71 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Rock Racing 0.16.9
90 Floyd Landis (USA) OUCH Presented By Maxxis 0.20.4
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I thought it very unfortunate to have Landis crash so near the race. Whether a fabricated story to explain a poor performance (hedging bet before race) or a true and really impacting crash, it is too bad. I was really hoping Landis would come back and put a stamp on the race and declare himself a real contender and now we don’t know if it was fitness or from the crash that explains his lack of performance.
Also he’s got that “brand new hip” thing goin’ on.
So one 3900 meter long stage in a race in February. What exactly does this prove again?
71 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Rock Racing 0.16.9
90 Floyd Landis (USA) OUCH Presented By Maxxis 0.20.4
They are not clean until they admit their doping and, in Tyler’s case, return the Gold Medal he cheated his way to.
" in Tyler’s case, return the Gold Medal he cheated his way to"
Nahh, you got it all wrong, that was his long lost brother cheating.
So one 3900 meter long stage in a race in February. What exactly does this prove again?
My guess is a lot. Given he is riding for a continental squad, this is his shot to get a result against the big boys. I would think Floyd wants to be in the mix from start to finish. Even though the gap is approx. 20 seconds, that could prove consequential in the end, given the profile of the stages and abilities of some of the stronger teams to control the race.
71 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Rock Racing 0.16.9
90 Floyd Landis (USA) OUCH Presented By Maxxis 0.20.4
They are not clean until they admit their doping and, in Tyler’s case, return the Gold Medal he cheated his way to.
x2.
Also, what is with Phil and Paul basically not mentioning the various doping suspensions? Calling Floyd a “former tour winner”?? They made a huge deal of him coming back from his hip replacement, but say nothing about him cheating his way to a TDF title. Same thing with Basso. WTF. Lets just sweep everything under the rug and pretend like nothing happened.
Good point. I agree with you but, if these fellows are back to racing and they are doing so without performance enhancing drugs- and that is assumption we are going under, then good for them.
I agree they need to take ownership of what happened before, and I’d admire them if they did. A buddy of mine took drugs in the Tour and admitted it years later despite never being busted. It doesn’t make what he did OK but it doesn mean he is a man, not a perfect man, (none of us are), but a man. Good for hem.
Yeah, I’d like to see these fellows do the same. I think if they did a tell-all and came clean inthe media it would actually do a lot to clean up the sport. I hesitate to say we’re on the “right” track now but I think we may be on a “better” track right now with athlete drug use and testing. One thing for sure, if any of these felllows tessted positive again I think they’d really be compelled to leave the sport at that point.
Thankfully, it would appear as if they have made a return with a new found integrity.
114 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam 0.25.7
He won the Tour last year.
Who really knows? Hopefully they are all clean.
Floyd hasn’t raced in 2 suspended years, crashed and Tyler mentioned something about his mother (or twin brother) having cancer and not training. That could mess you up for a 5 minute effort. It doesn’t take much.
All things equal when they are on form they should be close to the best clean racers, like Lance. When they were dirty they were close to Lance and also among the best of that “era”.
-HWM
x2
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71 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Rock Racing 0.16.9
90 Floyd Landis (USA) OUCH Presented By Maxxis 0.20.4
They are not clean until they admit their doping and, in Tyler’s case, return the Gold Medal he cheated his way to.
x2.
Also, what is with Phil and Paul basically not mentioning the various doping suspensions? Calling Floyd a “former tour winner”?? They made a huge deal of him coming back from his hip replacement, but say nothing about him cheating his way to a TDF title. Same thing with Basso. WTF. Lets just sweep everything under the rug and pretend like nothing happened.
Coming back from a hip replacement is actually a good story and pretty unique. Coming back from a doping susupension just like all the other guys is hardly worth mentioning. Also, it should not suprise anyone that the commentators are not focusing on the most negative aspects of cycling.
two things:
- he’s coming back from 2 years of no competition;
- given his hip replacement, it might be more difficult than it was before for him to get into an effective tt position.
anyway, i think the guy’s a dick so i couldn’t care less if he got dropped on the first cat4 climb of the tour, but the prologue really doesn’t mean a whole lot.
Also he’s got that “brand new hip” thing goin’ on.
besides the hip- he had a nice spiral of events post TDF 2006. Seems like doping gave him a short term boost- with massive long term pain. The saddest part is his father-in-law… did he know know too much- and just couldn’t cope?
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It started at 5:55 p.m. on July 20, 2006, in the French alpine hamlet of Morzine Avoriaz, with urine sample No. 995474. It was transported first by courier, then helicopter, then private plane to a French laboratory outside Paris.
A week later, the results were made public. Landis had tested positive for synthetic testosterone and faced becoming the first Tour champion stripped of his title for doping.
Three weeks later, David Witt was found dead in a North Park parking garage with a gunshot wound to his head in what the county coroner classified as suicide. Witt was Landis’ father-in-law, a former roommate in San Diego, the best man in Landis’ wedding.
The downward spiral continued, a life careening off a mountain road in a tangle of handlebars and spokes. Landis would lose two doping arbitration hearings, his Tour de France title, his $575,000 prize, his professional cycling license, his sponsors, his savings, his marriage, his right hip, his reputation.
Since yours is an obvious troll, maybe you should change your title to Rest of Peleton Still Dirty.