I would not believe anything anyone says to the press­ because once the race starts its going to be a free for­ all

I find the conduct of the first 10 team's in this­ 2009 Tour de France, incompatibile, with what we call­ compete in a real sense of the word's ""­ Participate "" in a stage, and on every­ stage, realy combating and produce, attack, after­ attack's, and not like the stage 10, where they­ choose to go after the 4 escape's at 25.Km. moore­ than 150 Km. ( PROMENADE ) and at the last 5 Km. ride­ at 65. Km. to catch and came to finnish line all, the­ peloton let's geve all the credit to the best­ sprinter at this eddition of the TOUR, Mark Cavendish.­
But this isn't the right way to call a sportiv -­ ryder in Tour de France, like it was in the years where­ Bahamontes, Anquetil. Mercx, Graig Le Mond, Laurent­ Fillion, Pantanni, and even Lance Amstrong shows to the­ millions lovers of the bigest compe-
tition on­ Bycicling, a real BATTLE on the flat stages as well on­ the Montains. What are they doing this year ( until now­ )??? stay on the will of the opponent's maybe
he­ will crash, or have same cain of bad Day, and then they­ will tacke comand of the race. Is inadmissible on my­ opinion to see 175 ryders after a day - of, to stay in­ the back of each other, let the 4 escapee, and not­ producing any action/ geveng'us the impression that­ we assist at a promenade in a, beautyful peysages of­ France, and definitly not at, of the biggest racyng­ bycicle on the World /, The Tour de France. I realy not­ especting very much of the DUEL of Contador-Amstrong,­ especialy after they said we not going Attack one­ against other, we whait for the other's to do, such­ attack's on us, and then we will respond.... but I­ ask my self why Andy Slecht or Kloden,Menchov, Sastre­ and all the ryders whomis now in the positions, 4-5-6­ and 10 will not produce action on the peloton, before­ the Alp's, before the stage aginst the cronometre,­ or befor the stage 19 where, at the Mount Ventoux we­ will, see the final results of the actual Tour de­ France. !!

The only thing I'll say about Armstrong is that it­ sure seems now that he's moved very far away from­ his original message of "I'm returning to the­ Tour to promote my foundation" to his little bites­ and wishy washy answers to who's the leader of­ Astana. If he was still "on message" from­ his supposed original reason to return to cycling, he­ could have very easily squashed all of this­ speculation, allowing Contador to have his place as­ team leader.

To FOTODELICTO...all I have to say is­ "WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?!?!?!?!?!­ " Can I have some of what you're smoking?

Jhong_Jr (response to 42)

testing lags behind use­ argument is "lame and FALSE"

EPO has been in­ use since the '80s. The first urine test that could­ detect EPO was developed in 2001. That's not­ lag?

You say WADA and TdF are testing past samples?­ What's your source? The only testing of past­ samples I could find was conducted by the laboratory at­ Chatenay-Malabry to "fine-tune the testing­ system." Search Velonews for article­ 8740.

Finally, it's an exaggeration of my­ statements to say I'm on a with hunt. I'm just­ asking questions.

A person who uses nick "ffogli" posted
-2­ DAYS AGO "ffogli" posted
"One of the­ reasons Lance is still so high up in­ the gc is the­ fact that we have only had one really­ testing day so­ far (and Contador showed us who the boss­­ is)............he will suffer big time­ on­ Ventoux".
-TODAY "ffogli" posted­
"I am a huge Lance fan but Contador has this one­ in the­ bag.
It does however give me great pleasure to­ see­ Evans finally overshadowed by a top-class field.­ His­ desperate "attacks" are actualy quite­ sad -­ poor guy.
I THINK A PERSON WHO USES NICK­ "ffogli" is a confused human being ( NICE­ WORD FOR RETARDED). AM I THE ONLY ONE????????

The "What Vino did to Ullrich" happened in­ the 2005 TdF. T-Mobile had a really strong team with 3­ riders who could be possible winners, Ullrich,­ Vinokourov, and Kloden, with Ullrich the leader of the­ team. If I remember right that was the year that Vino­ was the National Champion.
While Armstrong's team­ was 100% riding to support Lance, Vino was vocal about­ riding for the team. So Vino didn't respect the­ hierarchy of the T-Mobile squad.
On the other hand­ "What Ullrich/T-Mobile did to Vino" was to­ chase him back to the group he after Vino went on an­ attack in the Pyrenees which wasnt so cool either.

lance is begining to p**s me off! i was up for him­ doing the tour but he is acting like a moron. its not­ HIS tour! good for him that he's showing he's­ still got it and all that but come on! i think contador­ is showing him up in every way! as a rider and as a­ professional sports man to the press!
contadors attack­ was brilliant the other day and lance as his "team­ mate" should be proud! not putting it down! grow­ up lance!!!
GO CONTADOR!!!!

I am a huge Lance fan but Contador has this one in the­ bag.
It does however give me great pleasure to see­ Evans finally overshadowed by a top-class field. His­ desperate "attacks" are actualy quite sad -­ poor guy.

This 'tension'/rivalry whatever will bring the­ best out of both riders and in my opinion adds to the­ excitement. AC will win GC but Lance will podium and­ Wiggo has a great chance of an awesome finish so­ it's all good!

Could some one tell what Vinokourov did to Ullrich?­ This is what wikipedia tells about the incident between­ them.

"Tension between Vinokourov and his team­ boiled on stage 14 into the Pyrenees where Vinokourov­ was dropped, chased for 20 km and then attacked, but­ Kloden and Ullrich reeled him in, bringing criticism of­ T-Mobile's tactics which were apparently just to­ support Ullrich. Vinokourov settled his differences­ when he won stage 21 to Paris."

Response to #41 gadlaw-

I'm not a fan but if Lance­ re-joining cycling brings more television coverage of­ the sport in the States I say keep him in as long as­ possible! When I lived in the States coverage of­ cycling was almost non-exsistant. The coverage I did­ get was limited to watching the Tour de Lance on the­ former OLN channel, (The Only Lance Network disguised­ as The Outdoor Life Network) where I got acess to­ interviews with Cheryl Crow for reasons I still­ don't understand and Chris Carmichael about what­ Lance ate that day. OK so memory tends to be selective,­ there might have been something else, but it­ doesn't come to mind.

"As far as "what­ 'Vinakourov did to­ Ullrich' back a few years­ back. That's not a­ good career move and it­ didn't work out for­ Vinakourov at all."

I­ will have to disagree. The next year Vinakourov was the­ leader of Liberty Seguros-Würth and then had a team­ formed totally around him by his own country.­ Vinakourov destroyed his career by doping.
Reading into­ the media hype, it seems Contador may also benefit from­ "riding against the team" if that is really­ what he is doing, I haven't asked the guy myself.­ Vinakourov wants to return to cycling, make Cantador­ leader of the team, get rid of Lance, and change the­ team make-up to Kazah and Spanish riders.

This is the­ 1st time I am out here, I take it from post after post­ the "Did/Does Lance dope" topic never gets­ old. Like I said I'm not a fan of the man, I am­ all for anyone taking the TdF as long as it is not­ Lance. But unless a person has spent every minute of­ everyday with the man for the last how many years, you­ can't know for sure what he's been up to.

gadlaw - wasnt the winokourov case other way round? W­ attacked and telekom boys went after him? Not sure but­ that's what i remember.

Well, Madoff was ripping people off for years and he­ was highly respected, we will see in time....
Stick to­ Disneyland, it's more realistic for you...

Sean (response to comment #22).

"But it is also­ true that testing always lags behind use"? Really,­ that argument is so lame and FALSE. Don't you know­ that the TDF and WADA were testing samples from­ Lance's urine from way back (at least 10 years­ ago)? And they used new methods and they were looking­ for substances which were just recently found out to­ boot. How backwards do you think are the­ authorities' methods?

I imagine if you lived a­ hundred years back, you'd be leading the witch­ hunts in your village. lol

Good comments by Contador, at least Contador is not­ doing to Lance what 'Vinakourov did to­ Ullrich' back a few years back. That's not a­ good career move and it didn't work out for­ Vinakourov at all. I look forward to watching and­ following the Tour every year including all the team­ dramas and the battles for the various Jerseys.­ It's great to watch and it was great this year to­ see actual coverage of The Tour of California in the­ US. I'd love to be able to catch the other tours­ but they are not as extensively covered as is the TDF. ­ And of course Lance is great, he brings excitement and­ interest and grows the sport, I don't think there­ would have been coverage of the Tour of California­ without him being there.

Thanks for the clarification Chris.

wgr (comment to­ 33)

Sorry we disagree, but I think you intentionally­ missed my point so you could make your own. I was­ merely pointing out that "never testing­ positive" is not the same as "not­ doping." I capitalized "IF" to emphasize­ the supposition I was about to make, not in the­ "wink, wink, we all know he did it" manner­ which I believe you inferred.

ra197192 and sean brinller, you miss the point. riders­ who havent cheated or at least been proved to have­ cheated are treated like they are the cheats yet the­ riders who have cheated are welcomed back and hailed as­ heros. is it simply nationality based? tom simpson­ who's motto was, if ten pills kill you i will take­ 9, he must have miss counted that day! i want to see­ the end of doping but lets get rid of the cheats and­ then try to catch the rest. with your opionon why watch­ this great sport, watch football where alcoholics and­ drug users go for years without getting found out

#36 - agreed. All we need to do is get ASO and the UCI­ to get back to turning a blind eye to it.