So – who do you believe least – Alexandre Vinokourov or Lindsay Lohan? After all, each claims to suffer from some persecution; and, to Vino’, at least, the official response is “well, duh”. While I still wouldn’t mind seeing B-samples before I see headlines, the results of Stage 15’s test sure don’t look good for Vino, either. Furthermore, there was another positive test announced today, but the 9am EDT deadline for release passed without anyone being named. Since only 8 riders were tested on Stage 11, I’ll go out on a limb and say it was Astana’s Maxime Iglinsky or Lampre’s Patxi Vila; all the other names are still in the Tour, and ASO would never let a positive rider toe the line.
The shock and chaos aside, I think a lot of people are rallying around Vino’s positive for the sake of the sport. Tom Boonen says the positive test is a good thing, and certainly, the press caravan seems to agree. Half the peloton staged a protest at the beginning of today’s race, not for rider’s rights (like the last time around), but against the dopers among them. It’s kinda like an inverted, real-life game of Mafia, as the peloton tries to sway organizers to snuff certain riders out. And if the threat of Olympic exclusion wasn’t enough, the boos of the fans may have been, as Michael Rasmussen finally made his case to the press about why he shouldn’t get kicked off the island.
Anyway, there was indeed a Tour stage today, won by none other than Michael Rasmussen. The Dane dropped a less-than-stellar Alberto Contador 1km from the line, and the young Spaniard was then inexplicably eclipsed by teammate Levi Leipheimer (hello? bonus seconds?). As the Dane took his second stage with a now 3:00+ GC gap, you could hear the boos from Boston. Strangely, while French and Kazakh fans seem upset (for different reasons) with this race status quo, Italians seem to prefer a questionable victor – or at least that’s what a highly informal, open-to-non-Italians, and statistically unsound survey says. Basque fans blew some stuff up, but otherwise, seemed ambivalent about the latest race events.
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…
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.
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.
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?
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.
Maybe Disco knew about this?!
Moreni? Affect the outcome? Any rider on any French team? Affect the outcome? muahahahahahahahaha.
Right. That will happen.
Also, Fried Chicken.
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.
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?
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.