Yeah, this'll improve the TdF

P.S.

Last year, Bouygues did so well that this year the DS said to himself,
"gee, is there any way that we could possibly improve this group? No? Hey,
let's just send them all back."

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:4gbviqF1mbd3lU1
@individual.net:

Quoted message said:

They want to toss Astana-Wurth but keep Bouygues.

Idiots. If bouygues ride one day, they're tired the next! What good is
that? The true pros from Astana don't have that, they're the real deal and
a bunch of class acts.

Robert Chung said:

They want to toss Astana-Wurth but keep Bouygues.

Has team Amgen landed a spot yet?

"Jonathan v.d. Sluis" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:4gbviqF1mbd3lU1
@individual.net:

Quoted message said:

They want to toss Astana-Wurth but keep Bouygues.

Idiots. If bouygues ride one day, they're tired the next! What good is
that? The true pros from Astana don't have that, they're the real deal and
a bunch of class acts.

If the French police keep all the team hotels under surveillance making it
difficult to bring in blood products (not that the blue coolers are the
method of transport) we may see a different Tour this year with many tired
teams. It would be possible to boost before the Prologue, but it might be
too risky to do it before the mountains. If you see real suffering in the
mountains, you'll know the police have affected the race.

Jonathan v.d. Sluis said:

Idiots. If bouygues ride one day, they're tired the next!

Then you're suggesting that the mountains will separate the men from
the Bouygues?

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

B. Lafferty said:

If the French police keep all the team hotels under surveillance making it
difficult to bring in blood products (not that the blue coolers are the
method of transport) we may see a different Tour this year with many tired
teams. It would be possible to boost before the Prologue, but it might be
too risky to do it before the mountains. If you see real suffering in the
mountains, you'll know the police have affected the race.

Blood transfusions are usually taken in the build up, so I'm not sure
if they are a big issue during the race. And there is always Epo (Yes,
I fear they can manage to take that without being caught)

"Tuschinski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

B. Lafferty said:

If the French police keep all the team hotels under surveillance making
it
difficult to bring in blood products (not that the blue coolers are the
method of transport) we may see a different Tour this year with many
tired
teams. It would be possible to boost before the Prologue, but it might
be
too risky to do it before the mountains. If you see real suffering in
the
mountains, you'll know the police have affected the race.

Blood transfusions are usually taken in the build up, so I'm not sure
if they are a big issue during the race. And there is always Epo (Yes,
I fear they can manage to take that without being caught)

But they apparently were sending blood over to Italy from Spain for infusion
the day before mountain stages.

B. Lafferty said:

"Tuschinski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

B. Lafferty said:

If the French police keep all the team hotels under surveillance making
it
difficult to bring in blood products (not that the blue coolers are the
method of transport) we may see a different Tour this year with many
tired
teams. It would be possible to boost before the Prologue, but it might
be
too risky to do it before the mountains. If you see real suffering in
the
mountains, you'll know the police have affected the race.

Blood transfusions are usually taken in the build up, so I'm not sure
if they are a big issue during the race. And there is always Epo (Yes,
I fear they can manage to take that without being caught)

But they apparently were sending blood over to Italy from Spain for infusion
the day before mountain stages.

Then it will be interesting indeed... but I expect more "external"
spectacle than people dropping due to a lack of fresh blood.

I keep having visions of Transylvania^^

B. Lafferty said:

If you see real suffering in the mountains, you'll know the police have affected the race.

^^^^ there's something to look forward to! ^^^^

Curtis L. Russell <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Jonathan v.d. Sluis said:

Idiots. If bouygues ride one day, they're tired the next!

Then you're suggesting that the mountains will separate the men from
the Bouygues?

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

No, as usual the mountains will separate the French from the Spaniards (or
those just living there for 'optimal training conditions'😉.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

B. Lafferty said:

If you see real suffering in the mountains, you'll know the police have
affected the race.

^^^^ there's something to look forward to! ^^^^

Amen! Sandy Casar may actually do the double. :-)

"B. Lafferty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Tuschinski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

B. Lafferty said:

If the French police keep all the team hotels under surveillance making
it
difficult to bring in blood products (not that the blue coolers are the
method of transport) we may see a different Tour this year with many
tired
teams. It would be possible to boost before the Prologue, but it might
be
too risky to do it before the mountains. If you see real suffering in
the
mountains, you'll know the police have affected the race.

Blood transfusions are usually taken in the build up, so I'm not sure
if they are a big issue during the race. And there is always Epo (Yes,
I fear they can manage to take that without being caught)

But they apparently were sending blood over to Italy from Spain for
infusion the day before mountain stages.

The blood never made it and the Buffalo didn't crack. I assume that they
had other products already on site.

I think it is really funny listening to announcers when someone like
Gutierrez or Rumsas suddenly is climbing with the best. The announcers are
extremely careful in what they say and never mention the possibility of
chemical enhancement but you know that they are thinking it.

"Frank Drackman" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I think it is really funny listening to announcers when someone like
Gutierrez or Rumsas suddenly is climbing with the best. The
announcers are extremely careful in what they say and never mention
the possibility of chemical enhancement but you know that they are
thinking it.

That's not always true - I have heard Belgian commentators speculate quite
openly about doping, like during last year's Vuelta, when Heras was
suddenly much better than he had been during the tour.

I'm sorry, you just reminded me how incredulous that sponsorship is to
me. What kind of moron do they have in charge of PR at Amgen?

WeaselPoopPower said:

Robert Chung said:

They want to toss Astana-Wurth but keep Bouygues.

Has team Amgen landed a spot yet?

Jonathan v.d. Sluis said:

No, as usual the mountains will separate the French from the Spaniards (or
those just living there for 'optimal training conditions'😉.

Dumbass -

I speculate that the roots of the French suckitude go beyond doping.

thanks,

K. Gringioni.

Quoted message said:

I'm sorry, you just reminded me how incredulous that sponsorship is to
me. What kind of moron do they have in charge of PR at Amgen?

Amgen sponsors a club (of their own employees - maybe others too?).
Some of them are pretty good. What should they do, tell their
employees to sit on the couch and watch TV? Amgen does not
bear much moral responsibility for the fact that dopes abuse EPO
(assuming Amgen is not sneaking it onto the black market,
which is highly unlikely). This is like saying that Budweiser
shouldn't sponsor car racing because there are people out there
who abuse Bud and drive drunk. Don't flame the sponsors, people.
They're enough trouble to find as it is.

B. Lafferty said:

If the French police keep all the team hotels under surveillance making it
difficult to bring in blood products (not that the blue coolers are the
method of transport) we may see a different Tour this year with many tired
teams. It would be possible to boost before the Prologue, but it might be
too risky to do it before the mountains. If you see real suffering in the
mountains, you'll know the police have affected the race.

Or that the police have only intercepted half the blood bags.
It's easy to predict suffering in the mountains, since every year,
_somebody_ suffers in the mountains.
I thought dope was supposed to make the average speed higher.
So without dope, will the average speed be lower? And will that
make the mountains harder, or not?

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

B. Lafferty said:

If the French police keep all the team hotels under surveillance making
it
difficult to bring in blood products (not that the blue coolers are the
method of transport) we may see a different Tour this year with many
tired
teams. It would be possible to boost before the Prologue, but it might
be
too risky to do it before the mountains. If you see real suffering in
the
mountains, you'll know the police have affected the race.

Or that the police have only intercepted half the blood bags.
It's easy to predict suffering in the mountains, since every year,
_somebody_ suffers in the mountains.
I thought dope was supposed to make the average speed higher.
So without dope, will the average speed be lower? And will that
make the mountains harder, or not?

Daniel Baal noted that there is, in his opinion, a chasm between the riders
who can afford the more expensive preparation and the rest of the peloton.
There seem to be more "suffering" riders in the mountains but not among the
top riders. The teams will no doubt try to fake out the French drug police
by switching to green coolers this July.

Quoted message said:

So without dope, will the average speed be lower? And will that
make the mountains harder, or not?

The Vuelta has shorter stages than the Tour, with the idea that the strain
on the riders would be reduced. A side argument, though I'm not sure how
serious it was, was that less strain would decrease the incentive for
doping. Yeah, right. It appears that shortening the stages simply led to
increasing average speeds. Here's a paper that suggests that the total
physiological load of the Vuelta and the Tour are roughly the same even
though the Vuelta is shorter.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12750600&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum

Wasn't it Lemond who said of doping, "It doesn't get any easier -- you
just go faster" ?