Contador to receive one year ban, probably.

[citoyen]

According to the Beeb, Jan Ullrich has just received a two-year ban (which won't bother him) and been stripped of his third place in the 2005 Tour

So who shuffles up to take his third place... Mancebo? Vino? Rasmussen? Landis?

d.

[spesh]

Mancebo - looks like the GC part of the wiki page has been edited already, though the palmares at the top of the page still has (at the time of posting) Ulrich in 3rd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Tour_de_France#General_classification

ETA - Ironically, Mancebo - along with Basso and Ulrich - was barred from the 2006 edition due to being under investigation in the Operation Puerto case.

[spesh]

According to the Beeb, Jan Ullrich has just received a two-year ban (which won't bother him) and been stripped of his third place in the 2005 Tour

Going by the Cycling News report, this all relates to the UCI appealing an investigation that the Swiss Olympic organisation dropped in 2009, and the ban back dates to the date of the CAS hearing in August 2011...

Seriously, they really need to find some way of speeding up the procedural wheels!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/jan-ullrich-given-two-year-ban-from-cas

[rogerzilla]

It's a hopeless professional sport, isn't it?  They should just put the team doctors and the UCI testers in a bath of lime jelly and let them fight it out, since races are really won and lost between those two camps.

[citoyen]

Ironically, Mancebo - along with Basso and Ulrich - was barred from the 2006 edition due to being under investigation in the Operation Puerto case.

Exactly. Look who else is in the top ten that year. Basso, Mancebo, Vino, Rasmussen, Landis...

Pereiro finished 10th but who knows... he may yet end up the only man to win the Tour de France two years running without having stood on the top step of the podium either time.

Roger - I don't think it's hopeless. Exactly the opposite, in fact. The fact that high profile dopers are being caught and punished shows how much attitudes to doping have changed in the sport in recent years. Cycling probably has less of a problem now than other sports, but is one of the few sports to admit to having a problem and attempting to do something about it.

d.

[spesh]

It's a hopeless professional sport, isn't it?  They should just put the team doctors and the UCI testers in a bath of lime jelly and let them fight it out, since races are really won and lost between those two camps.

Most of the team doctors and UCI testers probably don't look that fetching in string bikinis. 

[spesh]

Pereiro finished 10th but who knows... he may yet end up the only man to win the Tour de France two years running without having stood on the top step of the podium either time.

That's a very long shot, assuming that anything can be found to DQ Cadel Evans, who finished ahead of Pereiro in 2005. 

And if we're looking at 2007, he was behind, Evans and Sastre (who doesn't appear to have any obvious skeletons in his closet either).

And Pereiro is fortunate to be the de facto winner in 2006, as he reportedly failed two doping controls that year, testing positive for salbutamol. France's anti-doping agency dropped their investigation in 2007, apparently satisfied that he had a genuine theraputic need.

[citoyen]

That's a very long shot, assuming that anything can be found to DQ Cadel Evans, who finished ahead of Pereiro in 2005. 

Of course. I was exaggerating for comic effect. Let's not also forget that the winner in 2005 was the Teflon Texan.

d.

[spesh]

That's a very long shot, assuming that anything can be found to DQ Cadel Evans, who finished ahead of Pereiro in 2005. 

Of course. I was exaggerating for comic effect. Let's not also forget that the winner in 2005 was the Teflon Texan.

d.

Well, there's still time for Cadel Evans to become a multiple TdF winner then, despite having stood on the top step just the once. 

[spesh]

http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=38587.msg733510#msg733510

But aside from that natural suspicion, there have been strong hints recently by a respected cycling journalist that Longo is due for some sort of come-uppance.

Last year, Longo managed to get away with pulling a Rasmussen, on a technicality. Which begs the question of whether there genuinely was a cock-up by the FFC or AFLD, or there's been a cover-up, similar to what happened WRT a number of US atheletes in the 1980s. 

And last week...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/longos-husband-held-after-alpe-dhuez-home-raid
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/longos-husband-confesses-to-epo-purchase

Hmmm...

[andygates]

I note a significant change in the attitude of everyone. In the past (Armstrong, Hamilton, Landis etc.) these threads used to be populated by arguments in favour of the rider, no matter how outlandish or not their defence was. Times have changed it seems. There seems to be a majority believing Contador was doping and want to throw out his last gasp defence idea.

I think that's just because none of us like Contador.

Armstrong has guts in bucketfuls; Hamilton was a golden boy; Landis pulled that spectacular mountain day.  Part of me thinks that Contador's bound to have few fans in an anglophone audience.  Are the Spanish bike fans speaking up for him?

[Cudzoziemiec]

I suppose the real test of that would be if Cav, Wiggo or Pendle was accused/suspected of doping.

[spesh]

I note a significant change in the attitude of everyone. In the past (Armstrong, Hamilton, Landis etc.) these threads used to be populated by arguments in favour of the rider, no matter how outlandish or not their defence was. Times have changed it seems. There seems to be a majority believing Contador was doping and want to throw out his last gasp defence idea.

I think that's just because none of us like Contador.

Armstrong has guts in bucketfuls; Hamilton was a golden boy; Landis pulled that spectacular mountain day.  Part of me thinks that Contador's bound to have few fans in an anglophone audience. 

Doping rumours aside, I suspect that Contador's "pistolero" victory celebration rubs many people up the wrong way*.

Are the Spanish bike fans speaking up for him?

There's a good piece on the Inner Ring concerning the reaction in Spain.

Opinion in the Spanish press is mixed; the sports daily Marca is taking a somewhat jingistic line, posting a cartoon that implies it's all a piratical French plot, whereas El Pais is of the view that Contador and the Spanish Federation didn't exactly help themselves...

http://inrng.com/2012/02/injustice-contador-verdict/


* Similar to Vettel's finger gesture in F1, which is why he leaves me cold, even though outside of the racing environment, he comes across as a nice guy.

[Rhys W]

Are the Spanish bike fans speaking up for him?

I don't know about the fans, but Indurain and Delgado have been vocal in their support. As has Merckx in his own way. Cancellara is the only pro rider going against the party line.

[rafletcher]

Are the Spanish bike fans speaking up for him?

I don't know about the fans, but Indurain and Delgado have been vocal in their support. As has Merckx in his own way. Cancellara is the only pro rider going against the party line.

Aaah yes, Perico. I still remember seeing him on TV, probably in the TdF, do an Armstrong (before I'd seen Armstrong do it). That is, riding at the head of a bunch on a climb, he looked round, took the measure of the bunch, then "danced" (and it was the first time that that description seemed apt) on the pedals and rode off into the distance. Almost certianly chemically aided, but still might impressive.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Now Jan Ullrich has been banned as well, for 2 years from August 2011, and stripped of all titles gained after May 2005. I don't understand why the results go from 2005!

[spesh]

Now Jan Ullrich has been banned as well, for 2 years from August 2011, and stripped of all titles gained after May 2005. I don't understand why the results go from 2005!

Ahem. 

http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=43195.msg1159195#msg1159195

Why 2005? It's the documentary and DNA evidence uncovered during the Operation Puerto investigation, which showed that Ulrich was a client of Dr. Fuentes prior to the 2006 TdF (from which he was barred, along with other riders).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operaci%C3%B3n_Puerto_doping_case
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Ullrich#Operaci.C3.B3n_Puerto_doping_case

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ah... I thought it sounded a bit familiar...