Breaking news: TDF Jury summons Armstrong and the Astana team - late use of dope ?

[whiteboytrash]

MARSEILLE, France, July 6 (Reuters) - The Tour de France jury has summoned Lance Armstrong's Astana team after the seven-times champion and his team mates arrived late for the pre-stage registration on Monday.

International Cycling Union (UCI) regulations state that a rider must register for a stage at least 20 minutes before the start or faces a fine of 100 Swiss Francs ($92).

Tour de France competitions director Jean-Francois Pescheux called for tougher sanctions.

"Today, and as usual, the Astana team arrived late at the pre-stage registration, in contempt of the crowd, who has once again not seen Lance Armstrong," Pescheux told Reuters before the start of the third stage from Marseille to La Grande Motte.

"They don't care about the fine. We are going to ask the UCI to be tougher."

 

[BroDeal]

I have always wondered what is up with the ridiculously small fines in cycling.

Intead of paying money, the riders should be forced to ride the stage with a backpack full of weights or maybe wearing a great big, unaerodynamic dunce cap-style helmet.

 

[Amsterhammer]

If you really have to put that four letter word in the title, you should have posted in the other place.

Can this be moved please before the usual speculation starts?

 

[whiteboytrash]

Looks to me that there will be a blackban on the media at the Tour from Astana. It will be the Giro all over again. No respect. You'd think if they're all fighting in Astana that couldn't wait to leave the team bus.

 

[El Imbatido]

Intead of paying money, the riders should be forced to ride the stage with a backpack full of weights or maybe wearing a great big, unaerodynamic dunce cap-style helmet.

Or a parachute that has been deployed. That would be sweet to watch especially into a headwind, the rider would be going bacwards

 

[BroDeal]

If you really have to put that four letter word in the title, you should have posted in the other place.

Can this be moved please before the usual speculation starts?

I was expecting you to speculate that Astana has not really been late. It all must be conspiracy of haters to vent their bile on the poor, innocent team of that god among men, Lance Armstrong.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Keep a record of the total "lateness".
For every minute they are late, hold them at the start for that amount of time.
Preferrably, at tomorrow's stage.
That might get them out of bed early.

Armstrong and the boys being bigger than the Tour, as per usual.

 

[RigelKent]

Great idea

I'm not a LA/JB/Astana hater, but the time delay strategy is a very good one. Maybe it'd be better to just knock the time off the the rider's time for the day. Except in a TT it's rather easy to make up a few minutes (especially on a stage like today). But to lose the minutes after the stage is very different.

 

[whiteboytrash]

I'm not a LA/JB/Astana hater, but the time delay strategy is a very good one. Maybe it'd be better to just knock the time off the the rider's time for the day. Except in a TT it's rather easy to make up a few minutes (especially on a stage like today). But to lose the minutes after the stage is very different.

Reminds me of the time Vino and Kash had the team bus take off 4 hours early for a stage to miss the dope testers..... appears Astana up up to their old tricks again....... never ends with Armstrong.

 

[Ferminal]

Life ban for this surely.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

haha, anything else would be unjust!

Is a "dope" reference really necessary?

 

[Amsterhammer]

I was expecting you to speculate that Astana has not really been late. It all must be conspiracy of haters to vent their bile on the poor, innocent team of that god among men, Lance Armstrong.

Amazing! That's just what I was considering doing, but then I thought, nah, that'll only wind Bro up.

 

[dgodave]

Reminds me of the time Vino and Kash had the team bus take off 4 hours early for a stage to miss the dope testers..... appears Astana up up to their old tricks again....... never ends with Armstrong.

The scoundrels!
.

 

[richwagmn]

The subject line of this thread is pathetic.

 

[whiteboytrash]

The delay is reported to have been caused by Armstrong sharing a cup of coffee with A-list Hollywood actor Ben Stiller, who was visiting the Tour's VIP area here on Monday morning.

Armstrong had a cameo role in the 2004 movie Dodgeball in which Stiller starred.

 

[Animal]

Yes. he did.

As a 2x4 plank! It was baaaaaaaaaad (And not in the yoofspeak way)

 

[frizzlefry]

Does this really need to be the subject of an entire thread? It could be posted on the thread for Stage 3 thereby saving other more deserving threads from the page 2 or 3 wasteland that is any forums second or third page.

Please people, brevity and consolidation of similar topics into more general thread topics is the idea. See, just because you have a thought or question, doesn't mean we want to see a whole thread on it. There really is a forum etiquette, and maybe we need a sticky thread with that as a topic?

Yes, this should be in the "About the forum" section, but here is a rule I would like to see people follow.

1. Before posting a thread, read the first 2 pages of threads and don't post it if there is already a thread on the topic.

Don't just read cyclingnews main site and come here and start a thread as, because of time zones, things like the whole Astana situation have been read by others well before many of us woke up.

You kick other good threads on other topics back when you post the 15th freaking Astana thread.

............

 

[soix716]

I think they need to cut off the feet of the entire team of Astana for being late for signup!! This is an outrage! Oh, and put their entire families into internment camps as well! Righttt.

Seriously folks, get real. People have reasons for sometimes having to be late, such as a coffee with a delegate, a team issue, or pehaps a visitor from Hollywood?

For the boring doping whistle-blowers: Get real! Do you really think the "time to dope" would be minutes before a race?? Or that veterans of the peloton would be needing enhancers to keep up with youngsters that havent proven anything?

I say, let them pay the fines and get on with the racing! Everyone is there to watch racing, NOT a red carpet stop, drop, and roll for the paparazzi. Fans should remember it is a BONUS if they get a glimpse of a cyclist before the race. Think about the traditional parade lap in the neutral zone in the starting town before the official start of the race just for the fans!!

Have some respect for the riders who each day face a grueling day on the bike when they come out of their trailer. They aren't on their way to a state dinner.

 

[BigBoat]

Hmm. I said a while back about something.

 

[Archibald]

Have some respect for the riders who each day face a grueling day on the bike when they come out of their trailer. They aren't on their way to a state dinner.

yeah, coz getting paid to do what most of us would give our left nut to do isn't enough...

 

[Drae Byllek]

"Late use of dope"?

Don't make stupid remarks like this.

 

[gwessel2]

Mr. WhiteBoyTrash-Very irresponsible of you to even mention doping. Was this your practice writing in hopes of getting on LeEquipe or the National Enquirer staff? I don't care whether you like or dislike Lance or Astana. Making comments like that when there is no validity is hurtful to an already marred sport trying to recover. Have you even tried to drive in Europe before? Have you ever driven a tour bus in Europe before? Have you ever been sooo popular as to get off a tour bus whith hundreds of fans an media all begging for you attention? Do you know what it like to be the center of attention and try to get from point A to point B with all those people pawing at you and thrusting stuff in your face? Have you ever been pre-race in the bus lot when a bus full of popular athletes shows up? I actually have and it is a nightmare. Did you watch every minute of Versus' coverage this morning. If you did you would have caught the few seconds of coverage of Lance trying to get autograghs signed for a whole lot of people. When reading your thread a phrase came to mind "it takes one to know one"!!

 

[whiteboytrash]

"Late use of dope".

worked today.

 

[colwildcat]

Keep a record of the total "lateness".
For every minute they are late, hold them at the start for that amount of time.
Preferrably, at tomorrow's stage.
That might get them out of bed early.

Armstrong and the boys being bigger than the Tour, as per usual.

WOW.

They got stuck in traffic and arrived late. The haters will stop at nothing. It really is pathetic.

 

[39*23t]

WOW.

They got stuck in traffic and arrived late. The haters will stop at nothing. It really is pathetic.

funny 19 other teams and an entire tour entourage seem to make it on time.