Tour de France - has it become irrelevant?

There are some sports where getting to the finish line first is the ultimate achievement regardless of whatever ethics violations you may need to have to get the job done. I think with cycling, track and field, and other similar sports we should have two categorys.

Ultimate (dope all you want, we want to see how fast a runner can do the 100 even if he dies going across the line). If juiced up enough, can a human do a 7.0second 100meter?

and Competitive (every athlete is screened every day for all banned substances, zero tolerance banned for life if you juice up).


The tour de france could start the Ultimate pack 4 days behind the Competitive pack. The public could watch the competitive race for a winner, and watch the juiced up guys to see how fast a man can complete the course given the right balance of steroids and enhancers and how many will have their heart explode in the last leg of the race. This would open a whole new arena for companys to create and perfect all this under the counter, back alley performance enhancers.

Much like abortion, we don't want athletes to have to go to the back alley to get this kind of stuff, we need it to be legal and governement sponsored to keep them safe. Oh... that's right... steroids is wrong, killing an unborn baby is ok... got it... Keep the performance enhancing drugs on the black market...

 

Throwing Ras off the tour is just plain wrong. The team rules say a rider most make his whereabouts known. He reported being in Mexico (no surprise there, since he *lives* there with his mexican born wife), and a person came forward and said he was in Italy.

NO failed drug tests -- just one person's story against Ras's. To contrast and compare, Floyd Landis *failed* drug testing, and his case is in review a year after it happened.

 

I pay attention a bit to cycling. Doping is not new. 1967: July 13, Stage 13: English rider Tom Simpson died of heart failure on the ascent of Mont Ventoux. Amphetamines and alcohol were found on Simpson's jersey and in his bloodstream. It is not like wrestling. It is simply a combination of money and pressure to win for an activity that works the human body so hard. Cycling is not a bike riding skill sport, it is a human body lab to see what body can work the hardest. I wonder if the same doping is going on in Marathon running. By doping the cyclists are either forcing their body to recover faster or increase their body's oxygen processing ability. The only solution I can think of is to test every racer before each race and pull them before not after. Or legalize doping and maybe we'll get some breakthroughs that would benefit nonatheltes. Racing cars makes better street cars maybe racing athletes will make better regular folks.

 

If you can't beat 'em' then join 'em. Let them all dope up and ride. The fastest guy is still going to win.

 

Actually, I kinda like the idea of watching super doped up people compete. Then again, I am still waiting for some version of Thunderdome to emerge.

 

I have mixed feelings. In some ways, most bicycle racing has been irrelevant since 1934, when Francis Faure was banned for having the 'wrong' kind of bicycle. A decision was made to focus on the rider and standardise the bicycle, which may well be part of why the status is quo.

Not to excuse the practice, but 'doping' in this context is a bit of a misnomer. There's no dope involved, just an infusion of blood so the athlete has more red blood cells. That's what it's all about - whoever processes the most oxygen wins, at least according to Greg LeMond. The pressures are intense, and the performance-enhancing choices aren't necessarily made by the rider. Again, I'm not condoning it, but it's turning into a witch hunt.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FiftyOneMPG @ Jul 26 2007, 06:57 AM) [snapback]485371[/snapback]</div>

You, perchance, have an agenda to push, regardless of the topic of the thread?

 

Tour de France? Is that going on again?
Did that answer your question regarding relevancy?

Soon we will all be hearing about . . .

Barry(*) Bonds

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pyccku @ Jul 26 2007, 11:41 AM) [snapback]485490[/snapback]</div>

I think the idea is to keep the field level so you don't have high school sophomores doing blood transfusions to win wrestling matches, track meets, or football games. The whole business can be dangerous and then kids will die doing it..

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FiftyOneMPG @ 2007 July 26 9:43 AM) [snapback]485496[/snapback]</div>

Nice idea, but it's not working. There were steroids in high school when I was there, like - oh crap - thirty years ago.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Jul 26 2007, 11:48 AM) [snapback]485500[/snapback]</div>

Abbot labs and these places can come up with tests for so many things, why not a machine you put your finger in, push the button and in 10 seconds you know if you've broken the international sports doping laws.

Test every player, before every game and sometimes at practice.

Did someone kick morality out of the schools? oooh.. and the rest of society.. Have we decided that it's ok to strive to look like the champ rather than to strive to be the champ? Where are the days when the winner steps up to accept his/her promotion and declines the advancement because he/she knows it was afforded based on misunderstood information rather than having been earned on a fair legitimate plane?

It wasn't I who saved the old lady, it was Bob, he deserves the promotion. I know you all thought it was me, but it was him, congrats bob!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pyccku @ Jul 26 2007, 12:17 PM) [snapback]485531[/snapback]</div>

That doesn't make it right. If I were a teacher, I'd be brainstorming ways to thwart the cheaters allowing the legit kids to fare better. Do you teach something where you have that kind of control, or do you have to hand out district generated tests and assignments?

Multiple choice tests... write a program where I enter the questions with the answers and at test time, each kid has a custom test.. If you're copying A B C from your neighbor, you're guaranteed to have the wrong answers. Stuff like that..

It might make grading it a level harder, but I'd have greater satisfaction knowing they weren't able to copy off each other.

 

I'm a teacher.

When I find two identical tests from two students seating right next to each other...they both fail that test. I don't care who copied who. They don't like it? Tough. Even the Governor can't change my grades.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jul 26 2007, 02:53 PM) [snapback]485590[/snapback]</div>

What if they both scored 100% right.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(etyler88 @ Jul 26 2007, 12:02 PM) [snapback]485596[/snapback]</div>

Reminds me of the time a professor friend of mine got back a multiple choice test from a student that had zero correct - not a single answer the right one. He gave that student an A+ (and justifiably).

MB

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pyccku @ Jul 26 2007, 06:43 AM) [snapback]485363[/snapback]</div>

My view is that it has to happen. Sucks that it is happening now, but there is no good time. They're being weeded out, and are finally being shown that this not acceptable. Talking about pulling it from the olympics is just plain silly. Bicycling is the most drug-tested sport we have. Just because we're finding drugs there doesn't mean it is MORE of a problem than in other sports - it means they're being found and dealt with.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ Jul 26 2007, 07:26 AM) [snapback]485388[/snapback]</div>

The important point here is that it was the team that fired him, not the tour. While you may be justified in being upset at the team, the team is doing it thinks is best for the sport, IMO. Right or wrong.

This isn't as clear-cut for me as I might be making it sound. I waver back and forth constantly. But the fact of the matter is - other sports give this issue lip service. Cycling seems to be seriously doing something about it. And it appears draconian. Some innocent people are going to be caught in this - of that there is little question. What cost are we willing to pay to clean up the sport so it stays "relevant?"