Tour De France Winner Tests Positive

[SirSaxa]

ESPN - Alberto Contador tests positive

Excerpt
Contador, 27, has scheduled a news conference at noon Thursday at the Hotel Las Artes in Pinto, Spain, according to a release from his publicist. Contador has put together a group of experts who will say the positive test is a result of "food contamination."

This is about as surprising as reading that a Calipari recruit has a transcript with holes, or he received $$$ -- LOTS of $$$.

[Boz]

Cycling should just admit that pretty much all of its athletes -- at least all of its top athletes -- are doping to some extent.

I have very little doubt at this point that Lance Armstrong did this. I am no less amazed at his 7 titles, however, since everyone else was almost certainly doing it too.

Yes, it's cheating, and yes, that's wrong. But if everyone is cheating, well, it's still a fairly level playing field. (And if, in your head, you are imagining the All Drug Olympics like me, well then, you are very old!)

I think the last Tour de France winner who didn't dope was probably Greg LeMond.

Indurain? Ullrich? I'd bet anything yes.

Obviously, Floyd Landis did.

Sadly, Marco Pantani did too. While doping didn't cost him his life, his depression and corresponding cocaine use did him in.

[Nevada Hoya]

Wasn't Ullrich banned for a year?

[prhoya]

Sept 29, 2010 23:36:30 GMT -5 Nevada Hoya said:

Wasn't Ullrich banned for a year?

He was banned from the Tour in 2006, fired from his team, and retired from the sport in 2007.

[prhoya]

Sept 29, 2010 21:08:41 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

ESPN - Alberto Contador tests positive

Excerpt
Contador, 27, has scheduled a news conference at noon Thursday at the Hotel Las Artes in Pinto, Spain, according to a release from his publicist. Contador has put together a group of experts who will say the positive test is a result of "food contamination."

Now he gets to be in Lance's shoes.
He's a jerk.

[SirSaxa]

Is anyone else thinking of Claude Rains?
I think we have referenced this famous movie exchange before, but it fits so well here.

I am shocked, SHOCKED, to discover there's Gambling going on in this establishment.
Captain Renault

Your winnings sir.
Emil

Oh, thank you very much.
Captain Renault

[prhoya]

I was thinking more along the line of:

"I did not inhale."
Bill

[theexorcist]

Sept 30, 2010 1:02:28 GMT -5 prhoya said:

Sept 29, 2010 21:08:41 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

ESPN - Alberto Contador tests positive

Excerpt
Contador, 27, has scheduled a news conference at noon Thursday at the Hotel Las Artes in Pinto, Spain, according to a release from his publicist. Contador has put together a group of experts who will say the positive test is a result of "food contamination."

Now he gets to be in Lance's shoes.
He's a jerk.

Lance never failed a drug test.

If you do fail a drug test, and least man up and don't say "the dog ate my home work".

[Boz]

Sept 30, 2010 0:56:47 GMT -5 prhoya said:

Sept 29, 2010 23:36:30 GMT -5 Nevada Hoya said:

Wasn't Ullrich banned for a year?

He was banned from the Tour in 2006, fired from his team, and retired from the sport in 2007.

I was referring to the year that Ullrich won the Tour, which was a decade earlier, but yeah.

The only reason doping allegations and evidence didn't come out sooner (i.e. the late 90s) was I think pretty much because they weren't testing rigorously - or at all - sooner.

[prhoya]

True, lance has never failed a drug test.
I meant media scrutiny, cycling world's scrutiny, having to defend yourself, having fans throw Edited at you while you race, etc... for the rest of your career like Lance.
Unlike Lance, Contador could be stripped of his Tour win, be banned from cycling for two years, risk losing major endorsement deals, etc...

I wonder what Spain's grand jury is like.

[Boz]

Sept 30, 2010 9:18:34 GMT -5 prhoya said:

I wonder what Spain's grand jury is like.

I think it involves white shirts, red scarves and bulls in some manner. ;D

[The Stig]

A pretty good Q&A on the subject: sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/columns/story?columnist=ford_bonnie_d&id=5634190

It certainly seems to me like it's less open-and-shut than the Landis case was.

[prhoya]

Lance should shut up and not say a word re: Contador, not even a tweet. He must be a happy puppy because, if suspended, Alberto will not have a chance at seven TdF wins.

Contador is going down and may want to take some with him a la Landis.

[hifigator]

I honestly don't know what to think ... but I have my own hunches ...

I think for a while, we all, either honestly or subconciously hoopefully, "recognized" a group of "clean" athletes, all the while, knowing that many were dirty/cheating. As more time went by and more details exposed, our list of "clean" kept shrinking. Where does Lance or any other cyclist fall in these subjective lists? Who knows.

Still, at least from what I have read, the "trace" amounts that triggered a positive -- even in both samples "A" and "B," would not be consistent with performance enhancement. I am admittedly not remotely an expert on the subject, and didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Also, I have no dog in the fight, and if I had to choose a side, then I would prefer that all foreigners get "caught" cheating ... for no reason other than patriotic homerism.

All of that being said, as absurd and suspect as this excuse sounds, given my very limited knowledge on the subject, maybe ... just maybe, there is some validity to an otherwise typical copout. Thoughts?

[SirSaxa]

I look at it and think about the odds. Leave out any names if you like. But consider.
The TOUR has a decades long issue with doping.
Over the past 15 years or so, nearly every major rider has been "outed" for drugs.
Despite EVERY top rider using drugs, one guy still manages to beat ALL the others 7 years in a row!
How likely does it seem that the one "clean" guy was able to beat ALL the doping guys.... 7 times in a row?

[hifigator]

Sir, that's really a different question. I can't honestly say that I don't have some doubts on Lance. Granted, there is no way I can weight the paparazzi-like obsession with "catching" him with the legitimate "evidence." But as others have pointed out, he hasn't failed any drug test. Logic would certainly dictate that Lance would be under the most scrutinous eye of all, and with claimed superficial evidence -- syringes in hotel rooms etc -- I would tend to think that he would have been caught at least once over that stretch if he were doping. Still, it conspicuous for sure. The only rational explanation other than doping was a clip that I caught a couple of years back. You medical experts will have to help me out with the details, but basically, Lance has a very unusual characteristic in his hear/lungs which allow him to circulate a much higher amount of oxygen in his blood than almost any other people. Again, I don't know the validity of this or the significance it would have on performance. But at least that explanation makes sense. It also fits with his dominance when the stages hit the more demanding uphill stretches -- typically where he would take the lead he would never relenquish.

As for Contador, my point was simply that if the reports that I read are accurate, then even though the levels exceeded the stringent limits for the participants, they were no where near what would be consistent with the use of performance enhancing supplements. Yet again, I don't know if that is true, but that is what I read. And if so, logically, it wouldn't make a lot of sense that he would have such trace amounts in his system and yet not have had any in the previous tests. But still, in today's era, the tendency has definitely shifted from presumed innocence to presumed guilt.

What do you medical experts think on this?