Comments on: Tour de France ’07 – Chicken Flies Again

By: dailytri

dailytri — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:03:02 +0000

And as of Thursday morning, July 26, 8 a.m. …

PAU, France (Reuters) – Reeling, but not yet sunk, the Tour de France resumed on Thursday without its leader and two teams for the 17th stage to Castelsarasin.

Dane Michael Rasmussen was dramatically sacked by Rabobank on Wednesday after the Dutch team said he had lied about his training whereabouts in June.

Rabobank said Rasmussen told them he was training in Mexico in June while he was actually in Italy and therefore decided to kick him out.

“Rabobank is shocked and enormously disappointed that Rasmussen has lied about his whereabouts,” the team said.

By: gtveloce

gtveloce — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:55:53 +0000

Aaaagrh. I hated that stage 16 result, it looked and tasted wrong. And now he’s out, too. And I feel a bit better now. Not 100% but at least 95% confident that the playing field is levelling… it’s like pulling teeth, without anaesthetic. It’s not fair – to anyone, really – having to race against phantoms like Vino and Rasmussen. The non-dopers, whoever they may be, must feel exasperated about the whole mess.

But the air is finally clearing, the deceit and manipulation is slowly evaporating and we are giving less oxygen to the cheaters and their backroom manipulators. It’s not over, but I think we can see some clear air up ahead. We may actually see a reasonably fair race to Paris at the end of this… OK, perhaps next year?

By: Davide

Davide — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:44:42 +0000

Will Levi’s sprint for 2nd place and the denial of valuable seconds to Contador come back to haunt him now that Rasmussen has been kicked out?

I hope not. As much as I want to see Cadel win, I’d hate to see a rider lose a TdF because of the stupidity / selfishness of a team mate.

Also, Eric Boyer might not be beating his chest so defiantly now.

By: gob

gob — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:24:58 +0000

Moreni? Affect the outcome? Any rider on any French team? Affect the outcome? muahahahahahahahaha.

Right. That will happen.

Also, Fried Chicken.

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:29:41 +0000

Maybe Disco knew about this?!

By: cosmo

cosmo — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:12:05 +0000

While 2-3 would be nice for Disco, riding for Contador wouldn’t have just narrowed the gap to Rasmussen – it would have also kept Cadel Evans more solidly behind.

Contador struggled today, still lacks a bit of experience, and isn’t a TT specialist to begin with. Evans is a strong TT rider, a grizzled vet, and remains less than two minutes back.

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:42:54 +0000

Yeah, I interpreted Disco’s actions to mean that they’re giving up on Rasmussen and more interested in getting 3rd with Levi. For Levi to finish behind Contador he would’ve had to wait 9 seconds so really the question was, give Levi 13 seconds or Contador 4 seconds?

By: stephen

stephen — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:01:10 +0000

don’t you think levi took those seconds so that Disco could have two men on the podium in Paris? he needs everything he can get from Evans.

By: cosmo

cosmo — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:56:12 +0000

I most definitely did not call this one. But I don't really understand the ASO's actions, here. Some people seemed to know about this positive last night, so why was Moreni allowed to start and potentially affect the outcome of the race?
And, man, if they did know ahead of time, how cruel is it to send a man over a stage like today's, then arrest him right on the line. That is some cold-hearted punishment. He's probably still in his chamois, dehydrated and bonked, in some godforsaken French holding facility.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:23:35 +0000

Well, you did not get this one… In fact it is a pretty lack-luster news item. I wonder if Eric Boyer is feeling a bit foolish for his recent comments on the cheaters and suspected cheaters…