Posted on 07/02/2010 11:30:15 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy
Well, it could if her mom was a hematology researcher or something, lol. My Mom is a Lance fan, if that means anything. Alas, she was only a math professor, although maybe there's something in number theory that makes her believe that some of the wilder accuations don't add up! ;-)
There is no dishonor in being a domestique!
You apparently responded to the wrong post, leilani. I never said or even suggested either of those.
I was pretty up on all that EPO & blood doping stuff a couple of TdFs ago, but I'm no longer fluent. Also, I'm not of the scientific persuasion, so I am hampered by my extreme idiocy.
But you know, that wacky thing that just came to me about him possibly having become a chimera after treatment with allogeneic natural EPO back in his cancer days and having cells now which are different genetically (& which would therefore allow him to do allogeneic epoetin instead of synthetic all he wanted because as a chimera he's supposed to have heterogeneous cells, so it wouldn't be evidence of doping as it would for everyone else) sure sounds like.... a great script idea for House, maybe.
But with all their unethical sources at the French drug testing labs, I think we would have all heard about it from L'Equipe if Lance Armstrong was a chimera, lol. ;-)
(In the spirit of the post to which I was replying, I was being facetious.)
But if everybody wants to be bummed out that Spain beat the Netherlands, then by all means, that's absolutely justified. ;-)
OK, gotcha. I still like my idea for the House script which your post inspired though. I wonder how I’d go about pitching that to the producers....;-)
Actually, there’s at least one physical therapist in southern California that believes that story. I know, because he bent my ear about it 3x week for a several weeks two years ago.
I don't know that we'll ever know the truth, but at this point I don't care if these guys are huffing the glue from their handlebar tape, you know?
I'm so disgusted with all of them - the athletes AND the anti-doping officials - that it's become a complete wash for me.
I'm at the point on doping where I want to yell a paraphrase of what somebody else once said IIRC to the Dixie Chicks: Shut up & ride!
Well that’s the thing.. I’m with you. If they called it Tour de Doping and made it a free-for-all, at least we’d all get the truth in advertising for a change. What percentage of the 188-whatever left are on something today? :shrug: I do love watching the sport, and the storied history of this race, but I truly don’t get behind any of them as being 100% free of shenanigans. And even when they’re caught and banned and return; I heard Phil Liggett refer to Vino as a fine upstanding young man yesterday. Really, Phil? I don’t know. What can you say.
There was an episode of House on over the weekend where a bike rider had a tumor in which the treatment for anemia was blood doping and sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber both of which the rider was doing. He was “doping” but only getting back to “normal”.
” Andy Schleck sure filled that role quite nicely today. Ha!”
Scheleck looked calm, strong, and focused on the win today.
Would like to see Cadel win, but wouldn’t be disappointed if Andy takes it.
Sad part is his brother won’t be there to help him.
Figures they would re-air the episode during TdF, huh?
Hmmm. I should probably pitch the chimera athlete story idea to the producers with a track star protaganist instead since they already did a bike doping story.
Yeah, but maybe being out of his brother's shadow will force him to come into his own. And if he can do it by leaving Alberto in the dust, all the better! :-0
There's also always the slenderest reed of a possibility that there could be a massive pileup and all the GC contenders get knocked out of the race and a sprinter sweeps through to take the yellow in Paris for the first time in history,lol.
GO THOR!
Well, he blew a tire on the cobblestones, in a section where he had to wait a long time for a replacement tire. That was just bad luck.
And the 1st and 3rd crashes weren’t his own doing today, just held him up.
The 2nd crash does appear to be something he could have avoided on his own, clipping his pedal was his own doing.
But this tour has had more than it’s share of people crashing and taking out dozens of other riders.
It’s almost like a jinxed tour. Oil on the track? A reporter stepping in front of a rider AFTER the finish line?
I agree with your sentiments. My statement on luck was not meant to take away from his talent or hard work, both of which I agree are one in a million. But there are times where even the sharpest instincts and skills cannot avoid a crash. Or just bad luck - getting laid out by a camera man after the finish line. Or getting sick with something in July.
Lance took control of everything he could during his run. but some things are out of your control no matter how much you try to. It doesn’t take away from his legacy to point it out because it is true of all great athletic accomplishments.
” There’s also always the slenderest reed of a possibility that there could be a massive pileup and all the GC contenders get knocked out of the race and a sprinter sweeps through to take the yellow in Paris for the first time in history,lol.”
Now that would be historical and hysterical at the same time... :) :) :)
Yeah, and I'd also really like to see a verrrry slow-mo replay of that Euskatel-caused crash, too. No question I am hyper-cynical & overly-suspicious and I'm not saying anything untoward happened in that particular crash, but how hard would it be for teams (or merely unethical rogue riders with lots of betting money on the line perhaps) to take out contenders like that?
And maybe that's what I sensed before - that his focus is not so much on winning for individual glory now (surely he's had enough of that), but on pushing the group aspect & ramping up the mass popularity of this sport and make his final appearance his "Pay It Forward" tour.
He's involved in advocating for cycling in lots of ways through the new team, through his shop, and a proposed bikeway & commuter biking center in Austin, for example. If he can pull off some audience-pleasing fireworks to get somebody else on the podium, I strongly suspect that he'd feel that was good for his resume now that he's more involved on the business end in other words, even though most of his fans wouldn't get that it was a big deal & feel it was somehow a disappointing comedown to be riding for the sake of someone else's glory in the TdF.
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