The snowball gets bigger.....just HOW STUPID are there riders?

I could cry :(

Why the hell do I bother? I was just thinking yesterday about how much I enjoyed watching him attack.

FFS!

Blanket testing and lifetime bans...it's the only way.

Are these riders completely stupid? They must know they will get caught sooner or later, preferably sooner in my opinion.

The sooner they weed out the cheating toerags, the better.....

This is becoming really depressing. Once is happenstance, twice coincidence, three times is enemy action (thank you, I an Fleming). So much for cleaned-up teams. Perhaps ASO should have been even more selective in their invitations.

Wasn't it Ricco who listed his cycling heroes as Pantani, Ullrich and Virenque? If so then he either showed a serious lack of taste and judgement, or he was giving a very big hint about how he was planning on gaining success!

At least it sounds as though the whole team is going this time, though. Take note Barlow world and Liquigas

Perhaps this is why riders like the Schlecks, Sastre, Kirchen and Evans look boring and seem to sit on eachother and don't or can't make spectacualr attacks?

Who'd be Phil Ligett? To my mind every time there is someone who does an amazing ride I have to question where it came from. Schumacher for example, though I do wonder whether his ride was perhaps boosted by favourable weather in that case. It was a windy day and maybe he was lucky.

I am enjoying this tour more than for a couple years but with a healthy dose of cynicism.

Hope Cadel doesn't win as the interviews certainly make him look more and more like a real k$*b.

Well, all I can say is that I'm not surprised, and that he'll get what's coming to him.

I wonder if this affects his Giro placing...

Good riddance.

deej

Yep, well I did hear that he modelled himself on Pantani.

Disappointing though....seems a safe prediction that at least one other rider will be caught before the end of the tour. Did they think they wouldn't get caught, or have some new masking agent? Were they just careless? Who knows.

I agree this is just depressing. It's hard not to be cynical, who was it who said if a ride seems unbelievable then it probably is ;(

The particular brand of EPO was supposedly undetectable and the Olympic commitee apparently don't have an official test yet. Good on the French anti-doping bods, well done!

is there anything to scare the cheats aways and keep the clean guys winning?

Do the teams (especially the 'clean' ones) test their own riders ?

Surely with all the anti-doping promises made they would be-able to check before the major races and perhaps put the whole team in quarantine a few weeks before a big event.

I don't know how long the effects of EPO last but for teams to say it's down to the individual everytime someone gets caught surely the team management have some knowledge of what is happening, as they all train together and virtually live together year round.

I hear Astana is looking for a wingman to Contador ;0) Good riddance, Ricco (!)

Bet he wishes he wasn't pointing at himself like that, when he cheated his way to a stage win- exponentially arrogant... Join Lance, Landis and the likes of the rest of the cheaters who've tried to cheapen and buy and scheme their way to personal glory ( at the expense of the greatest sport in the world ).

Go Cadel ! Go Garmin and Columbia ! Keep it up - stay clean - yee-haw !!! Go Tour !!

Lifetime ban for those stealing the wins, the prize money, the endorsements and the acclaim.

It is easy to feel so cynical about it nowadays, whenever someone puts a superb ride in...nagging doubt. How did they pulled such a performance out of the bag? I don't know how timstgermain can classify Lance Armstrong along with Floyd Landis. The former was the victim, of something on the verge of a witch-hunt, but never tested positive. Landis on the other hand had his victory taken away. The sport needs more people with integrity, the likes of Jens Voight.