Lucky Luke.

Interesting, I've not been in the beer tent yet... will have to tell the wife I'm doing another double in 2014

I'm interested to learn a bit more about how we all arrived at our love of riding.

Imagine 1000 years from now, there are no more cyclists. Historians must piece together the concept of cycling by reading the hub. One of them tries to learn to ride a bike by reading the Rant n' Rave section, but dies of old age after reading only 10% of the threads. The autopsy reveals a brain crippled by dry rot due to endless repetition of nonsense.

hard to understand why jalabert doesn't just come out with it, he had his opportunity a few weeks back in front of the french anti-doping commission, and completely blew it - basically perjured himself with this alzheimers type defence. not surprising that l'equipe are now forcing the issue. For a guy who went from being a sprinter, to winning the points, KOM and overall at the Vuelta, to world TT champion, and multiple grand tour KOM jersey winner, all during the dirtiest years of the sport in history, the only shocking information would be that he did not take anything. There's more chance of me pedalling up mount everest whilst holding my breath.

"it's a surprise", "I have not been informed", "I cannot say for sure" - Sounds like the trusted team doctors gave him roofies along with everything else.

these threads are the hub's own worst enema

I haven't read the full confession, only that he's not admitting to anything beyond blood doping through Fuentes. Many reckon he's trying to hang on to his Olympic medals from Sydney in 2000.

Jaja must be the only human alive 'surprised' to hear about that.

Looks like Jan's confession is about as half-arsed as LA's. Disappointing. Landis, Hamilton and the Chicken are still kicking their arse in the dirty laundry league.

Surviving fine thanks, and have been for many years. If you want to do something useful speak directly to your fellow mountain bikers who have no idea how to ride on the road, and more importantly, report that car for overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic. This thread is a waste of space, like the rest of the 'own worst enemy' bs on this site.

The cyclist and driver were both idiots, but only one of them risked culpable homicide to get where they were going a little bit quicker. In the Netherlands if that car had hit you the driver would have been absolutely crucified - never would have happened - the policy of Strict Liability ensures that it does not. Even in SA, the law quite plainly states that you wait until it is safe to overtake.

You're welcome. This information is your new best friend.

If you ride in the gutter frankly you are an idiot. Cars won't thank you for it, they will give you the same amount of space, meaning you have nowhere to go when they cut you up. Twenty years of riding on the road at both ends of the planet taught me this.

How has Lance outed the UCI? Hamilton and Landis got the ball rolling there if I remember correctly. Lance is very far from having told us the whole story. There are many people invested in him keeping silent about a lot of what went on. What irks me most - continues to annoy me - is the warped part of human nature - displayed here and elsewhere - that idolises a selfish sociopath. Regardless of the fact that he cares not one iota for anyone but himself. I reckon many people just wish that they too could be free to behave like dickwads. I think there's a parallel there with African politics.

The guy failed test after test and for years it came to nothing. '99 tour - cortisone - BS TUE - that will do nicely, thanks Lance '01 TDS - EPO - no problem, step right up on to the podium mr armstrong '99 samples - was it 7 EPO positives revealed by Equipe in '05? - came to nothing And these with forewarning of when the testers were coming. Rasmussen - no positive, just a whereabouts violation - no tour for you buddy. Landis - testosterone, gone. Contador - a few picograms of clen - tour title stripped and Giro too, sanctioned. Hamilton - popped at LA's request Now I'm fine with all of these guys going down because I know they were all dirty, but to me there's nothing impressive on a sporting level about Armstrong finding a way to make his own positives disappear. That's all down to money and abuse of power. People who still put Armstrong on a pedestal need to get real. The guy was a grade A grand tour failure until he went all-in with the money and the drugs post cancer. Look to Ferrari, Tom the Weasel, The Hog, Fat Pat and Verbruggen. Thoese are the people who put your donkey on the podium in Paris. There are your sporting heros. Fat old men who knew how to cheat the system better than anybody, and make a pile of money in the process. Ultimately the biggest laugh of all is that he could have gotten away with his 7 yellow jersies, but he shot himself in the foot by stepping on too many people on the way to paris. His own ego and his douchebag personality ended up being the double barrelled shotgun that shot him in both feet. By contrast, a guy like Big Mig, who quietly went about winning his five tours and disappeared from view thereafter - he's been left pretty much alone. It would probably be quite easy to dig the dirt on him, but no-one can be bothered. Merckx - most people don't even remember that he tested positive. LA will always be remembered as a doper, because he loved the limelight, basked in it, dressed up like cancer jesus and worked almost as hard as he did on the bike to project another image. That's why he's a cock and will always be remembered as such.

I found this interview with Balco steroid pimp Victor Conte pretty interesting. http://vimeo.com/51662984

UK Postal? Read the post. I'm talking about Sky.

Why not have a look at the history of the sport? You'll find plenty of miraculous transformations. Some of them are actually pretty recent.

He wasn't very good at riding to the finish in those three tours he um... didn't finish.

As far as Wiggins is concerned I think all the bluster about being 'forced' out of Sky by Froome is a load of crap. The guy looks like he is ready to cash in his chips. He won one Grand Boucle - pretty miraculous for a rider like him - and on a personal level I'm sure he recognises that he needs to get out now while the going is good.

I don't think Evans can win another one in the face of Sky's dominance. I reckon we should look for Contador to make a miraculous recovery on the TT front and to up his climbing game as well. There's also lots of talk of a spanish armada amassing across the various teams. Something has to be done to challenge the black motorcade. Hopefully some business savvy ds'es will crack a few deals. Fat Pat's position of vulnerability at the UCI and the challenge from Sky-associate Cookson also might not bode well for the men in black if they are doing anything remotely untoward.

Nope, that would have been the Ferrari exclusivity clause and the ability to make positive tests go away - both bought and paid for. The evidence is plain as daylight in his palmares. Pre-99 Lance returned from Paris four times - with 3 DNF's and a 36th place if I remember correctly. We know about the backdated TUE for cortisone and the TDS EPO positive. How many other hall passes were handed out? Getting back to Jan, maybe he'll have some light to shed on this. He's definitely of the opinion that Wonderboy had protection anyway. Sufficiently convinced to mention it in his interview.

Seriously? Have a look at UK Postal. Does that look like an authentic athletic performance to you? Somebody has paid the right people a lot of money to put those motorbikes at the front of the peloton.

I liked the Chicken. Dirty as they come, but he went downhill like a man with two balls. That's not dope banking the bike for him.

Yes I know what the Chicken took - a couple hundred thousand IU's of EPO and 5 blood bags was the main part of the list if I remember correctly. Did you read my post? Because your not addressing what I was saying. It still wasn't enough to win him the tour, because he didn't pay off the right people - namely the ones running the sport, and the best doping doctor in the business. LA had no talent for grand tours, but he managed to bribe, bully and pay his way to 7 yellow jersies. If any of you find that admirable I feel sorry for you.