I cannot watch the Tour anymore

[ruamruam]

You obviously do not love this sport. Here we have clean riders riding a great race and you come out with your banal post!

If you question doping in cycling how does this equate with not loving the sport? This is reminiscent of the Armstrong 'loving cancer' rubbish.

 

[Dr.Sahl]

You obviously do not love this sport. Here we have clean riders riding a great race and you come out with your banal post!

I got a friend that knowns Froome and he confirmed Froome did dope when younger ^^

So can I claim it to be 100% true no... but I guess its just as good as all the opinions here

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

I got a friend that knowns Froome and he confirmed Froome did dope when younger ^^

So can I claim it to be 100% true no... but I guess its just as good as all the opinions here

Which bit are you claiming to be 100% true. That Froome dopes or you have a friend?

 

[Dr.Sahl]

Which bit are you claiming to be 100% true. That Froome dopes or you have a friend?

^^

Very funny... but my point stands, we all just throw around opinions mostly.

 

[koshatnik]

You obviously do not love this sport. Here we have clean riders riding a great race and you come out with your banal post!

Is it okay to love the sport but not love everything about the sport? I love podium girls, awesome hill finishes and footage of sprint trains from above. Omerta, not so much.

Five out of the last eight winners of the Tour have tested positive or admitted to doping. A guilty LA verdict would make that six. We know the likes of Riis, Ullrich and LA (if guilty) doped without triggering positive tests.

Under those circumstances I'm not sure why we should take it at face value that the team blowing apart this year's race are clean.

What gives you confidence Sky are clean?

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

^^

Very funny... but my point stands, we all just throw around opinions mostly.

You are right of course but sometimes opinion is spoken as if it is fact which is where you need to be careful.

 

[c&cfan]

It is obvious that the doping is no different now than it was then. At least up until the end of 2008, the ASO had a man in charge of the Tour who believed in fighting dope. We are right back to where we were in 2000.

so why were you watching cycling? all dopers since the beginning.. how old are you? (serious question) I hope you are young, because if you are old enough to saw/admire armstrong vs ulrich, pantani and indurain, kelly lemond hinault fignon all the way to merckx anquetil coppi and bartali, that post deserves number 1 in the hypocrite list.

what is your point? riders earn good, in the last 5 years no one died on the road like simpson, the beginning epo guys.. etc cycling is better than ever for them.

so, again, what is bothering you?

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

I have been watching cycling since 1983, maybe even 1982. Not just the Tour, everything that was 'on' I used to watch. Not shady races like Gent Wevelgem but I have recollection of LeMonds [no coincidence my forum nickname] 1982 second place at the Worlds. So, in retrospect I've been watching cycling since a very long time. I've seen the steroid '80's, the epo '90's, the shady LA years. Everything. Flanders, Liege, Tour, Giro, Vuelta. No surprises for me. Huge LeMond fan, after that a couple of years nothing to cheer for, then came Pantani, oke he was EPO'd but he raced like a madmen, then, nothing. Just trying to enjoy the sport. This year, one of the supposedly clean years, I am just laughing at cycling. Astana doing the double with Amstel and Liege? Stop kidding me please. Tom Boonen being **** for years and suddenly with a certain Spanish team doctor is able to ride a 50 k TT in Roubaix?

Cycling is dirtier then ever. It's just like Formula One, you can try to slow down the cars but the engeneers/doctors will find a new way to go even faster.

Yesterday I was just laughing when Froome topped Cancellara's first intermediate time. Why cry? The new age of drugs has since Indurain been accepted in the peloton, at the UCI, at the team managers. Who am I to judge. The riders don't speak out. Cancellara topped Armstrong at Ferretti, rode at the team of good old Bjarne. Still I love to watch Fabian, he has the grinta of a true cyclist, dope or no dope.

It still is good comedy capers though.

I'll keep on watching because? I don't know, cycling is part of me. Not the riders, not the DS's, they cannot take my sport away from me! Pantani is dead, LeMond has been fokked by Indurain/Padilla and the rest but still I watch. Must be an addiction. Or maybe I am just a masochist, lol.

so why were you watching cycling? all dopers since the beginning.. how old are you? (serious question) I hope you are young, because if you are old enough to saw/admire armstrong vs ulrich, pantani and indurain, kelly lemond hinault fignon all the way to merckx anquetil coppi and bartali, that post deserves number 1 in the hypocrite list.

what is your point? riders earn good, in the last 5 years no one died on the road like simpson, the beginning epo guys.. etc cycling is better than ever for them.

so, again, what is bothering you?

Wait for the new 'in sleep deaths'. It's coming, beginning, has started.

 

[Jeremiah]

so why were you watching cycling? all dopers since the beginning.. how old are you? (serious question) I hope you are young, because if you are old enough to saw/admire armstrong vs ulrich, pantani and indurain, kelly lemond hinault fignon all the way to merckx anquetil coppi and bartali, that post deserves number 1 in the hypocrite list.

what is your point? riders earn good, in the last 5 years no one died on the road like simpson, the beginning epo guys.. etc cycling is better than ever for them.

so, again, what is bothering you?

How old is he? Is it axiomatic that one becomes a cynic when they get older?

The HYPOCRISY bothers him.

Very few if any went out of their way to proclaim that cycling was clean until recently.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

How old is he? Is it axiomatic that one becomes a cynic when they get older?

The HYPOCRISY bothers him.

Very few if any went out of their way to proclaim that cycling was clean until recently.

How old are u if I may ask?

 

[Jeremiah]

How old are u if I may ask?

Irrelevant.

12, 84, who cares?

 

[taiwan]

joke farce crooked phony scam charade con flim-flam hoax fraud sham racket hustle absurd mockery bamboozle swindle deception cheat shady ruse hornswoggle trick hoodwink humbug rip off rook chisel

Tour de Farce, Tour de Francs, Tour de Front.

 

[hrotha]

Irrelevant.

12, 84, who cares?

I imagine he asked because people have been saying cycling was clean since 1999.

 

[hiero2]

It is obvious that the doping is no different now than it was then. At least up until the end of 2008, the ASO had a man in charge of the Tour who believed in fighting dope. We are right back to where we were in 2000.

I sure hope not, but I am beginning to agree with you about Le Tour. I'd rather watch the other races during the year. Although, Pinot's win was a great one - I enjoyed the heck out of that stage. Imo, you've spoken well to speak out and say that you can't watch the Tour, when it shows every sign of turning into a farce.

I could believe what Wiggins and the Brits did on the track. There is less money there, and therefore more room to make improvements and be the best, without doping. But, to make these kind of dominant showings, in the Tour, where all the money is in the pot? Not believable. You can't gain that kind of improvement from what have to be small changes. I could believe Heyjedal - I can find photos of his TT form 2 years ago and compare that with his TT position on the bike this year. He didn't have to improve that much - and his performance was not so unreal.

Well - it would be better if we spent our time riding rather than watching, anyway.

Chapeau, brodeal.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Irrelevant.

12, 84, who cares?

Just another adolescent I assume. Accusing someone else but not able to answer a very simple question. Wannabe cycling groupie I call those people. Not meant to insult.

 

[rhubroma]

I have been watching cycling since 1983, maybe even 1982. Not just the Tour, everything that was 'on' I used to watch. Not shady races like Gent Wevelgem but I have recollection of LeMonds [no coincidence my forum nickname] 1982 second place at the Worlds. So, in retrospect I've been watching cycling since a very long time. I've seen the steroid '80's, the epo '90's, the shady LA years. Everything. Flanders, Liege, Tour, Giro, Vuelta. No surprises for me. Huge LeMond fan, after that a couple of years nothing to cheer for, then came Pantani, oke he was EPO'd but he raced like a madmen, then, nothing. Just trying to enjoy the sport. This year, one of the supposedly clean years, I am just laughing at cycling. Astana doing the double with Amstel and Liege? Stop kidding me please. Tom Boonen being **** for years and suddenly with a certain Spanish team doctor is able to ride a 50 k TT in Roubaix?

Cycling is dirtier then ever. It's just like Formula One, you can try to slow down the cars but the engeneers/doctors will find a new way to go even faster.

Yesterday I was just laughing when Froome topped Cancellara's first intermediate time. Why cry? The new age of drugs has since Indurain been accepted in the peloton, at the UCI, at the team managers. Who am I to judge. The riders don't speak out. Cancellara topped Armstrong at Ferretti, rode at the team of good old Bjarne. Still I love to watch Fabian, he has the grinta of a true cyclist, dope or no dope.

It still is good comedy capers though.

I'll keep on watching because? I don't know, cycling is part of me. Not the riders, not the DS's, they cannot take my sport away from me! Pantani is dead, LeMond has been fokked by Indurain/Padilla and the rest but still I watch. Must be an addiction. Or maybe I am just a masochist, lol.Wait for the new 'in sleep deaths'. It's coming, beginning, has started.

Your post is downright uncanny, because it could have been written by me and practically nothing would have changed.

On the hypocrisy thing, one doesn't live for more than 40 years without some falsehood. We are all, at least a little bit, hypocrites, though within the spectrum of hypocrisy each one draws his own line. Each has come up with his acceptable level of hypocrisy, beyond which one dares not go as they say.

The problem I have with the riders today is that they seem to feel no shame in contradicting themselves and in having gone completely against what in the past they had "stood for." This is partly due to the dreadful world that pro sport has become, with its arrogant, ruthless corporate, specialized approach, and the fact that medical science has de-humanized it (a certain Texan came to incarnate this world and, consequently, was simply unsupportable). While it seems that each up and coming generation has taken its hypocrisy with ever more nonchalance and all of us the fans for fools.

Honestly I too follow cycling out of habit, having raced for years and, as you say, by now it is part of me (or I'd like to think of it as such having suffered so much doing it in my youth - that past, which, year by year we always want to look back upon with romantic nostalgia). Perhaps it's just that, the romantic nostalgia of one who simply doesn't want to grow older. In this sense I think if cycling would just cease to exist tomorrow, I wouldn't care less and actually find other more useful and productive ways to fill the time I have spent watching bike races.

 

[wattage]

You'd better watch, it's only going to get more absurd for the next 2 stages

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

Your post is downright uncanny, because it could have been written by me and practically nothing would have changed.

On the hypocrisy thing, one doesn't live for more than 40 years without some falsehood. We are all, at least a little bit, hypocrites, though within the spectrum of hypocrisy each one draws his own line. Each has come up with his acceptable level of hypocrisy, beyond which one dares not go as they say.

The problem I have with the riders today is that they seem to feel no shame in contradicting themselves and in having gone completely against what in the past they had "stood for." This is partly due to the dreadful world that pro sport has become, with its arrogant, ruthless corporate, specialized approach, and the fact that medical science has de-humanized it (a certain Texan came to incarnate this world and, consequently, was simply unsupportable). While it seems that each up and coming generation has taken its hypocrisy with ever more nonchalance and all of us the fans for fools.

Honestly I too follow cycling out of habit, having raced for years and, as you say, by now it is part of me (or I'd like to think of it as such having suffered so much doing it in my youth - that past, which, year by year we always want to look back upon with romantic nostalgia). Perhaps it's just that, the romantic nostalgia of one who simply doesn't want to grow older. In this sense I think if cycling would just cease to exist tomorrow, I wouldn't care less and actually find other more useful and productive ways to fill the time I have spent watching bike races.

Uncanny is right! Maybe we were triplets separated at birth...

 

[labratty]

I have been watching cycling since 1983, maybe even 1982. Not just the Tour, everything that was 'on' I used to watch. Not shady races like Gent Wevelgem but I have recollection of LeMonds [no coincidence my forum nickname] 1982 second place at the Worlds. So, in retrospect I've been watching cycling since a very long time. I've seen the steroid '80's, the epo '90's, the shady LA years. Everything. Flanders, Liege, Tour, Giro, Vuelta. No surprises for me. Huge LeMond fan, after that a couple of years nothing to cheer for, then came Pantani, oke he was EPO'd but he raced like a madmen, then, nothing. Just trying to enjoy the sport. This year, one of the supposedly clean years, I am just laughing at cycling. Astana doing the double with Amstel and Liege? Stop kidding me please. Tom Boonen being **** for years and suddenly with a certain Spanish team doctor is able to ride a 50 k TT in Roubaix?

Cycling is dirtier then ever. It's just like Formula One, you can try to slow down the cars but the engeneers/doctors will find a new way to go even faster.

Yesterday I was just laughing when Froome topped Cancellara's first intermediate time. Why cry? The new age of drugs has since Indurain been accepted in the peloton, at the UCI, at the team managers. Who am I to judge. The riders don't speak out. Cancellara topped Armstrong at Ferretti, rode at the team of good old Bjarne. Still I love to watch Fabian, he has the grinta of a true cyclist, dope or no dope.

It still is good comedy capers though.

I'll keep on watching because? I don't know, cycling is part of me. Not the riders, not the DS's, they cannot take my sport away from me! Pantani is dead, LeMond has been fokked by Indurain/Padilla and the rest but still I watch. Must be an addiction. Or maybe I am just a masochist, lol.Wait for the new 'in sleep deaths'. It's coming, beginning, has started.

I feel the same too, it does gets hard to justify sometimes but then you have days like Sunday with Pinot, or Iljo Keisse back in Turkey and after you stop jumping up and down on the sofa and yelling at the TV you just have to accept there is no cure and go out for a ride

Saw this today, it might just be a clever ad for a bike but it feels like they get the point.
This is just a bicycle

ratty

 

[Ripper]

Did you stop watching the Giro when Hesjedal started riding away from Purito, Basso, Kreuziger, Scarponi et al? Or is it just simple sky hate coming to the surface?

Wow, not really a comparison there. He was able to attack at the very end of a strategic climb. Oooooooooooh

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

I feel the same too, it does gets hard to justify sometimes but then you have days like Sunday with Pinot, or Iljo Keisse back in Turkey and after you stop jumping up and down on the sofa and yelling at the TV you just have to accept there is no cure and go out for a ride

Saw this today, it might just be a clever ad for a bike but it feels like they get the point.
This is just a bicycle

ratty

Here's one for ya. Best bike ad ever. Reminds me of being a kid again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Q_15v8-Zo

 

[Ripper]

This most poignant and crucial life changing, catalystic moment could have occurred after any number of moments from cycling's past (choose from any number, really.. Cobo in the vuelta etc) But it happens to come after 'Wigans' has a) Shoved the likes of BroDeals words down his throat during an interview and b) Proved that he is the top dog right now, barring a miracle.

I can see why BroDeal wouldn't want to watch the Tour anymore when someone he really doesn't want to win, from a team he doesn't like is on course to make him look stupid. Remember all those donkey pictures etc? Hilarious!

Familiar with the phrase 'Throwing his toys out of the pram'?

You know, at lot of folks are beginning to wonder, and they have a right to (just read many of the editorials around). Wiggins sp@zz did not do anything good.

You could be a bit empathetic to folks who have seen this happen in cycling quite recently. And again. And again.

 

[Jeremiah]

Just another adolescent I assume. Accusing someone else but not able to answer a very simple question. Wannabe cycling groupie I call those people. Not meant to insult.

Huh?

Who am I accusing besides the current hypocrites who want to be considered clean but aren't transparent?

Your assumption is wrong btw, although still completely irrelevant.

 

[erader]

It is obvious that the doping is no different now than it was then. At least up until the end of 2008, the ASO had a man in charge of the Tour who believed in fighting dope. We are right back to where we were in 2000.

same as it ever was. if you can't accept that find a sport where they don't dope, and good luck with that one .

erader

 

[patrick767]

joke farce crooked phony scam charade con flim-flam hoax fraud sham racket hustle absurd mockery bamboozle swindle deception cheat shady ruse hornswoggle trick hoodwink humbug rip off rook chisel

Well... bye.

What? You're still here? Why? Just need something to complain about? Is that why you watch cycling?