Posted on 07/25/2007 1:47:30 AM PDT by Aeronaut
Tour de France ping!
Please FReepmail 'Aeronaut' if you want on or off the Tour de France 2007 list.
“Versus” TV Coverage:
Stage 16: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - Orthez to Gourette - Col d’Aubisque
6:30am to 11:30am: LIVE Daily Coverage
12:00pm to 2:00pm: Race Action Replay
2:30pm to 4:30pm: Race Action Replay
5:00pm to 7:00pm: Race Action Replay
8:00pm to 11:00pm: Expanded Primetime Coverage
12:00am to 3:00am: Race Action Replay
We’ll see what Phil and Pual have to say this morning. ITs not just Vino, its Rasmussen being kicked off the Danish Olympic team. The Tour would be best off if Contador can knock him off the top ring.
Supposedly Rassmussen can't time trial. He did a pretty good one earlier, however.
By Phil Liggett
July 24, 2007
Alexandre Vinokourov’s positive blood test announced Tuesday has stunned everyone from riders to organizers. Since his crash, he has been portrayed as a limping hero of what, so far, has been a marvellous Tour. Now, he seems to have been caught introducing homologous blood into his system just before the time trial he won in demonstrative fashion.
His Astana team has withdrawn at the invitation of the organizers and Vinokourov was suspended by Astana pending the confirmation of his positive test in his B analysis. It is very unusual for the second test not to confirm the first. In short, Vinokourov, one of the most respected riders in the peloton, will now leave the sport in disgrace.
11:31:44 - Four Lead By 4'20"
Verdugo (EUS), Auge (COF), Garcia-Acosta (GCE) and Rinero (SDV) are now 4'20" ahead of the peloton which is in Susmiou.
Does the Tour begin on Versus this morn’ at 6:30 or 8:30? Thanks.
Based ot the schedule on the Versus website it is 6:30 AM EDT.
The flag dropped at 10:58 local.
The teams were upset about something that the newsflash didn’t go into. Wonder what is was?
Four in the break.
I dont see America with a horse in this race.....and until Lance, I found the sport boring....
....I return now to my original feelings about both the tour and the Cheese eaters who sponsor it......
Many riders staged a silent protest at the beginning of the race today by holding back their start. Rasmussen was loudly booed at the start; he didn’t participate in the protest.
Thanks for sharing. We were waiting for your valued input in this matter before determining whether to proceed.
Attention Ladies & Gentlemen:
Because the esteemed Mr. Vaquero has so very generously taken time from his busy schedule to advise us that he is bored, this thread will be closing.
Pete, I cut & pasted the news snippet about the protest this AM over on the other thread a little while ago.
you know when i watched vino win that stage i wondered. then when he totaly tanked the next day is really wondered.
now we know for sure. its really too bad. cycling just cant seem to get beyond doping.
does that mean its too extreme physically? look at what a huge difference doping made to vino. it really really works. thats the problem/.
Interesting commentary by Tratuwig, Phil and Paul this morning. It is true that the cycling authorities look good by comparison to ML Baseball, the NFL and the NBA. Didn’t realize that there are now allegations of illegal steroid use in pro golf.
Of the four riders in the break Verdugo is the best placed ay 1h 41’ 56”.
Garrett Lai has a piece over at MSNBC.com wherein he considers Disco's suddenly very rosy (yellow?) future, and speculates Johan might ask Contador to leapfrog Levi & go for broke. He very well could win the whole thing today.
That's what the cyclists like to whine about. But Patric Clerc, the Chairman of ASO talks about that in l'Equipe this morning (sorry, it's in French but I haven't seen these comments translated into English anywhere yet). He points out that the tour is less demanding than it used to be decades ago (3 rest days rather than 2, fewer mountain stages etc.) when doping wasn't an option. And he points out that the sport which everyone concedes is beset with by far the most intractable problem with doping, is track and the event competing in that sport which has the athletes who are the most recalcitrant about cleaning up their act & giving up the juice are in the 100 meter!. I think he has a point. It's not about the difficulty, it's about the fame & money. Or infamy & money, is probably more like it.
"Throttle Jockey" Pee Wee Herman wins Tour De Cheese in big Dream Sequence from "Pee Wee's big Adventure"....Mr Vaquero shares his favorite Frogger Race memories with Leilani (love the name) and all bicyclops aficionados....(bicyclops: the dreaded 2 eyed cyclops of myth and legend)
Wow! I missed that. Seems like the payoff doing steroids would be so marginal in that sport,(how heavy is an iron club?), who in their right mind would justify the risk? But you can absolutely make the case, as you just have, that the reason Cycling is so scandal-ridden is that, unlike the NBA & NFL, it's aggressively weeding the cheaters out with the most extensive & intensive testing program anywhere.
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