cazzooo

All you americans care about is Armstrong. Ivan Basso is clean yet slandered. And his coach won't defend him.

Ant

How do you know he's clean though?

timmhaan

they have no choice. the pro-tour teams all signed an agreement that riders will not be allowed to compete while an investigation is going on. riis has very little say in all this.

DrWJODonnell

Slandered? Certainly. At least at this point. I love the guy and figured the battle between he and Jan would be epic. Clean? Well, I presume innocence, yet, one would have to figure that if the Spanish get this wrong it will cost them many millions of dollars. My guess is that they have been very careful about this. Bjarne is doing all he can. After all, he has to keep sponsors going.

All us Americans caring about Armstrong? Cannot agree with you there. At least, as an American, knowing my opinion as well as the definition of "all," I will have to say with certainty that you are wrong.

fruitless

curiouskid55

I am American and love The Asassin, I also love The Kaiser, so keep your sweeping generallities. I want to see them race not sitting in a court room. Why cant these idiotic govening bodies get their s**t together and regulate their sport? Cheap bastards and petty pollitics.

DocRay

Riis is running scared because his lies are coming to a head and he could very well lose CSC and get sued for his actions, along with Basso.

Basso is f-ing guilty. The evidence is so overwhelming that news stories are coming out every hour. What's worse is that Riis is attempting to distance himself. Basso "excelled" when he came to CSC-they spend days, weeks together, does Riis expect us to believe he has no idea that Basso doped? PLEASE. That's as stupid as believing Armstrong beat Ullrich and Basso clean.
The whole protour is a mess.

As of 3pm, Vinokourov is out of the TDF, many, many more to come.

LA_Rider

Basso should have gone to Disco when he had the chance. They seem to hide drugs better than CSC - at least so far...

SoonerBent

We haven't seen the evidence. They have. I don't think the team directors would pull the Tour favorites without a fight unless the evidence they've been given is pretty clear. The teams want a Tour win about as much as the riders do.

SB

voltman

They all signed last year.

squeegy200

Americans?

With the exception of Valverde--the remaining group of favorites seem to consist primarily of Americans

Enthalpic

+1

As if the teams didn't know what the riders were using. They also know they got caught and that it's better to pull them now rather than to have to deal with this post-tour.

ZXiMan

I think everyone cheats..I think Armstrong probably cheated too. That's my opinion...

I'm just pissed because the riders got caught and now we, the spectators can't watch what would have been the best, most wide open tour in recent history... even "non listed" riders who would have done well in the GC are affected, or can't race because of this whole mess...

Guess I'm selfish...lol

TallRider

Note that T-Mobile suspended Ullrich before CSC suspended Basso. So it's not as if Riis was jumping the gun. (On the other hand, T-Mobile's cycling director - the equivalent of Riis - was suspended as well, so the cases aren't fully comparable.)

Dead Extra #2

+1


I think Riis looks really stupid right about now. Either A) He has no idea what his riders are doing and is therefore a pretty poor manager or B) He's lying. I can't think of another way to look at it.

shabbasuraj

Riis punked Ivan.

Period.

Trev Doyle

OOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jkoman

So true it seems to have hurt Doyle....Winners are a combination of best rider/doctor/team/cover-up of drug use/team director.

I know there are some clean riders....am losing ability to believe clean winners

LA had his blood test positive for EPO...just because there was no back up sample saved for 8 years to meet the requirements necessary to boot him out doesn't mean the test is false

When all these riders pass the tests and then are shown to have cheated it kinda eliminates the ..." I never tested positive " defense.

Any of these riders could have provided blood to prove it wasn't theirs that was at the good ole doctors office and stayed in the TDF....they chose not to

countryrider

Performance enhancing substances will always be used in sport. It's difficult not to cheat when everyone else does. They kept McGwire and Casenco hitting homeruns, it kept Bill Romanowski laying the wood to people on the football field, and it's kept pro riders winning. In this age, where technology has as much to do with success as natural ability, it is only a matter of time before performance enhancers become as natural to the athlete as running the track, lifting weights, or staying on your bike for 6 hours a day. Those who are great are great, but they just become greater when that extra element is added in. I can't say I like doping, I hate it. I have never taken supplements like Creatine or bothered with performance enhancers, but they are becoming so much a part of sport, it is soon going to be impossible to distinguish those who are natural and those who aren't. In fact, soon, there will be no such thing as natural in professional sports, and it move its way down the amateur ranks until you have high school athletes doping. They probably do already, just not on a wide scale. Unfortunately, I see no control or end to this, only an evolution. I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing pro groups including cycling, accepting some forms and not others, and instead of banning it, embracing it, but in small doses. At least out in public, behind closed doors, well that's another story.

Richard Cranium

All I know is that I've never seen anyone who "looked so much like he was lying" as Riis, during an interview........

These guys obviously need cycling -- they could never sell used cars...........

Katrogen

You are quite correct. Good people but bad habits. Wish I could tell them myself but it isn't my business nor wish to lose riding friends.