When did Borg ever smile? :D

When he assimilated Wimbledon.

Whitout doping there wont be any Tour de france left,because you wont have the riders that attract tv audience.Riders like Indurain ,armstrong,riis, ect,those who seem super humans.The leadership of the tour knows that,the trick is to seem like they are doing something about it.

Michael Rasmussen did not get kicked,because he was doped.He got kicked because some journalist said he saw him in Italy,something that has yet to be proven at all.That made the Tour leadership afraid of another doping case,and told Rabobank to whitdraw him.In other words eighter do it,or get the whole team kicked.If he was doped or not and he properly was,is not the case here really.He tested negative in all test both before and during the race..Right now he is home building his defense,and the real fun will begin if he can prove he was in Mexico by his passport like he said he was.

Not the truth Skybird, your slandering the guy. :nope:

Very well spoken.
The lynch party is there before the judge has spoken. :down:

maybe but the actions are not of an innocent man you would protest vermently looks like he just accepted it and left

Well imagine he can actually prove them wrong..Then what..A major lawsuit against Tour de France and his old team,his old team suing Tour de france..And what will the riders do,knowing it could hapend to them aswell..Will they risk having their lives destroyed,just because of rumors and maybe false statements by journalists..It could destroy the tour aswell,they left themselves wide open by acting in panic like this.This would never have hapend under the old tour leadership..Its going to be interesting to follow this in the coming days.

Like in every sport there is and will always be doping,and the only way they could ever stop it in Tour de France is shutting the race down for good.And the chance of them doing that,is equal to me hitting a fishing boat form 10k km distance 1st shot.Unless every major TV station decide they wont cover the tour anymore,but then they will cover something else.And guess what.:know:

The man got his life destroyed,and is in shock understandably..He said that he will respond to this in a day or two..He is not totally clean,he did get 2 warnings from ICU.But that itself isn't a big deal,he is not the first to receive warnings.But it was enough for the press to smell blood and demand his head,and up pops a journalist and say he saw him in Italy..And no one wonders why he didn't say anything before.

No, his name is black on white on a list of customers by Fuentes. It has been reported repeatedly in the media these days, and there was a full articvle in a German biker magazoine as well. but it is not only us Germans saying so. In the main, it is the Spanish examiners.

No, by international regulations, you are obligated to make yourself available to doping tests, even if they are surpsising. He repeatedly evaded that by making wrong statements about where he was going to conduzct training, and thus doping controlers were unable to find him. By the sport's regulation, a certain ammount of failed dates for doping tests are counted as doping, and he has been seen in training places were he was not expected, and in hiding training dresses that obviously were meant to help evading that his staying location becomes known. His team fired him becasue he lied to the team's managers about his training locations as well. As a pro being payed several hundred thousand dollars per year, he certainly knows the regulations. If he forgot them, he is an idiot who brought his whole team into discredit. If he remembered them, he must allow the question why he tried to evade the controllers so hard and so often.

Fish discovers his heart for the sport, it seems :) If so, help to clean up the pigsty - don't play it down.

why you defending him it looks clear cut to me he knew the rules evaded the test (why would someone do that?) its the same as people complaining about cctv cameras and ID cards if you have nothing to hide theres no problem

I'm defending him because its possible he is innocent,its that simple really...

Did he make mistakes..Yes and he received 2 warnings..3rd warning will get you charged for doping..But do you people know how many warnings they give out each year to people,its allot of warnings because they fail to give the correct information.But to make this clear,2 warnings is not enough.Why should it be different for this man than everybody else.

Wrong he did not get kicked for the lie,he got kicked because the Tour leaders put pressure on Rabobank fearing another doping scandal.And i can understand them,dont get me wrong here.

It has yet to be proven that he was in Italy at all..All they have is a statement from a journalist..

Is he doped or not..Who knows..According to all the tests of him,he is not.And those should be the ones that matters..Everything else is just speculations of a scandal press..And ask yourself if you prefer to be judged by those,or in a court of law..I know what i would choose ;)

quiet often in the UK the senences handed down by our out of touch judges is monsterous i dont trust the judges at all an man can kill someone and get 10 years or less but if you steal some insured cash from a bank you get 15 years plus even when you harmed no one

It has been exactly the other way around. the tour management desperately tries to give an impression of business as usual, and was and is under massive force for being to soft on doping. It's not my conclusion when saiyng so - it was reported in and out in Tv interviews and sports TV programs beside the tour - for both German TV channels who initially reported live habe completey withdrawn and stopped any coverage of the live events. a third channel then took over, only finding himself becoming the taregt of so masisve public criticism that they let the opportunity forfeit and broadcasted live covergae from German football events instead.

Sponsors and team managements alike consider to sue several drivers of claims of fraud, seeking compensation for the financial damages the fiasco this year'S tour has brought to them. Germn team Telekom is amongst these, because before the tour the Germans were the leading voice in wanting to battle doping, and then ... German Telekom company probably completely withdraws from sponsoring, along with several other major sponsors and team financiers.

It is not about betraying the sport, and the audience. It is also about economical damage casued by bringing sponsor's names into discredit. Sponsors are not sponsoring for free, they hope for advertising effects, and scoring points in public perception and relation. but what is happeniong right now is not delivering these effects - but exactly the opposite.

A French newsppaper has printed an obituary notice on the Tour de France, saying that it died at the age of 104 after suffering from a long and serious disease... :D

Let's put those nails into the coffin and bury it, then hope it never pops up again like a zombie.

I agree i dont see much future for the Tour,because the problem will never go away..I have allot of respect for those two German tv stations,it took allot of balls to make that decision..

Most of the team managements are as deeply involved in this as the riders,its a matter of bringing results to the sponsors.As my old lieutenant use to say..Its ok to cheat,just don't get caught private..

Anyway unless they decide to cancel next years tour,we will see riders get kicked next year also.

Time will learn.

He was on a list yes, not from Fuentes however, but from the UCI, they cleared him later.

As I am told.

I can understand the German TV journalists, hoping the rest of the world folow them. Sorry, we don't.
When you want to stop the tour because of dope, you can stop sport all over the world.
The tour is almost clean, just a few dumbheads think they can come away. Not.:nope:

Pardon...?
Who is "we"?
Okay, then lets carry on and don'T mind about it. Fish wants to have his show.

"And that'S why I say: stop the hypocricy around sports. I would like to see doping not only being legalised, but to make it obligatory for every professional athelete. Be honest to the audience, and let every young talent know from the very beginning what he is heading into. at least, that way equal chances will be brought back that way, even if through the backdoor. Since the Olympic spirit is as dead as that mouse I just rolled over with my tank anyway, and sporting events could not survive withoiut being turned into massive sponsoring events and economical showcases, let's be at least honest about the nature of things. "
Now you must be kidding, or you must have very spectacular evidence that proves all the experts and reasearchers and examiners telling us the exact opposite are wrong, and all their evidence are fakes. Bills with names and blood-bottles with clear links to certain drivers mean nothing, of course, nor does positive doping test results, and suspicious actings of certain drivers mean anything.

there is nothing wrong in liking bike riding, Fish. I can understand it, I do it myself a lot, and people in Munster are more bike-crazy than the Dutch. But I strongly recommend not to do it with closed eyes.

oh look the second test has proved poistive and hes been sacked from team 2 tests dont lie do they