Here we go again ... Beltran positive.

[Windbreaker]

 

So who are the organisers going to blame this time. The UCI again?

 

http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/Tour_de_France/0,,2-9-1506_2356223,00.html

 

Windbreaker2008-07-11 12:24:45

[Yang]

One down, plenty to go.

[dirtrider]

Not that easy boet ! BTW where is Moz are you ?

[Pieter Henning]

This article was on CyclingNews.com this morning.

 

The Tour's great unmentionable

By Daniel Friebe, Procycling's Features editor

The Tour de France is different this year, and it's different because no one's mentioning the Great Unmentionable. You know the one. Cyclist's oldest taboo. Or maybe its newest. The elephant in the room. Sport's equivalent of the Scottish Play. Those fingers tightly crossed now? Okay, sod the consequences, I'm going to say it: the Tour is different this year because no-one's talking about d-d-d-doping.

It's not just me - everyone's noticed it. And we like it. We like it not because talking, writing, pontificating about doping isn't stimulating or important, but because there's been precious little reason to broach the subject on the first few days of the race, and that's mighty encouraging. It's also a novelty. Once the "D-word" never alighted on Tour journalists lips because they were either too naive to realize what was going on, or too pious to acknowledge it; then came the Festina scandal and a decade when we talked about little else. This week we haven't bothered simply because, well, it's starting to seem as relevant as the new Coldplay album my colleague Ellis Bacon keeps playing in the car.

Now don't get me wrong. At least two stages and their winners this week have elicited their fair share of sniggers and sarcasm (I don't need to tell you who they are). On the whole, though, the atmosphere in the press room has been worlds away from the cynical, rabid, Robespierrian fervor of last year. Soon we'll be logging on to Youtube, wistfully reliving those press conferences where Michael Rasmussen looked one nasty question away from bursting into tears. We'll be pining for Alex Vinokourov and his blood transfusions. But for now we're just fine. Even Paul Kimmage seems to be enjoying himself.

[Pieter Henning]

But now this happens, ai.

 

Tour's first doping positive reported

Spaniard Manuel Beltr?n has reportedly become the 2008 Tour de France's first doping positive. The Liquigas rider's A sample is said to have tested positive for the banned blood booster erythropoeitin following the first stage which ended in Plumelec last Saturday.

Tour organiser, Amaury Sport Organisation, has yet to make a formal announcement, but the Associated Press received confirmation from French Anti-doping Agency (AFLD) president Pierre Bordry of the result, and said that Beltr?n has requested a B sample analysis.

The French newspaper L'Equipe also reported that Beltran was one of the riders found by the AFLD to have abnormal blood values in the days prior to the Tour.

Beltr?n, one of Lance Armstrong's former mountain domestique has ridden for the Liquigas team since leaving the Discovery Channel in 2006.

Cyclingnews will bring more details on the story as it unfolds.

[Pieter Henning]

Seems they jinxed it. Wonder if the entire team will be sent home like last year. And now any good performance will once again be surrounded by doubt. So sad for the sport.

[Canaris]

 

Another of LA's leuitenants are busted. ?THis makes it how many so far:

HAmilton

Landis

Beltran

Heras (thanks phen)

KonaFan2008-07-11 13:11:05

[Pieter Henning]

Heras

[bruce]

Franky Andreu confessed as well didn't he?

[The Saint]

Looks like Tricky has been up to some naughty tricks. Just on this whilst watching the stages yesterday and today I found it very strange that Cunego is the only one who "professes" to be clean and always gets dropped on the climbs. I just wonder if the others are not up to something cause if Cunego is the benchmark then it certainly looks like it.

 

Then again he might just be useless.

[Slowbee]

MuxMan, how was the drinks @ the keg?

[grosjoster]

on the afrikaans news last night they said there is yet another possible scandal in the tdf after 10 people tested positive. is that true? or is it just beltran?

[Delgado]

Without being "negative" (i.e. read a realist), did folk expect any different this years TDF?? Fool me once they say!!

 

I can't help watching a cricket match and somewhere in the back of the mind having a niggly feeling if it is for real or is it Hansiefied??

[Chunky]

There should be another announcement today about 2 other riders also positive. One for EPO and the other for a hormone.

 

I say it again, there isnt a single rider there that isn't taking drugs. Not one.

[linnega]

 

So who are the organisers going to blame this time. The UCI again?

 

http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/Tour_de_France/0,,2-9-1506_2356223,00.html

 

[/quote']

Why would the organisers "blame" anyone.  It is not their fault so why would they need to deflect the blame?

 

Anyway, last Tour for Liquigas.  They won't be welcome next year with Basso anyway.

 

[linnega]

 

on the afrikaans news last night they said there is yet another possible scandal in the tdf after 10 people tested positive. is that true? or is it just beltran?

10 people showed abnormal blood profiles.  Could mean something but may not.