Tour de France 2008 - Day 13

Greetings Readers

Well, the news this morning (Mountain Time Zone) at 6:30 was that another rider in the Tour de France was found to have "doped." The team that he was on, yes was on, also withdrew from the Tour de France. Though, this was breaking news when us Coloradan tuned into the Tour de France this morning of LIVE coverage.

What is there to say? Nothing that has not been said before. I am all for the test, but I am totally against the negativity. Negativity is the word I want to use since I am not going to be specific about certain subjects, since I need to do research before blurting out something and then being called on for my error.

Though I am glad that Versus dropped that, what is that "Silly" words Phil uses..., ah "idiotic" commercial of showing riders who some were guilty of doping, while others were not to have been found guilty, though presumably those certain individuals were found to be linked to doping. Anyway, Versus finally put a commercial about bike riders crashing the in Tour de France. Now, that is what I look forward to, but I do not like to see a rider to abandon the tour due to a crash. Yet, seeing a crash LIVE - I gasp and basically whisper "oh fuck" sometimes "oh no." And yes other times I hold my breath hoping for the rider to be okay. Kudos for Versus for now running a tasteful commercial.

Getting back to the Tour de France and the three riders that have tested positive for doping (EPO.) I have a friend that comes over and says to me "uh oh another rider out of the Tour." Yes, too bad. "For Doping" my friend responds. Yes, test sample "A" came back positive and now they will test sample "B."

I am all for the test, but what has been puzzling me since the first incident last Saturday/Friday depending on when you heard the news the first rider was taken into custody 7 days later after the drugs were found in test sample "A" in the first stage before the start of Stage 7. And then, Phil or perhaps Paul say you can not get away with doping. Then, one of them adds this was a random test, but the rider was targeted from before the start of the tour.

With all that said - and indicating that they are catching the doping riders - why is taking a week to throw them out of the Tour de France? Such as the case with the other Spanish rider - Stage 11 his sample came back positive, but that was not for Stage 11, but for Stage 4. Then, today the Rider's sample came back positive for stage 6, but the rider was not thrown out of the tour until Stage 12.

I am not endorsing doping, but with the past three positive cases, a rider could technically start doping after the stage 16 and his test would not come back/show positive until a week later, after the Tour was done. Right?

to be continued...

Daryl Charley
The Fallen Athlete