I really hope Cadel wins the Tour.
All the organisers have to do is ban anyone with past history of doping,
then unless anyone has a perfect monthly test record for the previous
24 months before being invited to race, keep them out, and then kick
them out
and their team mates if they use dope during the event.
Its good to see that results are available so soon after tests.
Detecting the cheats swiftly is only possible if the technology allows.
Ordinary mortals like cyclists often tend to be human and consider rules
exist
to be broken, certainly if there is a better than even chance of getting
away with it.
But if policing the rules, whatever they may be, is made much more
rigid, then it
makes it all the harder to cheat.
When they started using roving speed camera vans here to police speeding
here in the ACT, people
really did slow down, because they really didn't get away with speeding.
But cheating has always been an issue in TDF.
Go right back to the early history, and there was always someone trying
to cheat.
But Anquetil, who won TDF 5 times was asked how he prepared for a race,
and he bragged that it was done with a
bottle of champagne, a few smokes, and a blonde.
He should have been banned immediately. A corrupting influence, and poor
role model :-) naughty naughty!
I'd like to see a few mountain bike stages added as well to reflect the
modern trend towards offroad riding. Maybe a hill climb time trial.
I could suggest a devil take the hindmost criterium which would be fun!
Patrick Turner.