Wiggo

Kennyboy66

Generali wrote: »

Top 10s from the Tour from 2003-11:

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/armstrong1150px.jpg

Those in grey have admitted to or been caught doping. I suspect that Armstrong will end up in the grey group in the end. L'Equipe already had a B sample tested for EPO which came up positive and the USDA always get their man.

If you haven't read them this:

http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Chain-Drugs-Cycling-Story/dp/0224061178

and this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/0224061704/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Will tell you all you want to know about doping in cycling.

My suspicion is that there is loads of dope in football. If I thought I could go from earning £50,000/year to earning £10,000,000 a year by sticking a needle in my arm I'd sure as hell do it.

You can add Frank Schleck to the grey list.

I hope that this years tour proves to be the cleanest in many a year - but doping was so endemic that it will take a while to change the culture completely.

At least they are trying with more tests than ever and a 'no needles' policy.

Someone made the point that it was an ideal time for Sky to innovate as many other teams had got lazy about technical improvements and training methods such was the huge advantage that EPO and the like gace them.

You can add Tennis to soccer - notoriously lax testing (google Serena Williams panic room and imaging the coverage if it was a high profile cyclist or athlete).

I would hope that distance running is clean - but the improvement in times from 5000m upwards is in worrying contrast to say the 800m record (where I think Coe is either 2nd or 3rd fastest on the all time list 30 years after his world record).

The Willy Voet book is great - particularly the bits pre EPO when doping was as much an art as a science.

I keep meaning to order the Kimmage book.

Your answer to taking a needle is similar to an study called the Goldman dilemma.

50% of athletes said they would dope if it guaranteed a gold medal - even if the doping meant they would die within 5 years.

The answer from the general (non athletic) population is less than 1%.

Kennyboy66

jack_pott wrote: »

I wonder why the RAAM doesn't attract more elite riders though. Apparently, there are only about 100 solos that have ever done it. Do the riders follow the media circus or the other way round? A bit of both probably.

Its an endurance charity event rather than a race.
Its more akin to climbing Everest.


The riders follow the money, always the money.

purch

Generali wrote: »

Are you thinking of Laurent Fignon

Probably.

It was a GC rider, who was a few minutes behind on the last day, he only gained about 15 seconds for a lap or two before he gave up, had to be a loony so it probably was Fignon.

Rinoa

Go Wiggo Go.

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

chris_m

And he did - Gold, with Chris Froome picking up Bronze !!!!

Well done lads.

Wookster

The Telegraph has a poll up: who is the better Olympian, Wiggo or Redgrave.

I have to say I find this rather distasteful. They are both outstanding athletes, no need for comparison at all.

DervProf

Wookster wrote: »

The Telegraph has a poll up: who is the better Olympian, Wiggo or Redgrave.

I have to say I find this rather distasteful. They are both outstanding athletes, no need for comparison at all.

On a more positive note, The Sun had cut-out Wiggo sideburns on the front page today. They even had a very helpful guide on how to use them - use sellotape, not glue, to attach them to your face. :rotfl:

Must say that when I saw that it did make me chuckle.

Generali

Wookster wrote: »

The Telegraph has a poll up: who is the better Olympian, Wiggo or Redgrave.

I have to say I find this rather distasteful. They are both outstanding athletes, no need for comparison at all.

It's just a bit of silliness. Of course the correct answer would be Jesse Owens anyway (link).

For most athletes, Jesse Owens' performance one spring afternoon in 1935 would be the accomplishment of a lifetime. In 45 minutes, he established three world records and tied another.

But that was merely an appetizer for Owens. In one week in the summer of 1936, on the sacred soil of the Fatherland, the master athlete humiliated the master race.....

He has to be the greatest Olympian merely for his efforts at p1ssing Hitler off, although he supposedly replaced a Jew in the 4x100m at Hitler's request. That his Grandfather was a slave and his father a sharecropper (basically a slave) makes his achievements all the greater.

chewmylegoff

Generali wrote: »

It's just a bit of silliness. Of course the correct answer would be Jesse Owens anyway (link).




He has to be the greatest Olympian merely for his efforts at p1ssing Hitler off, although he supposedly replaced a Jew in the 4x100m at Hitler's request. That his Grandfather was a slave and his father a sharecropper (basically a slave) makes his achievements all the greater.

Ironic really that many gold medals these days are won by Chinese athletes who are in reality little more than slaves.

purch

Of course the correct answer would be Jesse Owens anyway

Other than my cousins lad, who has just won his semi-final in the double-skulls :j

....it's all in the genes you know :eek: