pererace70 Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 A bit harsh I say... Someone clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed! Tour de France - Blazin' Saddles: World of their own Eurosport - Thu, 17 Jul 08:04:00 2008 Can things get any worse for Barloworld? Mauricio Solerleft the Tour before the mountains, Moises Duenas got busted for EPOand now two more riders have gone crashing out, leaving their teamrostrum looking as thin as Frank Schleck's arms. http://d.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com//ng/sp/eurosport/20080717/25/81e3e0ba382b896299454eb3746b9fab.jpg More Stories Saddles archiveEurosport Player: Watch every stage LIVE !!Barometer: Thor Whushovd?Stage 11 in depthStage 12: The virtual mapPlenty more in our Tour de France section In all honesty, Barloworld might as well pack up and go home. It's not as if Robert Hunter or Baden Cooke are ever going to win a sprint now, is it? And who exactly are John-Lee Augustyn, Chris Froome and Giampaolo Cheula?? Andtalk about identity crisis: the team is sponsored by a South Africanbrand management company (the irony) which specialises in dealingCaterpillar trucks; they are British-registered, Italian-managed, andfilled with a hotpotch of South Africans, Italians and the odd Brit forgood measure. One of those 'Brits' - Froome - isn't evenBritish; he's Kenyan who has taken a British passport, making him theKevin Pietersen of cycling if you will. Except Pietersen seems to bringsomething to his team. Barloworld's caterpillar tracks hittheir first snag with the departure of Soler - and with it the team'sonly realistic chance of glory. The Colombian dominated the mountainslast year but failed to ride over any this time around, his crownfirmly resting upon Riccardo Ricco's swollen pate. Theunfortunate events in stage 11 following Duenas' expulsion gavecredence to the expression 'bad luck comes in threes' with first PaoloLongo Borghini fracturing his collarbone in a fall and then FelixCardenas gashing his leg. Even before the two withdrawals,Duenas had somewhat soured Barloworld's morale, a spokesman summing upthe situation with the doleful words: "The team is in a bad mood. Weare in shock." On their website, Barloworld went to extraordinary lengths to stress their innocence in the sorry affair. Astatement that would have made Pontius Pilate proud said: "It hasemerged that some banned medicines that were absolutely not supplied orprescribed by the team doctor were found in Moises Duenas's room." Team manager Claudio Corti,sounding like a headmaster who has just discovered that one of his starpupils has a stash of dirty magazines hidden under his mattress, said:"I've asked the French police to fully investigate the case so that wecan fully understand the seriousness of what Moises Duenas has done. Heseems to have secretly used banned substances, hiding everything fromeverybody else in the team." Blazin' Saddles loves the use ofthe rhetorical devices 'It has emerged' and 'He seems to' but will makeno further comment except this: "It appears that some readers areputting into the mouth of Blazin' Saddles words and theories that werecategorically not given or even held as his own."
Willehond Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 Don't worry, they will soon forget about Barloworld now that Ricco has come to their rescue!
Jackes Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 This guy ain't in WW's line to buy Barloworld shirts thats for sure !
grosjoster Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 the crashes could've happened to any team.. "who exactly is john lee augusteyn..." i wanna see them ask that again in 10 years time... he already climbs better than half the field and is just 21 yrs old...
SwissVan Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 Don't worry' date=' they will soon forget about Barloworld now that Ricco has come to their rescue![/quote'] They dont waste time Tour de France - Ricco EPO positive stuns Le TourEurosport - Thu, 17 Jul 12:16:00 2008 Double stage winner Riccardo Ricco has sent the Tour de France into another major doping scandal after testing positive for the blood booster EPO.http://d.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com//ng/sp/eurosport/20080717/25/f4228104d316bd24e809c70f60f93aa0.jpg More StoriesExplosive Ricco doubles his tally Tour rocked by new drugs scandalThe brash Italian climber, who won stages six and nine in summit finishes, tested positive for the illegal drug during the fourth stage individual time trial in Cholet the French anti-doping agency announced.Ricco is the third rider to test positive for EPO (erythropoietin) at this year's event after Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado."It's for the same product as the other two," AFLD president Pierre Bordry told Reuters.But the 24-year-old Saunier Duval man is by far the biggest name of the three, having finished second in this year's Tour of Italy and dominated the mountain stages through the first week of the Grande Boucle.The rider, nicknamed the Cobra, had already cockily predicted he would claim victory on the stage six uphill finish at Super-Besse, a promise he delivered upon, as well as guaranteeing a stage victory in next week's fabled L'Alpe-D'Huez stage.Ricco had not been informed of the positive doping test when the AFLD made the announcement public.The latest doping scandal is a new black eye for the biggest race in the sport, which had hoped to recover from two successive years of outrages involving performance enhancing drugs.In 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his yellow jersey after testing positive for heightened levels of adrenaline.Last year's race was also marred by a drugs scandal when then overall leader Michael Rasmussen was kicked out of the Tour for failing to inform his Rabobank team of his whereabouts for out-of-racing tests and overall favourite Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping.More to follow.
4ph3X Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 maybe that's why hunter and the likes aren't performing... they're all negative! cant compete against these druggies
linnega Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 maybe that's why hunter and the likes aren't performing... they're all negative! cant compete against these druggies maybe, or maybe its more that you can't turn donkeys into racehorses, as both Millar and Kimmage have pointed out in the past. The one thing they actually agree on.
GTman Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 maybe that's why hunter and the likes aren't performing... they're all negative! cant compete against these druggies or the other guys are on stuff that they not.... Everybody dopes. GEt it. Everybody. Saw it with own eyes...
Willehond Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 maybe that's why hunter and the likes aren't performing... they're all negative! cant compete against these druggies or the other guys are on stuff that they not.... Everybody dopes. GEt it. Everybody. Saw it with own eyes... When, recently? What year?
MtbCpt Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 13:44 - Another Barloworld Crash Radio Tour has justannounced that another Barloworld rider has crashed. Yesterday two fromthe team abandoned after accidents in the stage to Foix. We have noinformation on who was involved in the recent fall.
MtbCpt Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 13:47 - Cooke The Crash Victim Baden Cooke was therider from Barloworld who crashed recently. He is back on his bike buthas rejoined the peloton after a quick chase.
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