Yeah, cos that's the one he gave himself and that's not fair. Did you see it on his skin suit today? The 'o' is this: I presume he's got a collection of parkas and Vespas at home.
Hmmmm. I was going to suggest Bradders but wasn't aware of this: www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bradders
We all know the history of Radioshack and its predecessors. But watching that stage today and apparently coming to the conclusion that the result most deserving of surprised comment was that of the 13th placed rider, who has two previous Tour GC top 5s, a top 10 and two more top 20s to his name, seems to me to be a rather peculiar way of looking at things. Zubeldia is no Cancellara, and 13th is an excellent result for him, so there's nothing inherently silly about noting it. It's just that there are rather more obviously surprising results.
Perhaps you would like to post up your expert analysis of Zubledia's previous TT results? Or at least comment on how he got so close to Kloeden? Go on, you can even write it in baby language and I promise to read it all the way through. Sure he has had some good GC placings - in dirty times. For me that result is worthy of question, if Froome's is that is.
Chris Froome was referred to as 'Froome-Dawg' by a fellow rider (I forget who) on yesterday's coverage. Does he encourage the use of this nickname?
Was that the day most people tasted tarmac? He should consider himself lucky As much as I love the mod scene this looks a bit naff!
His previous TT record is comparable to that of a certain Chris Froome, or at least it was prior to the Vuelta. A lot of results between 20th and 45th in GTs. With the notable exception that he has actually once won a TT, albeit a very short one in a smaller event. Yesterday he lost about the same amount of time to Froome as he lost to Landis in 2006. As for how he got close to Kloden, Kloden has been quite poor so far this Tour. Radioshack have quite the history, but the notion that their results so far this Tour are inherently suspicious and stick out from other teams in that regard is just bizarre. What with Frank Schleck dawdling around, Kloden, who was supposed to their secondary leader getting dropped on every hill and the best TT rider in the world getting smashed by a guy who was a middling climbing domestique up until a few months ago. There are endless reasons to be suspicious of Radioshack, but their results here so far hardly rank amongst them. If you really think that Cancellara is on the special sauce, what does that imply about your view of the riders pounding him into the ground?
Apparently the Cofidis hotel has been raided by the French cops, after one of their team's riders was arrested away from the Tour.
That was for a masking agent. He later proved he had a medical reason for taking it. I think ASO will be much stroppier about Cofidis - a judge investigating trafficking, a rider arrested, the Astana connections...it all smacks of a team doping programme.
German media saying that Cofidis still in Tour. They have suspended Di Gregorio. His phone was tapped and the police were waiting a whole year for him to say something connected to an Astana investigation.
It also seems he was supplying others, so will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes out of his police interviews etc.
Some choice remarks from the judge who threw out Armstrong's injunction against USADA: "This Court is not inclined to indulge Armstrong's desire for publicity, self-aggrandizement or vilification of Defendants, by sifting through eighty mostly unnecessary pages in search of the few kernels of factual material relevant to his claims. Contrary to Armstrong's apparent belief, pleadings filed in the United States District Courts are not press releases, internet blogs, or pieces of investigative journalism. All parties, and their lawyers, are expected to comply with the rules of this Court, and face potential sanctions if they do not." Or, as Brad would put it, the plaintiff is a cunt.
Del Moral, Ferrari and Marti have all been given life bans by USADA. This means that they didn't ask for an arbitration hearing, nor did they ask for an extension of time to respond. As a complete guess, I suspect that this means that they just ignored USADA and didn't respond at all. The necessary corollary to this would appear to be that Armstrong and Bruyneel have either asked for the extension of time (which is short) or have asked for the arbitration hearing to go ahead.
So what does the ban mean? What sanctions come their way if they work in cycling again? Will riders get pinged for working with them?
