Tour de France
 

I just read that Ullrich isn't going to start. Now I'm hoping that Basso, who's on the same list of 56 riders, will be left out otherwise it might get really boring.
Other names: Mancebo, Beloki, Heras, Botero, Flecha and Mentsjov. How many of you have to change your tour poule for this :D

very disappointing indeed. If Basso's in it will be back to the days where Indurain or Armstrong was simply unstoppable.

I used to love watching the Tour de France on TV, but all these doping reports are driving me further away from my TV all the time...
I can't help but wonder if there are any clean riders at all in this sport... :(

Well, if the dutch riders would be doped they would be winning more, don't you think? Average riders that start performing very, very well are highly suspicious. Like Basso. But if for example Boogerd is taking doping, than he's even more of a loser than he already is.

It is all a conspiracy of Spanish people who want to kick out Ullrich and Basso to make Valverde win...

Hmmmm, no, really, if Ullrich was doped in his last appearances, he has done it really stupidly cause I don't think, he had performed worse without doping.

I still going to watch it, I don't believe that all are doped and one could concentrate on who is winning the stages and not the whole Tour.
There will surely be some people who have one good day and pay for it the following days but aren't doped.

Still, there is something strange in this story.
Why does the Spanish police keep the results of their investigation locked for weeks and opens them 2 days before the tour?
If they had done it earlier, the drivers would have had a chance to prove their innocence, now they don't have time for it. (I don't want to defend Ullrich, he might be guilty but he has no chance to prove it)

The Volkskrant now writes that the Tour organization that no Rabo riders are suspect.

BTW, nice cycling site in english, especially for Mistfit: cyclingnews.com (very original name). It has "the list" so far:

Latest news: CSC scraps Basso, ag2r scraps Mancebo. I'm going to put my money on Mentsjov ;)

Actually, Mentsjov is also reportedly mentioned on the list ;)

Dutch link: http://www.nu.nl/news/767384/45/Dopi...nder_Tour.html

That's what I wrote in the first post ;) OLD NEWS [:p]

I was wondering, what happens if they find the name of Luis Figo on one of those blood sacks?

dam ..you almost need a list of who IS still in the race .

This will be one of the weirdest tours ever. It also makes one wonder why it all explodes a year after Armstrongs retirement.
On the bright side, many teams will smell their chences now, many eraly escapes, many almost-top-but-not riders will try to get it this time. For the French in particular this may be the year they can get a frenchman to win it...