Why doesn't he just change the name of the team?? I mean, it appears that ASO doesn't want Astana to ride the TdF because they're Astana.... so why not change the name to Anatsa? Not as clever a suggestion as Compassionate Body Spinoffs, though.

Great post, Fatty... hopefully Johan will read your post and take your advice.

And tell Levi to knock it off with "Let Levi Ride".... he may end up all by himself at the tour!

This is a pretty pathetic attempt at 'humour'. The anti-French comments are particularly distasteful. No, don't tell me, the writer is an American, right? ;-)

The best way for Bruyneel to convince ASO and everyone else that he has mended his ways would be to do a big expose of his past mis-deeds, motorbikes with refrigerated panniers, "800 ml of packed cells", Actovegin 'graze treatments' and all. We are waiting Johann, somebody is going to do it sooner or later, so why not you?

As to Astana the team. Get real! No way do they deserve a place in the Tour. Perhaps the author could try another 'humorous' piece but this time attacking the decision of the organisers of the Tour of California to exclude all those Rock Racing team riders because of the 'suspicions' of doping which surround them.

Hey Aurelio, know what you are talking about first next time. Fatty has already lampooned Rock "Racing" awhile ago...

http://www.fatcyclist.com/2008/01/31/rock-racing-qa/

Just sayin'...

http://www.fatcyclist.com/2008/01/31/rock-racing-qa/

Question: I heard Mario Cipollini is also racing for Rock Racing. When was Cipo caught doping?

Answer: Actually, you aren’t strictly required to be a known doper to be on the Rock Racing team.

Ha ha! Good one. However, this was not one of Fatty's pieces for this site, nor is it a criticism of the Tour of California's organisers to exclude members of the Rock Racing team! Whatever, there is still no excuse for those who apparently can't discuss the doping problem in cycling without resorting to a petty-minded anti-French tirade.

Once again Fatty, a great piece of very humorous writing. I particularly like the suggestion that he watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail several times to pick up a French accent... classic!

Aurelio – You need to lighten-up mate. The comments about ASO humorously highlight the potential double standard of admitting High Road (although as a Brit I am personally delighted as we have Cav and Wiggins likely to start the race) and not admitting Astana.

Secondly, it is hardly an anti-French tirade is it now! It plays humorously on the stereotypes on one hand and their love of their home tour and the palpable national anxiety to produce its first tour winner since 1985 on the other! The French press do harp on every year about the winner on Bastille Day being French, because they hand-on-heart know they don’t really have anyone capable of taking GC but a stage win on an important day for the nation is possible and will have to do… for now!

ASO and the French cycle supporting public have been know to be very blinkered in the past when it comes to doping… especially when the rider is a French national hero and quite good at stage races but was never quite good enough! Can I suggest you read the excellent piece by Ellis Bacon on Christophe Moreau in this months Procycling (assume it is both the UK and US editions) and we can discuss Richard Virenque, the ASO and the French cycling supporting public???

Finally, you clearly are either French or have never been to France? ;-)

"it is hardly an anti-French tirade is it now! It plays humorously on the stereotypes..."

You mean like the 'comedy' of people like Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson 'humerously' plays on certain other racial sterotypes? Or perhaps you mean like all the rants about 'lycra louts' and 'two wheeled terrorists' 'humorously' play on the stereotypes in Britain of cyclists. Then again people do say that cyclists should also 'lighten up' in the face of the 'humorous' quips made about cyclists be the likes of Clarkson et al. This piece may be at the lower end of the range when it comes to anti-French xenophobia but it still feeds it. Just look for some of the comments on American cycling sites to see the real hatred underlying such 'humour'.

"ASO and the French cycle supporting public have been know to be very blinkered in the past when it comes to doping"

Along with everyone else, of course... However, the French were also among the first to try to do something to genuinely tackle the problem of doping. What's more the doping of cyclists in the past, whilst morally questionable, certainly didn't have the power to turn relative also-rans into Tour winners as modern doping can. This is why it is so important to tackle doping today: it makes the finishing order meaningless, largely showing which riders have a physiology which adapts the best to blood doping and all the rest. What's more modern doping methods are so effective that riders who don't dope have little chance of success no matter how talented or dedicated they are. To borrow a phrase from Le Monde (the high-brow French newspaper) modern cycling is suffering from the 'Le syndrome du catch' (catch being wrestling) with the result of races having no real meaning any more. Like wrestling is has become a spectacle, not sport.

"we can discuss Richard Virenque, the ASO and the French cycling supporting public.."

You mean the same Richard Virenque who was voted the second most hated person in France after Le Pen in a poll of under 21 year old French people? The same Richard Virenque who was mercilessly lampooned on the French version of 'Spitting Image'? The same Richard Virenque whose phrase 'without my knowledge of my own free will' has become a popular French idiom meaning hypocritical denial?

"you clearly are either French or have never been to France"

Neither. I am British but now live in France. Living here has highlighted the fact that the Tour, and cycle sport in general, no longer carries the meaning it once did here and, as French academic François Jost has has argued, most 'supporters' of cycling in France now see it as something akin to an empty but entertaining soap-opera, "stripped of it's sporting values", with the viewer knowing it is not 'real' but non-the-less enjoying the diversion it offers, and with doping stories merely adding a little 'spice'.

This has a LOT more to do with the changing nature of French society and the doping problem than the failure to have a French Tour winner for quite a while. For some insightful discussion of the status and 'meaning' of cycle sport in France today I can recommend the book 'Le sport contre les peuples' by French philosopher Robert Redeker. Unfortunately it's only available in French, as is most such works written here in France. This is one reason why so much analysis of French cycling is made from a hopelessly narrow 'Anglo-Saxon' perspective!

" ASO... have been know to be very blinkered in the past when it comes to doping… especially when the rider is a French national hero"

Is that why Jean-Marie Leblanc tried to exclude Virenque from the Tour until his hand was forced by the UCI? Now what was it Leblanc said of Virenque back in 1999? Ah, yes:

"Since last July Richard Virenque's name and image is the incarnation of doping - whether or not he is responsible for the situation is not for us to say. According to the evidence his presence is incompatible to the image and reputation of the event we want to preserve."

Q.E.D. I think...

Aurelio - Wow... just be careful you don't break your leg stepping down off your high moral position soap box. You should be ok though as you are quite well balanced, what with having chips on both shoulders... or should that be French Fries? Also I am so glad that, now you live in France, the sense of humour bypass operation was obviously a success!

For someone whom I and Fatty have clearly upset with our light-hearted stereotyping japery, it would appear you take offence to your adopted nation being stereotyped but your are happy to perpetuate American stereotyping with your comments… and I quote “No, don't tell me, the writer is an American, right? ;-)” and “Just look for some of the comments on American cycling sites to see the real hatred underlying such 'humour'.”

Do you consider these comments to be factual and insightful observations based on a surveyed majority study or are you just stereotyping to save time? If you could post the source of the published studies you have used to form your un-stereotyped opinion about Americans and American cyclists, we would all be grateful?

Now of course, I spotted your ;-) at the end of your quote “No, don't tell me, the writer is an American, right? ;-)” so assumed you were being a little ironic, hence why I then said “Finally, you clearly are either French or have never been to France? ;-)”. This reply was also supposed to be ironic with a hint of sarcasm… now, if you were American you could have been forgiven for not getting that as they don’t get irony, but as Brit ex-pat I thought you would have got it! Sorry, I am at it again stereotyping… I will try not to. :-)

Now come on, get real… “This piece may be at the lower end of the range when it comes to anti-French xenophobia but it still feeds it.” What rubbish, you were the only one that made the jump from light-hearted stereotyping and linking it to the clearly right-wing minority comedy of Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson… and you are allowed to make these comments as they also don’t feed anti-British xenophobia?

“I can recommend the book 'Le sport contre les peuples' by French philosopher Robert Redeker. Unfortunately it's only available in French, as is most such works written here in France. This is one reason why so much analysis of French cycling is made from a hopelessly narrow 'Anglo-Saxon' perspective!”

I would love to read it but have to admit (slightly ashamed) that my French is at best ‘school-boy’ but of course why would any French philosopher lower himself by having his book translated into that hopelessly narrow ‘Anglo-Saxon’ derived language of English? Sorry, was it you or me that was stereotyping there again?

Your comments on doping within French cycling and in particular the Richard Virenque situation look very well-informed (more so than mine) and thought out and I would love to discuss them further with you… but I am just struggling to get past your anger and distinct lack of a sense of humour to put the effort in!

Ok, anyway must dash, as a Yorkshireman my two passions are road cycling and Rugby League and I am going to watch Leeds Rhinos kick some French ‘ass’ when we take (hopefully) take Les Catalans to the cleaners tonight at Headingley. I love all my fellow French Rugby League supporters, what with the stripy jumpers and little beret’s and I can’t meet them down the pub for a pre-match pint until I have fed the pigeons and took the whippet out for a walk. I will be putting the ol’ flat cap on though; it is grim up-north!

Aurelio – Take my advice and go get laid tonight mate… if the wife is not up for it you could always give the mistress a call now you are a true Frenchman! Sorry, I am at it again! ;-)

For someone whom I and Fatty have clearly upset with our light-hearted stereotyping japery, it would appear you take offence to your adopted nation being stereotyped but your are happy to perpetuate American stereotyping with your comments… and I quote "No, don't tell me, the writer is an American, right? ;-)" and "Just look for some of the comments on American cycling sites to see the real hatred underlying such 'humour'."

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Er, exactly what 'American stereotype' is being perpetuated by my comments? I can't see a single reference to rednecks, fundamentalist Christians, gun nuts, extreme obesity or plans for 'Full spectrum dominance' anywhere! ;-)

Rather, I was merely pointing out the simple fact that many of those upset by the attempts of the ASO, the French authorities and so on to tackle the doping problem often make generalised anti-French comments. This tendency appears to be particularly marked amongst those Americans who have attempted to defend riders such as Armstrong, Landis and so on. I fully accept that many others in the US are supportive of the ASO, don't buy into the Armstrong Myth and accept that Landis was caught fair and square attempting to dope his way to a Tour win. However there are still plenty of people out there who appear to believe the exclusion of Astana is all part of an ongoing 'plot' to get at Armstrong via Bruyneel, or to prevent Leipheimer riding in case he scores another 'American' Tour victory. These are probably the same people who believe that 'the French' 'framed' Landis because they were 'tired' of Americans winning the Tour...

Anyone who thinks that 'the French' care enough about the Tour to 'conspire' against potential winners who don't happen to be French really doesn’t understand modern France. All in all 'the French' in general don't really care anymore about the Tour or bike racing. The supposed 'French obsession with the Tour' is something which is pretty much history nowadays along with bidets, 2CV's, peasant farmers, the conspicuous consumption of garlic and onions, berets, pissoirs, crazy driving, accordion music and just about everything else that many people still appear to define the French!

I'm interested to see if Aurelio's real mission here is to have the lasrt word... ;-)

Astana, simply wait another year and you will all be back in. Short memories are big business in cycling nowadays. And remember - drugs - they're all at it! Dont feel marginalised - feel LIBERATED!

Lest you forget, the French are rather famous for their satire, going back to Rabelais in the 15th century and currently with their very popular satirical news show Les Guignols de l'Info (News Puppets). The term Rabelaisian denotes coarse, satirical humor. So the French know how to poke fun at themselves, their government, their athletes, and everyone and everything else. I travel to France regularly (lead bicycle tours there), lived in Nice, dated a French man for years and was continually and pleasantly entertained by their ability to laugh at themselves!

I think most of them would find this article quite funny. Excellent piece, Fatty!

Jennifer

http://cyclingeurope.wordpress.com