Just Another Tour. Or Was It?

[gbyers]

Is that it, just like any other year?

We have some good stages, some great performances and the chance to see athletes pitch themselves against one of the greatest challenges in sport.

But then we have the all too predictable drug revelations. The coverage of the tour immediately doubles and moves to the front of the sport sections. Every one thinks road racing is bent.

But this year we in Britain had an incredible festival of bike racing for one weekend that I for one will never forget.

So, does the sport clean itself up and take the opening weekend as its platform for the future or is it more drugs cheating next year, the year after and the year after that?

PS thanks to everyone contributing to racing threads, a knowledgeable bunch that added to my enjoyment of the stages I could catch.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

i hope history will see this tour as the end of the doping era and the start of the clean one. time will, of course, tell.

 

[vbc]

At least cycling is a sport which is doing something about drug taking and cheating, unlike...........(take your pick).

 

[Smokin Joe]

A great tour, thrilling to watch and in the balance to the last. When (if ever) have three riders been in with a shout before the final tt, and finished within half a minute of each other?

The doping thing has been blown out of all proportion, two positives from 189 starters and one rider withdrawn by his own team because he concealed the reason for missing tests well before the race started. Subject next years Olympics to the same level of testing this tour had and see how many athletes are clean. The starting lineup for any final would see more positives than we got in the whole three weeks.

Cycling can hold it's head up as the only sport in the world which is willing to combat doping head-on, whatever the cost.

 

[Keith Oates]

I'll go for that as well, SJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Oldlegs]

Unlike the above posters I found the whole thing depressing.

The TdF is about the mountains and I watched the C / R duel all the way through - magic. Then R got busted but C got away with it.

Time trials are just slightly more boring than watching paint dry.

 

[Keith Oates]

Not when you see it on the TV or computer and can get the time checks etc., Oldlegs. I find it very exciting as the secs go up or down on the various riders and this year especially with the first three really having a ding dong between themselves!!

 

[asterix]

Altho' I prefer the mountain stages, especially after riding in the Pyrennees this year, I have to say that the time trial between Cognac and Angouleme wasn't at all boring. It was a shame about David Millar's mishaps.

 

[Steve Austin]

i really enjoyed it all. Shame to see Ras booted out when he was, he should have gone at the beginning at not near the end, if there were doubts over his wherabouts. The racing would have been very different without Ras.

The astana positive was one man being caught, that is all. Vino is denying it, it would be good for the sport if he admitted cheating, but like a long line of guilty athletes, they all seem to think that burying their head and denying all knowledge makes them look innocent. So now the case will rumble on, for several years, which isn't good for the sport.

As for the overall 'scandals', look at '98, 'the Tour De dopage'..... "189 riders in 21 teams commenced the 1998 Tour de France, only 96 riders finished."
I think this year was clean, compared to that one.

Personally, i can't wait for next year

 

[Blonde]

I enjoyed it all. Found the tactics interesting and exciting to watch, it was helpful and impressive to watch the lovely smooooooth pedalling technique, wonderful to see supporters doing their bonkers stuff as usual, it looked to be a good atmosphere at many points, it was funny to hear riders excuses, and them slagging off others and overall it was brilliant to see a new and fresh faced tour winner!

 

[spen666]

i hope history will see this tour as the end of the doping era and the start of the clean one. time will, of course, tell.

Isn't this said every year?

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Regardless, it's still the greatest annual sporting spectacle in my view and will continue to be.