Might as well have one bucket thread to capture all of this stuff.

It seems that Basso has just been suspended by Discovery and won't be taking part in the tour this year... last years drug scandal rolls on:

Hasn't the fact that he's not gonna start the TdF been in the news for a couple of weeks?

Wonder if Discovery are beginning to regret buying him? Or will be still be 'worth it' if he wins the Giro again.

Also when does Discoverys sponsership deal end?

That's the news. It looks like the Giro is off the table as well as the investigation is now in Italy.

In the TdF warm-up category Moving Target let us know about a courier race:
http://www.movingtargetzine.com/article/courier-race-at-smithfield-nocturne

The site for this as details come out is:
http://www.smithfieldnocturne.co.uk/

A summary:
I'm off to see Jarvis Cocker that night... so no Nocturne for me, but it looks like a pretty great evening. The messenger race and the crit would be the highlights in my book. Watching Elites race crits is pretty impressive and not all of them dope ;)

can fakengers enter the messenger race?
funny cause I used to live ON Smithfield Market, and always thought it would be a good spot for a checkpoint involving a few laps during an alleycat.

it'll all be staged, the "messengers" will be drama students and actors who've never ridden bikes before.
they'll have helmets at jaunty angles, skater's knee and elbow pads, henna tattoos and stick-on beards

Depends how good they are at faking it I suppose

Is anyone stewarding for the Grand Depart? I've just booked myself in at a briefing session with the hope of earning an "exclusive TdF goodybag". I'm hoping it's going to be full of testosterone and someone else's clean blood.

meat farmer joe alleycat when through it..

Is that some sort of code that non-messengers don't get? Sounds like a random selection of words to me.

Did you have a good birthday?

"meat farmer joe" was the name of an alleycat that went through smithfields...

yeah it was cool, just got some parts for the rensho, kashimax saddle, nitto seatpost and stem.. oooh

Oh I see. Can't wait to see it, hope the kashimax doesn't disagree with your backside. I've heard it's like being raped by a 15mm spanner.

you'd know about that wouldn't you tom..

lovely.

haaaaa

This morning a I saw a team doing a traing circuit going over the river lea in east London. First sighting for me.

I just finished reading a book entitled 'Lance Armstrong's War'

It was a brilliant book about the 2004 tour

I learn't loads of stuff about the Tour and riding in the Tour

Things like the riders consume 9000 calories each day

The equivalent to eating 28 hamburgers each day

I was so intrigued I wanted to know more

So I googled

Ty Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Jan Ullrich

one by one nearly all the names I read about in this book

people that come across as heros becuse they are so bloody tough

nearly all of them have been done for doping

kinda left me feeling a little deflated

That sucks, I don't think you should tarnish all riders with the same brush though. a lot of professional spots are full of some scandle or another. It should still be a amazing to watch. I have never seen a big road race close up, only little local club ones I am well excited.

i find it really hard as well with all these doping stories coming out. it's getting hard and harder to defend professional cycling to my non-cycling friends. when they stripped rijs of his title people were asking about who it would be given to. 2nd place Ulrich, 3rd Virenque, 4th Defaux. all banned for doping!

I read a book on the history of the tour recently and that kind of opened by eyes. the fact that the TdF is so freaking hardcore has contributed to a culture of doping. Back in the 60's Anquetil's said how do they expect us to race "on mineral water alone". its just people are only now being caught.

anyway, this year will probably be the cleanest yet. can't fucking wait!

You might also wanna check out:
Rough Ride by Paul Kimmage
Breaking the Chain by Willy Voet (translated)

I just ordered another four cycling books (can't even remember what they are!!) and I know one is about Robert Millar, which I'm sure will focus heavily on his ban, the how's and why's etc. I dunno, I love the whole scandal - why defend it?

Person: "All cyclists take drugs"
Me: "And?"

You can get into the facts: hardest sporting event, other sports are barely tested compared to cycling, paid athletes as opposed to amatuers, but is it worth it?
Just tell 'em "yep, they all take drugs, that's why they're so fast. I'm off to watch them race, bye!"

I'm with hippy... all cyclists take drugs... and so what? My view... they still have to climb mountains, they still have cobbles to contend with, they still have to sprint, they still have thousands of kilometres to ride. The drugs help them do that, because it's expecting too much to think that they can do that each day, and recover the speed that they do, without the drugs. Do they take drugs? Yeah... but so what... they still have to get on those bikes and pedal their asses off.

If they all do it then the playing field's level anyway.

Unless some do it better ;)

What are your thoughts on EPO and amphetamine use for a 20k commute?
I say I don't need the gear but Mum keeps insisting..

I thought amphetamines compromised the rider's ability to to in oxygen?

I can't take the sport seriously because of the drug problem. saying the tour is so hard you have to take drugs is bollocks, if the tour was drug free there would still be a spectacle and a race but the overall times would be slower.
i'll be watching the 'event' and hopefully enjoying the experience but as a competitive sport it has no credibility IMHO.

I don't think the argument is about the difficulty of the sport, but rather that those riders who use drugs are at an unfair advantage to those that don't. that applies to all professional sports. no sporting organisation is going to encourage drug use and turn a blind eye to its use. drug use during competion is cheating, plain and simple. if the UCI want to make things a bit more interesting, then perhaps they should lift the ban on technological limitations in track and road races?

who do you guys tip to win? i fancy a little flutter at paddy power..........

Ive got to agree with MrSmith I think.

Id far sooner see them riding with no drugs but a bit slower, you would see the teams affected a bit more by retirements during the races and the tactics would play a bigger part. At the mo, if a rider is lagging they will surely just pump in a larger dose of drugs that night to get him through.

Likewise on the weekend I'll be going for the spectacle, but I cant for one second take the riders seriously knowing that they are probably doping.

I'll enjoy it all the same though

Drugs were only banned in 66, and the first tests only introduced then. Anquetil and the others refused to take them. In 67 Simpson died on the Ventoux (an event that had been fore-told by Tour doctor Dumas after Mallejac's collapse on the same mountain in the 50s). That's when doping became cheating officially.

They always doped. Read Albert Londres 'Forcats de la route'. In it the Pellisiers list what they are taking....

Vino appears to be doped (Stanga implicated by Jashcke, but still denies), so he's gotta be a good bet.

Y'know. I'd rather see radios banned than drugs. As it stands, the riders are just following orders from the DS, rather than working the strategy out for themselves.

I don't really think that one should take sport that seriously at all. Especially one that inovolves world-class sportsmen clad in day-glo lycra carrying polystyrene buckets on their heads and riding up mountains. Frankly, that's just silly.

Still going to watch it on the tellybox, mind.

Go on then bill.

What were they taking?

Dynamite, cocaine, strychnine...