mid tour positive being announced..

 

[elapid]

Utterly ridiculous. The UCI must die. That organization has turned cycling into a joke.

+1. Couldn't agree more. They are the biggest problem in professional cycling.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

+1. Couldn't agree more. They are the biggest problem in professional cycling.

I guess it would be great if that was true.

 

[Anonymous]

Utterly ridiculous. The UCI must die. That organization has turned cycling into a joke.

-1

do you not think its the idiots that dope that are the bigger problem...

thats like blaming the police for the amount of murders instead of blaming the murderers..
you can blame the uci for not convicting, but not for the crime itself..

 

[BroDeal]

-1

do you not think its the idiots that dope that are the bigger problem...

thats like blaming the police for the amount of murders instead of blaming the murderers..
you can blame the uci for not convicting, but not for the crime itself..

Sure I can. Corruption breeds crime. Using your police analogy, the police would drive one murderer, let's call him Sevilla, into exile and give another murderer, let's call him Kloeden, a free pass to murder again. They would be giving press conferences about how much they are doing to fight crime while at the same time they are warning a criminal, let's call him Hamilton, that he has left too many clues and he needs to change his methods before they are forced to arrest him. Meanwhile they would be inviting an O.J. Simpson-like character, let's call him Armstrong, to a symposium on domestic violence.

 

[lookkg386]

Totally confused over this one aswell...

UCI just has no consistancy at all!!!

 

[BigBoat]

-1

do you not think its the idiots that dope that are the bigger problem...

thats like blaming the police for the amount of murders instead of blaming the murderers..
you can blame the uci for not convicting, but not for the crime itself..

Dim bro... People are going to dope no matter what. Now dope is nothing compared to some murdering, beating, robbing, raping or maiming others... Its human nature. And yes, we have improved law enforcement to deal with that. LOL

The UCI reminds me of the Chicago/ Minneapolis cops of the 1920s... Controlled by the "family." LOL again.

 

[OctaBech]

Yes yes evil UCI et all, but in reality the fault lies with the Germans authorities because they have yet to follow up on the independent investigation and reach a verdict which allows for prosecution of Klöden.

The UCI can't just ban a rider without a case, unless they want to lose yet another overwhelming silly court drama. All they can do is hoping that the team it self will ban the rider(fat chance considering the team's history).

When that is said, I do find Astana's(read JB's) close ties with UCI quite disturbing.

Not that it really bothers me, Klöden has slowed down quite a bit since '06 which is enough for me for now.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

Yes yes evil UCI et all, but in reality the fault lies with the Germans authorities because they have yet to follow up on the independent investigation and reach a verdict which allows for prosecution of Klöden.

Klöden lives in Switzerland and therefore has a Swiss license, not a German one.

Susan

 

[OctaBech]

Klöden lives in Switzerland and therefore has a Swiss license, not a German one.

Susan

Yes but to prosecute Klöden the actual validity of the Freiburg investigation needs to be confirmed and that is in Germany.

Thought I bet most of us have little doubt that Klöden doped like mentioned in the investigation, we do not know the evidence behind the accusation and if it's legally waterproof.

I do not like UCI's approach to avoid/hide scandals, I much rather see the almost self destructive approach the French had during last year's TdF, but in this Freiburg case we can't blame the UCI just yet.

 

[RdBiker]

Don't they actually have to have some kind of concrete evidence against Klöden to ban him from racing?

I do remember that they also banned riders because of implications to the Operation Puerto but I didn't agree with that either (banning them based on only suspicion). What is interesting though is that the Tour organisers aren't stopping Klöden and/or Boonen from racing and last year they didn't let Astana race.

 

[whiteboytrash]

Don't they actually have to have some kind of concrete evidence against Klöden to ban him from racing?

I do remember that they also banned riders because of implications to the Operation Puerto but I didn't agree with that either (banning them based on only suspicion). What is interesting though is that the Tour organisers aren't stopping Klöden and/or Boonen from racing and last year they didn't let Astana race.

The UCI and ASO are just waiting on Lance to give the all clear to the riders. He's tied up on baby duties but expects to let the UCI and ASO know on what riders can and can't ride the Tour....... via Twitter.

 

[Eldrack]

The UCI and ASO are just waiting on Lance to give the all clear to the riders. He's tied up on baby duties but expects to let the UCI and ASO know on what riders can and can't ride the Tour....... via Twitter.

Maybe this is why LA isn't bailing out Astana for it's financial problems? Already spent too much money paying off the UCI.

Given that they've told Valverde not to come letting Kloden seems like a bit of a **** take. The mixture of no transparency and inconsistent decisions really ruins any credibility the sport has left.

 

[elapid]

Don't they actually have to have some kind of concrete evidence against Klöden to ban him from racing?

I do remember that they also banned riders because of implications to the Operation Puerto but I didn't agree with that either (banning them based on only suspicion). What is interesting though is that the Tour organisers aren't stopping Klöden and/or Boonen from racing and last year they didn't let Astana race.

The Tour organizers do want to stop Boonen but feel their hands are tied with the UCI's decision. They're still discussing if they can ban him or not, but it is unlikely because they will not have much of a legal leg to stand on. They have also banned Valverde (because he cannot race in Italy), but Klöden is getting a free pass. I do agree with you in regards to OP, but that should mean all the OP riders get treated equally (all indicted or all exonerated), not target Valverde and no one else.

 

[whiteboytrash]

The Tour organizers do want to stop Boonen but feel their hands are tied with the UCI's decision. They're still discussing if they can ban him or not, but it is unlikely because they will not have much of a legal leg to stand on. They have also banned Valverde (because he cannot race in Italy), but Klöden is getting a free pass. I do agree with you in regards to OP, but that should mean all the OP riders get treated equally (all indicted or all exonerated), not target Valverde and no one else.

...as per Kloden the official report hasn't been released as yet. Only an extract in Der Spiegel hence why no current sanction.

Once those crazy Germans release the report the UCI can take their normal 487 days to make a decision. Expect to see Kloden not sanctioned and then ASO ban him from the 2011 Tour.