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by **David Lombari** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:30 pm

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/to ... /jul26news

by **Will** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:34 pm

Wow! What a shocker!

by **Andrew G** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:38 pm

This evening, before this came out, I was starting to hope that Evans could get the time back in the TT to win. I don't like him as he's a miserable git and wheel-sucks to international level. You could argue that he's only wheel sucking because the others are cheating but I think it's also a natural trait for him, he'd probably sit on our wheels on a club run.

The reason for Evans rather than Contador is that there will always be the resurected suspected Puerto allegation and the Liberty Seguros and Discovery (and their recent record) issues.

As far as I know Evans has never had any suspicion about him. In fact, and I stand to be corrected if anyone knows different, but Aussie athletes are generally thought of as some of, if not, the cleanest around. I can't think of an Aussie who's tested positive or had any suspicion surround them.

by **Andrew G** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:42 pm

I'd forgotten about him at Liberty Seguros, I knew you'd be able to think of someone. :wink:

by **Will** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:51 am

Pat McQuaid on R4 just now trying to suggest that not that many riders are doping :lol:

by **Will** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:58 am

Perhaps, although for Pat to come out with arguments crafted with semantics makes him little different to the "I have never tested positive" lot...

by **Andrew G** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:02 am

Hey drugs or not those stages with Rasmusen and Contador duking it out track sprint stylee up a mountain were great to watch. 100 times better than the usual turgid crap that's been on offer in the Tour over recent years.

Let them kill themselves by the age of 40 pumped full of 10 types of blood, it makes for great stages to watch.

by **Graham O** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:17 am

Hmmm...What if poor old Levi and Cadel are clean then. Don;t you feel conned !!

by **huw williams** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:47 am

Haven't contacted him since I texted him after he took the jersey last week before the time trial - "Got somethng up my sleeve" was all he said - I don't think this state of affairs was what he had in mind though.

He's probably not in a mood to speak right now.

It's right that he was dumped - in the current climate you have to be whiter than white and even if he's clean you can't miss tests and dupe your team into believing you're in a different country.

I just dug out some of my earliest Mountain Biker interviews with Rasmussen and in 2000 he went from never having won a world cup race to winning the world championships (Cadel was an espoir at the time) - he told me his improved performance was down to spending a lot of time in Italy with a certain Paolo Rossola - a coach who was later heavily connected with Paola Pezzo's olympic gold medal winning performances and a man wioth some serious drug allegations against him, kind of the Dr Ferrari of Mountain Biking.

So with a mexican wife why would you tell your team you were training in Mexico and go to Italy?

Next in line is Contador I guess who has Puerto connections so he's not whiter than white.

Evans? Used to travel with him quite a bit and he wouldn't even touch a bottle of beer after he'd won a world cup race, but there were some serious questions being asked about the AIS (Australian Institute of Sports) at the time as I recall. Possibly gay though - Saw him race every weekend of every summer between Vail Colorado 1991 and 2001 and never once saw him with a girlfriend.

Went to a nightclub with him and his manager in Cairns Austrlia on Cadel's reccomendation - 300 Aussies in there - all men and all stripped to the waist!!! "Best club in Aus" he insisted???

But hey, you can't kick a guy off the tour for that :-)

Here's a picture of me trying to sell some cheap electric goods to Cadel in 2001

[img]http://i9.tinypic.com/53jw65s.jpg[/img]

On another note did you hear Rob Hayles sticking it to Lance on Radio 5 this morning?
Quote: "I was starting to believe that the tour was cleaning up because pre-race favourites were getting dropped and no single rider was strong every day and winning mountain stages as well as time trials." Ouch!

by **Elliot M** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:55 am

[quote="Will"]Pat McQuaid on R4 just now trying to suggest that not that many riders are doping :lol:

by **Will** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:01 am

interviewer was evan davies who appears to be making the transition from mild-mannered economics guru to harder-edged Today bulldog

shame they didn't have john humphreys though

by **Andrew G** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:48 am

[quote]Here's a picture of me trying to sell some cheap electric goods to Cadel in 2001

by **Jon H** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:02 pm

I guess that bloke in the chicken suit will be going back to the fancy-dress shop for a refund.

[img]http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races07/tdf07/tdf07st14-fans.jpg[/img]

by **sid_day** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:13 pm

IMO I think it is best that Rasmussen is out.
If he had won overall there would have just been a long running debate as to whether he deserved it.

Having read a handful of books on the tour the conclusion I came to was:

Le Tour = Controversy

A tour without controversy is boring and not Le Tour

by **Elliot M** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:46 pm

could be wrong but i think he was sacked by the sponsor not the team, certainly i read that the bank's board were involved in the decision. i reckon once it was clear he was going to win they decided that the risk of major long-running negative publicity would be too great. the allegations could get more serious down the line and time to reduce exposure to adverse risk / negative market sentiment in banking speak

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