Just about all the big guns (Basso, Ullrich, etc.) are out of the race because of suspicion over doping.

See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13559903/

Are all these guys trying to take advantage of Lance's retirement? Or is it the French trying to secure a French winner?

I hate to be the one pointing a dirty finger at Lance...but this kinda smells of a "Mark McGuire" type situation...

test the whole field, and then you'd have to sign up all sorts of amateurs, cycling is easily most doped sport of them all. There were, and still almost aren't, no regulations about anything sort of drug that has been manufactured after 1985.

The regulations are there, it's the testing that is the problem. There are no reliable tests for doping. I think I am right in saying that there is no reliable test for EPO either.

Invest in Amgen.

Last year, they tested the whole field like the day before it started...then the morning of, they "randomly" selected one more....Lance. He passed both times.

The problem with testing for EPO is that it's natural. Everybody has it in their bodies.

And endurance athletes have more. They have it genetically which is factor that makes them great athletes. It can also increase with exercise.

So Lance Armstrong has more than me, without cheating. Testers have to determine what is the natural limit. Then, if athlete has "more than X EPO" they are cheating. And it's tough to get a realiable test to figure out just how much EPO they have.

And now we just lost another podium threat for injury...this Tour is losing luster in a hurry.

i don't buy that lance dind't dope. i don't give a crap that he hasn't failed any tests. neither has barry bonds. you don't go from average to above average, get cancer, and then come back as the best in the sport with out doping of some sort.

Lance was never an average or above average athlete. How many do you know won a iron kids triathlon at 13?

baseball has been randomly testing for 2 years? good comparison.

quote:

---

i don't buy that lance dind't dope. i don't give a crap that he hasn't failed any tests. neither has barry bonds. you don't go from average to above average, get cancer, and then come back as the best in the sport with out doping of some sort.

---

Generally people dont go ride 50-75 miles each day on a bike, while going through chemo.....but Lance did.

The cancer actually helped Lance, in one way. He used to be a triathlete, but after the cancer/chemo wrecked his body he focused on cycling only. Had he maintained the upper body size that a triathlon swimmer needs, he probably wouldn't have been such a dominant cyclist.

He was a pro cyclist before the cancer, he had already given up triathlons.

but his upper body was still built for sprinting, which was his team role pre-cancer, the cancer took all that mass away, coupled with his already genetic freakism of VO2 max, lactic acid threshold, etc, made him the perfect climber. He wasn't as heavy but could still operate at an incredibly high rpm just in a lower (or is it higher?) gear in the mountains