OFFICIAL 2021 Tour de France thread

Wobbie

lat thought....it cracks me up every time I hear phil and paul refer to cunego as "the little prince." sounds like a nickname you would give your....your....well, you know

Go Beavers

Always a fan of: "looking resplendent in yellow".

Thoughts_Arrive

Inspired to get my bike out and go for a long peddle!

polaris_x

CAS hands Contador 2 year ban ... although it is retroactive ... ban ends august 5th this year meaning he will not be in this year's TDF but can ride the Vuelta ... also, his record for the past 2 years have been erased meaning Andy Shleck is now the official winner of the 2010 Tour De France ...

Wobbie

polaris_x wrote:

CAS hands Contador 2 year ban ... although it is retroactive ... ban ends august 5th this year meaning he will not be in this year's TDF but can ride the Vuelta ... also, his record for the past 2 years have been erased meaning Andy Shleck is now the official winner of the 2010 Tour De France ...

I hate it when someone gives me tainted beef! :x :roll:

Riverrunner

What a screwed up system. IMO.

81

please start a new thread...

thanks
mgmt

polaris_x

81 wrote:

please start a new thread...

thanks
mgmt

the discussion currently underway is related to the 2010 TDF which was the original topic for this thread ...


although, i totally know what you are getting at here ...

Wobbie

I am skeptical about the "successes" of ridding cycling, MLB, NFL, etc of PEDS.

BALCO was only "discovered" when a disgruntled coach sent a syringe of the previously unknown THG to the USADA. The point is, as long as the chemists can stay ahead of the testers, there will always be something out there that guys think they can get away with taking. I kinda even think my boy Barry Bonds may still have been taking something right up until he retired :shock: . He never shrunk; he never stopped hitting HRs....

Jason P

4 time winner and 3 time defending tour de france winner Chris Froom fail a doping test.  Huh, who would have thunk it?

SAD!

I say give these guys all the drugs and NOS boosters.

Wobbie

HO-LEE shit!

not shocked, but I figured Sky had perfected the hidden motor.

HesCalledDyer

Like I’ve always said about Lance Armstrong. Even if he did it, our cheater beat all your cheaters 7 times in a row. Get lost! When you take alway all of Jan Ullrich’s 2nd place finishes, and Alprickdo Cuntador’s entire career, you can ban Lance Armstrong all you want. 

Wobbie

pretty interesting first day, eh?

bob roll was on a roll about the UCI.

Leathe?ma?

Tour de pharmacy

HesCalledDyer

I go out on a 10 mile trail ride and I don’t want to set my ass on a bike for a whole week. To go out and race 6 hours, 100-150 miles every day for a month on a seat with no cushion - these guys can take whatever shots, fluids, blood, etc they please.

Wobbie

ha ha! they say it’s like running a marathon, every day for three weeks.

today was another good stage. maybe this year will have more drama than the last few.

peter sagan is an animal.

HesCalledDyer

Team Time Trials today. So excited! This was always one of my favorite stages in the tour and I’m glad to see it’s rightful return!
Looks like it could be an interesting stage, too. Might shake up the GC a good bit. 

Go Beavers

Leathe?ma? said:

Tour de pharmacy

Pffft! Test other pro sports for drugs like they do cycling and you’d have 1/5 of the team left. 

Wobbie

today should be good for veiwing and hell for the riders.

I think merckx’ record for stage wins is safe. cavendish doesn’t seem capable anymore. probably for the best, since mark is a total specialist whereas eddy could pick up a win on any stage.

Wobbie

crazy day.

the steve schlanger interview of teejay should have ended long before it did. I would have asked steve to please go the fuck away.

HesCalledDyer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vot-s5p1l5A

HesCalledDyer

Is there anywhere to actually watch this thing without a god damn cable subscription?

HesCalledDyer

Froome back up in 2nd.  I'd really like to see Thomas hold out and win this thing.  But still 8 competitive stages to go, 2 flats, 2 hills, 3 mountains, and a TT, so it's still anyone's race.

PJ_Soul

Oh boy, is it that time of year again? I really can't think about the Tour without thinking about Armstrong's insane scandal and lies. He totally managed to taint the Tour de France probably forever. I wonder if he's able to sleep at night yet?? Probably - he's total scum.

HesCalledDyer

Alli, watch the video I posted above with Joe Rogan & Peter Attia.  Lance Armstrong didn't taint the Tour de France.  It was going on long before him and much more out of control before he ever came along.  He's no more scum than any of the other hundred and fifty racers who were running those same tours and all doing the same thing.  Lance won those tours and he sleeps perfectly well down the hall from where his 7 Maillots Jaune are displayed.

Lance is only scum in the public eye because the UCF and USADA made him the scapegoat.  He should be looked at as a legend.

PJ_Soul

HesCalledDyer said:

Alli, watch the video I posted above with Joe Rogan & Peter Attia.  Lance Armstrong didn't taint the Tour de France.  It was going on long before him and much more out of control before he ever came along.  He's no more scum than any of the other hundred and fifty racers who were running those same tours and all doing the same thing.  Lance won those tours and he sleeps perfectly well down the hall from where his 7 Maillots Jaune are displayed.

Lance is only scum in the public eye because the UCF and USADA made him the scapegoat.  He should be looked at as a legend.

I know all about it - I developed a great interest in the whole topic when it all went down and did my research. The reason I think Lance in particular ruined it all is not specifically because of the doping, because yes, so many others were doing it too and everyone knew it, but because of everything that he did after he finally got busted. Him personally. THAT is what makes him the king of the scumbags to me, and the whole livestrong thing just makes it that much worse to me. As far as him being scapegoated goes... I couldn't care less. When you're doing something you know is wrong and lying through your teeth constantly without any guilt, I think your right to not be scapegoated goes right out the window, frankly. I am completely unforgiving about doping, and don't give a shit what happens to anyone who is caught, no matter how many others are doing it. I fucking LOVE it when people are caught doping! And the more they are raked through the coals for it, the more I enjoy it. Serves them right.

Thoughts_Arrive

HesCalledDyer said:

Is there anywhere to actually watch this thing without a god damn cable subscription?

Free to air here, glad it is.

HesCalledDyer

PJ_Soul said:

HesCalledDyer said:

Alli, watch the video I posted above with Joe Rogan & Peter Attia.  Lance Armstrong didn't taint the Tour de France.  It was going on long before him and much more out of control before he ever came along.  He's no more scum than any of the other hundred and fifty racers who were running those same tours and all doing the same thing.  Lance won those tours and he sleeps perfectly well down the hall from where his 7 Maillots Jaune are displayed.

Lance is only scum in the public eye because the UCF and USADA made him the scapegoat.  He should be looked at as a legend.

I know all about it - I developed a great interest in the whole topic when it all went down and did my research. The reason I think Lance in particular ruined it all is not specifically because of the doping, because yes, so many others were doing it too and everyone knew it, but because of everything that he did after he finally got busted. Him personally. THAT is what makes him the king of the scumbags to me, and the whole livestrong thing just makes it that much worse to me. As far as him being scapegoated goes... I couldn't care less. When you're doing something you know is wrong and lying through your teeth constantly without any guilt, I think your right to not be scapegoated goes right out the window, frankly. I am completely unforgiving about doping, and don't give a shit what happens to anyone who is caught, no matter how many others are doing it. I fucking LOVE it when people are caught doping! And the more they are raked through the coals for it, the more I enjoy it. Serves them right.

Serious question - and I'm not trying to be facetious or combative - but do you honestly expect these guys to go out every day and destroy their bodies to the utmost unhealthy extreme without taking anything to help speed their recovery and to get their bodies functioning at normal levels again, in order to go do the same thing the next day?  To do what they do, they are sacrificing their health and threatening to shorten their own lives. I'm a little baffled that you'd express gratitude when they're "caught" getting a blood transfusion or taking a drug to ease the pain and help their bones & muscles recover to normal, healthy levels. I'll agree on one thing - it serves them right.  It serves them right for wanting to be healthy again and increase their life's longevity.  If the cost of that is being banned from sport or stripped of titles, at least they have their lives to live afterwards.

One of the biggest misconceptions on the planet is that blood doping, EPO, steroids, etc give you more strength, more power, or some physical advantage over everyone else during competition.  That's simply not true.  The term "performance enhancing drug" is a bit of a misnomer.  They don't really do anything to directly enhance your actual performance.  If it were that easy, we'd all just rub some cream on our asses and hit 75 home runs.  What those things do is allow an athlete to recover faster, so they can continue training, practicing to get better without having a physiological hangover (for lack of better word), that's the advantage you get.  The indirect result of that is the possibility of an improvement in performance (you still have to be strong enough, skilled enough, & disciplined enough to perform at that level in the first place).  And when done under the strict, safe supervision of a medical doctor, strength & training physicians, physical therapists, etc, like Lance and US Postal/Discovery teams did (and those before, along side, & after him) I really don't see the problem with it.  It has been medically proven that running the Tour de France "on dope" is much, much healthier and safer than not.

I can grant you the personal behavior - the lies, the cover-ups, letting people down, etc.  (Though Floyd Landis really is way more of a scumbag in that respect.)  But I can't really see how anyone could be mad at an athlete for not wanting to destroy their body to the point that they threaten life longevity.  So-called PEDs have come a long way since the days of just injecting anabolic steroids in your thigh or snorting uppers.  They are safer, healthier, without the side effects of the drugs used in the early stages of doping, and they will continue to get even safer & healthier as more research is done, the more doctors learn about the human body and its functions, and the more focused the drugs become on specific functions.

Just look at my heart medication.  In the 1920s I would have been told to drink a tincture of peppermint, lavendar, & ginkgo root to treat stroke.  Today we know that is completely ineffective and through research we have better drugs to help me recover.  Am I cheating or doping because I want to live longer and thus take drugs under the supervision of several doctors?  My body has failed and drugs that enhance the performance of my circulatory & pulmonary systems (directly, at that) have helped me recover and live longer.  The only difference is that governing bodies, whether it's a state run government or a sporting association, has deemed one okay and one not.  The function of either is really no different in the grand scheme of life.

ST66483

Been a fun tour to watch so far.  In Canada I watch it through an online subscription which is about $25 for the month.

That cobble stage, though exciting to watch, was brutal on the riders.  Be interesting to see how Sky plays the rest of this race.  The TT could prove to be quite determinative. 

Sagan seems a lock for green, unless he times out or is disqualified in a future sprint.

HesCalledDyer

NBC Sports has a 7-day free trial so I’m gonna sign up Monday so I can watch the last week. That’s the only way I can figure out how to watch without doing some weird VPN shit that I have no clue about.

Yeah the only way I can see Sagan losing green is if he’s out of the tour all together. Has almost a 200pt lead.

I’m really hoping the Welshman Thomas holds on til the end. I really don’t want to see Froome win it again. I enjoyed when Lance won 7 straight because he was American & no one had ever done anything close to that before. But when other riders do it, it gets boring every year. It will be interesting to see how Sky plays things.