Tour de France 2006

[Elok]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Well, all Yanks look bad next to a Frenchman. Don't feel bad, it's just innate like that

That's not our fault. We're standing next to Frenchmen here, which means we either have clothespins on our noses or we're making ghastly faces. Nobody looks good in that kind of situation.

As for Drake's question, I think we just need to dig into our ballet-dancer community for players. In addition to being used to mockery and standing up for hours, they're quick enough on their feet that they can do that sissy thing soccer players do to move the ball behind their legs. You know what I mean, the bit where they jig like a riverdancer and make the ball switch behind their legs so you can't steal it from them, then grin smugly at you? I never had much problem with that maneuver, as it fell easy prey to my "close in fast, aim for the ball anyway, and call it an accident when their shins are all bruised and/or red" technique, but it seems to be a longstanding soccer tradition, just like rioting drunkards in the stands and all games being decided by penalty kicks. Plus they never seem to move within five feet of each other in the professional circuit.

BTW, how many european soccer players could block Jerome Bettis for three seconds? Answer: none, because they're fundamentally different sports and players are chosen along radically different lines.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
The Mad Monk makes a good point. Cycling has been relatively easy to conquer, as even the scraps of the American athletic community are enough to defeat the "athletes" the Euros put forward to compete. Soccer, however, may prove more difficult. Euro soccer players, while certainly not athletes on the level of a football, baseball or NASCAR competitor, do have some small amount of ability (mainly in running for a long time and not falling prey to boredom). To dominate soccer, America will have to field a team of athletes one step above the ranks of hunting accident/terminal illness survivors and invalids we've sent to make the cycling world ours. The problem will be finding these athletes because, seriously, what American wants to play soccer after they get to junior-high school?

Anyone have any ideas on how to solve this dilemna? And I want serious answers, people. Don't tell me that American kids can be seduced by international fame and fortune or some bull**** like that. No American is going to care about a "fortune" in Monopoly money like the Euro. And what good is fame if the only *****es you can **** with it are revolting foreign slags? It's good for nothing, which is why every American kid eventually realizes that being the back-up catcher for the Lincoln Salt-Dogs is better than being FIFA Player of the Year. Seems like an intractable problem...

I fell out of my chair

[Thorgal]

There is one rider found positive for doping in the Tour. Federation has not said who yet but it seems that it is Landis... Nobody can confirm or negate it becuase Landis, his agent and his team director have disappeared suddenly pulling out of several programed events without giving any explanation...

[alva]

It's someone who finished in the top ten.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

At least he didn't mention American football kickers

You do know that kicker is the only position in football that soccer players are able to play, don't you? Kind of proves my point...

Doesn't your average American Football player only have to run for about 10 seconds at a time?

Hell, a running back thinks he's had a good performance if he's managed to run 100 yards in a whole game...

[siron]

They are all doped...
















except Armstrong.

[BlackCat]

Just heard it in the radio - it's Floyd Landis.

[Thorgal]

Testosterone. I would like to know what race day was.

[Ninot]

I laughed hard when I saw it was Landis.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Thorgal
Testosterone. I would like to know what race day was.

From the Phonak homepage (don't bother to check it - it seems a bit busy) :

- The Phonak Cycling Team was notified yesterday by the UCI of an unusual level of testosterone / epitestosterone ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well like that was a shock...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/5221122.stm

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has given a positive drugs test, according to his Phonak team.
The American, who claimed victory in the Tour de France on Sunday, has tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone.

The positive test came after stage 17 of the Tour, which saw Landis record an epic victory after collapsing on the final climb the day before.

Landis has been suspended pending results of his B sample analysis.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced on Wednesday that a rider had failed a doping test but would not reveal his name.

"The Phonak Cycling Team was notified on Wednesday by the UCI of an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France," said a team statement.

"The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result.

"The rider will ask in the upcoming days for the counter analysis (B sample) to prove either that this result has come from a natural process or that this is the result of a mistake."

Phonak have also said that if the second sample confirms the positive test, Landis will be sacked.

Landis had already withdrawn from two races in Europe this week, Wednesday's Acht van Chaam street race in the Netherlands and Thursday's Jyske Bank Grand Prix in Denmark.

[alva]

Cycling has been relatively easy to conquer, as even the scraps of the American athletic community are enough to defeat the "athletes" the Euros put forward to compete.

You were saying....?


ps: I'm not gloating here, it's very sad that he did, what he did.

[Thorgal]

- The Phonak Cycling Team was notified yesterday by the UCI of an unusual level of testosterone / epitestosterone ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France.

IIRC stage 17 was his so impressive recovery where he won (winning the Tour there in fact) just after the 16th stage where he sank miserably.

BTW does someone know how testosterone works? does it give you more strenght instantly or it takes some days/weeks/months to notice the effect?

[-Jrabbit]

Makes you feel very Manly...

[Pekka]

I find it funny when some claim that Armstrong is doped or what ever.. every single cyclist is using, especially European cyclists.. I mean their teams have like mandatory drug takings.