Maybe Not Then

[mondobongo]

Cycling Weekly has this interesting little story. Would be very interesting if ASO were to say Non, I have been saying that he is not on the start line yet.

If no Tour invite is this a blanket knockback from ASO events and a signal that astana continue to be personna non grata.

 

[Keith Oates]

I think if Vinokorouv comes back to Astana they will be lucky to get a tour place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[andy_wrx]

Yes, put all the dopers and Lance into Astana, don't give them a Tour invite.
Problem solved.

with the problems that I've got with the organisers, journalists and fans

- you can say that again, mate !

 

[robbowatson]

Now, I don't much like LA, but it would appear that he has been pretty shrewd in entering the Giro as it's pretty clear that ASO won't let Astana into the Tour...

 

[Noodley]

Now, I don't much like LA, but it would appear that he has been pretty shrewd in entering the Giro as it's pretty clear that ASO won't let Astana into the Tour...

Which was my thought when he came out and said nice things about the Giro, a race he never previously would have pissed on if it was on fire.

 

[andy_wrx]

It hands ASO a nice thorny nettle of inviting/not inviting Astana if they have Lance.

I reckon, before the Second Coming of St Lance was announced, that ASO would have let Astana and Contador in next year.
Their pretext of not inviting them this year until they'd proven themselves to be dope- & controversy-free wouldn't have held for a second year.
And with the demise of Gerolsteiner there was going to be a slot.
Plus the ASO & UCI have apparently kissed and made up.
So I think Astana back in the Tour in 2009.

But now we add St Lance to the mix.
And he starts talking about the Giro, which Noodley's right, he never gave a stuff about before (never gave a stuff about much except the Tour to be honest - only did races like the Dauphine as Tour warm-up's)

Depending what route they pick, the Giro's harder than the Tour, more suited to an out-and-out climber and less to having your team flatten the opposition and then win in the TT's.

Mind games from St Lance and Bruyneel, methinks.

 

[Noodley]

And the dope test regime in the Giro is not famed for it's robustness <Oops, did I type that!? >

 

[andy_wrx]

Oooh deary, deary me !


Yes, it seems it's AFLD and ASO who are hot on drugs, not UCI and RSO

 

[Chuffy]

<swoons>
Ooooh, the cynicism! I may have to take to my chaise-longue.....

 

[Skip Madness]

I still cannot get my head around the testing procedure at this year's Giro. Am I right in thinking that the samples were initially not tested for CERA? And yet now the test is available Angelo Zomegnan says all the "necessary checks" have been done and that it would be "useless" to do more? Were the Giro samples tested for CERA on the quiet? If not, why would it be "useless" to start now?

Actually, speaking of its testing regime "robustness", how many riders have been caught over the past few years for anything at the Giro? There was the ridiculous Petacchi/Piepoli debacle last year where the former tested slightly above the limit in what even the CAS agreed was just a human error and got a ban whereas the latter tested at twice the limit and got let off by his federation - anything else? There are plenty of riders like Di Luca and Mazzoleni who have been mentioned in auxiliary affairs but no other positives since the age of the proper EPO test spring to mind.

Contrast that with the Tour where we have had Landis, Vinokourov, Riccò, Schumacher and Piepoli recently. Even the Vuelta has managed to catch three big fish in Roberto Heras, Tyler Hamilton and Santiago Pérez. It would be nice to think no-one wants to cheat at the Giro, but I somehow doubt that is the truth.

 

[Keith Oates]

I still cannot get my head around the testing procedure at this year's Giro. Am I right in thinking that the samples were initially not tested for CERA? And yet now the test is available Angelo Zomegnan says all the "necessary checks" have been done and that it would be "useless" to do more? Were the Giro samples tested for CERA on the quiet? If not, why would it be "useless" to start now?

Actually, speaking of its testing regime "robustness", how many riders have been caught over the past few years for anything at the Giro? There was the ridiculous Petacchi/Piepoli debacle last year where the former tested slightly above the limit in what even the CAS agreed was just a human error and got a ban whereas the latter tested at twice the limit and got let off by his federation - anything else? There are plenty of riders like Di Luca and Mazzoleni who have been mentioned in auxiliary affairs but no other positives since the age of the proper EPO test spring to mind.

Contrast that with the Tour where we have had Landis, Vinokourov, Riccò, Schumacher and Piepoli recently. Even the Vuelta has managed to catch three big fish in Roberto Heras, Tyler Hamilton and Santiago Pérez. It would be nice to think no-one wants to cheat at the Giro, but I somehow doubt that is the truth.

I think the CERA test was only 'invented' in time for the TdF, unless someone knows differently!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[yello]

Heras returns.... to MTB'ing

http://www.velonews.com/article/84277/roberto-heras-svein-tuft-to-race-la-ruta

 

[Crackle]

...and how does this sudden interest in the Giro tie-in with Contador. Could it be one has been promised one race and one the other. Or could it be Contador knows the whole thing is a smokescreen?