This is actually astounding

[volksdragon]

I can't believe this is really going to happen. I'm actually speechless.

Tour de France bars 50 riders


Ullrich. Basso. Sevilla. Beloki. Hamilton. Geez, what's the point of even HAVING the race missing that many people?

Every year that ends with a 6, something horrible happens to the Tour....

Comments

[technoluddite.livejournal.com]

Geez, with all the top riders out of the picture, who's going to watch? Is OLN even going to cover it this year? (Perhaps they'll just do the abbreviated TDF highlights, and rededicate the extra program time to competitive trout fishing. Sigh.)

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

Not being a biker but being a sportsman, isn't this going to greatly help someone out? You're coming off seven years of Lance winning, with a second-tier group of familiar competitors. Having one of the "usual suspects" take his place sounds like he's just the second-best anyway. Won't this greatly help the careers of younger, little-known riders who can move to the fore? (Or are you Ullrich / Basso / Mancebo fans?)

[scirocco.livejournal.com]

Well, Ullrich, he's been around. Basso, Beloki, Sevilla, they are all top-notch guys, and Basso was tipped to win for this year. I dunno. It's like you're gonna get a THIRD-RATE winner this time. It'll help someone's career, but only for a year until he has to race the real good riders again.

[technoluddite.livejournal.com]

Cycling tends to change slowly. So we're partially upset by having to learn the spelling of White Jersey names like Vinokourov and Zabriskie.

[quezz.livejournal.com]

I want to see whether there are big differences in the times posted now that these riders have been removed. Wouldn't be bizarre to discover that blood doping was required to make the race exciting in the first place?

I'm beginning to think it's best to allow athletes to do whatever they want to their bodies to compete. They do it anyway, and in the case of adults, they also know what they are doing. If they choose to destroy themselves for glory and our entertainment...why should we stop them?

I personally do not believe in destroying myself for such reasons...but I recognize that not all people feel this way. If one accepts the consequences for their actions...then stopping them is pointless.

[siercia]

One part of me agrees with you, that just allowing them to do whatever they want makes sense - if they, as adults, choose to destroy themselves, then who are we to tell them that they can't?

But I also think that then you'll end up with an environment where you CAN'T compete without destroying yourself, and the fame and glory we heap on the winners is an awful lo of incentive to choose possible self destruction. I don't like the idea of a playing field where you have to hurt yourself for a chance to play.

[technoluddite.livejournal.com]

A lot of sportsactivities require participants to destroy themselves in order to compete, even without performance enhacing drugs.

Gymnasts. Most girls weren't born to be 4'10, 95 lbs, not go through puberty until 16, and have blown-out knees by 14.

Office workers...

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

Programmers...

Tech Support...

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

Probably has a lot to do with a) children, b) difficulties with taxation, c) the variance in body response to unregulated amounts of drugs / transfusions / whatever.

People highlight anabolic steroids as generic athletic badness, but there are plenty of medical, non-sport reasons to use them. Some users inform themselves on the known side effects and generally safe-but-effective usage. Those that don't (and the still-developing) set themselves up for long-term impacts to their body chemistry. As someone else noted, "athlete" hits a pretty young age for some sports.

That and you can get some whacky body drugs legally in many countries, so the sports have to self-regulate. Otherwise, you can do the baseball off-season thing: train in a drug-friendly country to bulk up, but stop taking them in time to pass spring training screenings. Play ball!