And so it begins :-)

where you been jrduquemin? its been going on for a long time already. i just hope the absolute truth comes out.

Next..............

Hehheh I knew it.

Not to worry Mikel, you can comeback to race Vino, Ricco and Rasmeussen in two years! Let the world know how angry you are at being caught!

Maybe the three riders that finished just behind him in stage 16 would like a word........

Usually when something's too good to be true... it is. Next up- any other Tour breakaway specialists...

What a shame it takes so long to get the test results. His sample was taken on June 26. Results are available today, more than a month later. I wonder what is so difficult/time-consuming about the testing procedure that it takes more than a month for results?

scum! disqualify his whole team i say!

No just ban the cheats who take EPO for life.

There is an element of truth that a professional cyclist weighs up the odds and makes the decision to cheat using EPO due to the financial benefits.

If they know that they could lose their living and future income they may consider that it's just not worth it.

Of course may be they should be sent to prison for fraud also.

The idea of letting cheats that are cheating to this level back after two years is just strange to me and immoral of the governing organisations that run cycling.

I know cycling experts go on and on about how well cycling is dealing with the drug problem but only banning EPO cheats for a few years is letting them off very lightly and not really promoting a drug free sport. Nor educating youngsters about the rights and wrongs of sport.

A BAN FOR LIFE FOR TAKING EPO IN OUR SPORT MIGHT ACTUALLY SAVE LIVES LET ALONE THE SPORT ITSELF.

Its gonna be a horrible Tour to watch if the major cheats from a few years ago are going to get to race again I mean its just demeaning for the sport to have to put up with these cheats again no matter how much they bark on about how shameful they feel and how they are now clean and would never do it again.

And that's the ones that have confessed, the ones that go on about how the test was wrong well it's depressing just listening to them.

All it takes is for Eurosport to decided to drop out of cycling due to the bad press of this cheating and our sport is doomed. If advertisers wth TV stations start stating that they don't want their commercial shown when the Tour is on and Eurosports and other stations position could change there are plenty of other sports that could get just as good following.

How many of your non cycling friends think that all professional cyclist are on drugs?

So... David Millar then. Shouldn't be there from what you say.

I hated the attacks on Riis after he owned up. C'mon EVERYONE was at it in his day, you couldn't compete without. And how many have not owned up?

The pressure is there, and without institutional drug-free programmes like many teams have now & British Cycling have there's no way indoviduals can avoid drugs.

Look at the Lucosade adverts!

Cheers, al.

Di Luca and now this mook. Couldn't agree more with all the too good to be true brigade above. Just get them all out and keep them out, for good. Arrogant, ignorant fools...

As much as I would love to see the cheats banned for life, you simply can't because no test is 100% accurate.

Further, consider that the riders are the only ones taking the fall. Start banning team directors and manager, too. The CULTURE of doping has to be destroyed before this sport is clean and that culture will never end by only punishing the riders.

We're so pissed Spaniard Mikel Astarloza tested positive today. His stage 16 in this years Tour de France was fantastic. A dream stage we would all love to win, and we cheered for him. That attack in the last 2k was just a lie. We wasted our support on him, wasted our trust. I hearby redirect that support and trust to the little French hero Sandy Cesar. Astarloza's positive test came on June 26th, so we await with trepidation his dope test results for that day.

The only real victory here was for congratulations to the testers, who scored another victory against the cheats. Their out of competition test caught Astarloza preparing for the Tour de France on EPO. The fact is that we can’t get a July free from scandal is a simple disgrace.

His Euskaltal-Euskadi team claiming their second positive in a month - a filthy team?

When we asked the Euskaltal-Euskadi team’s press officer if Iñigo Landaluze was going to be suspended: “Of course he is" was the indignant reply. Like it was such a surprise. One rider caught, but two headline riders testing positive in a month? The team staff must be inclusive in the suspension of the riders. We want answers Mikel, honest answers, it's what we all deserve.

www.bikepure.org

I agree the Culture is still in the sport, as far as I'm aware life bans are a no no due to human rights issues, and I hate to say it they are only killing themselves with the crap they take.

Therefore we may not like it but they have a right to re-enter their society after they have done their time no matter how much we dislike it.

The issue of David Millar, well as in all things in life we just have to beleive he's repentant and trying to genuinly go about his trade, I for one am prepared to do that as I beleive that he was pressured as were many riders into the drug culture by his peers coaches and teams.

We all knew this proccess would be painful for us as fans, but at least we are trying to rid our sport of chemical enhancment. Anyone for tennis.

BAN FOR LIFE. Sorry but that includes David Millar, just because he is British does not mean we have to say he is ok now he has seen the error of his ways. Unfortunately, I do not believe a life long ban would ever be imposed. So we will have to continue to put up with these cheats who turn on the water works after saying its pressure to compete and financial. Although I presume they would continue to dope with a clear consensus if they are not caught.

Money talks with sponsors, look at Dwain Chambers. The fast man in Uk over 100m. He is a cheat. But would another runner who finishes 8 seconds behind Bolt be acceptable to the big backers, no. That's why the BAA has bowed and let the cheat back in. Same in cycling and all sports. Its all about the money. Shame.

BAN FOR LIFE - simples!! You live by the sword, you die by the sword!

All those found to have tested positive for ANY banned substance should be BANNED FOR LIFE. That is the only way these cretins will get it into their narrow-minded heads that we as fans, fellow cyclists, enthusiasts of this sport DO NOT want these people dragging our sport down. I appreciate that the tests may not be 100% accurate as yet but if their not dabbling then they have nothing to fear and as time goes on surely the testing procedures become more accurate.

In order for the sport to be truly clean it will take many years, but by starting with a life ban for those found to be positive will be a great start and should be a deterrent to any pro who has an ounce of self respect to think twice.

As for Directors and Managers of teams, I think a 2 year Ban would be a sufficient punishment if 2 or more team members are found to have tested positive in a single season. This way they have a personal involvement in ALL of their riders - increasing the pressure on them to stay clean

The guilty parties are an embarrassment to themselves, their family, their friends, their colleagues and above all to the whole sport - we don't want them!

One down... how many more to go?

I have only this year returned to watching the TdF after years avoiding it because of the cheats. So what has changed? Not a lot it seems. Now it's just waiting to see who is next... a podium winner perhaps?

Alberto Contador will be next ;-) (well after that attack you never know)

On a more serious note i was surprised that there was no doping scandals during the Tour this year. Looks like we will have to wait until the end of August before more sh*t hits the fan

Busted, don't bother coming back.

The news this week confirms what we already knew. Doping controls and punitive competition bans simply do not work. They only push doping further and further to the edge of the envelope where athletes are willing to put untested, unsafe drugs into their bodies. Further, the level playing field that doping supposedly tips in the users’ direction, never existed in the first place given the advantages afforded those with money or rich sponsors or both (i.e., better training, better coaching, better equipment.)

Wouldn’t it be better if instead of worrying about who doped in the past and spending a ton of money trying to catch athletes using performances enhancing drugs if the focus where on reducing the harm associated with doping? Legalize the use of performance enhancing drugs and bring it under medical supervision so that the athletes, who are going to use them anyway, are safer. The same four guys are going to have a shot at winning the Tour de France with or without the drugs, so what impact are tests and competition bans having anyway? The answer would be none.

Luca Rossi

http://aviewfromtheback.wordpress.com

Legalising is incredibly naive - firstly many preformance enhancing products can be detrimental to your health, you're supposed to accept a shortend lifespan just to be a pro road racer? Secondly you'd start an arms race of more and more extreme drugs being used (with greater and greater side effects).

Life bans are drastic but pretty much required now, 2 year bans (with many teams seemingly willing to give riders a second chance) just aren't enough of a deterrent. A mid-pack pro has the choice of staying clean and being a relatively poorly paid domestique constantly stressing over whether his performances are good enough to get him a contract for next year vs taking drugs/blood doping and getting some decent results (probably at least becoming a favoured domestique of the team captain and thus guaranteeing his contract), maybe even winning races/stages. I know I'd be tempted, especially when it comes to being able support your family.

On the flipside no one should expect to have a successful pro career, if you're not good enough then you need to find something else to do (like the rest of us). So whilst I feel some sympathy for the guys cheating just to stay in a job I still support life bans. For riders like Ricco who would probably sell their family for a bit more success and adoration I have zero sympathy.

Truth is we will never ever truly know. How many years had the people at the top been using CERA before it was ever detected?, chances are CERA is now probably old hat, yesterdays drug, used by second rate riders and aging pros whilst the top guys are sticking something 5 years off detection into their veins. By the time retro testing gets them they'll make up some excuse about contaminated samples or shoddy lab practice.

The best way of getting through to these people is probably through their peers, and, if the comments of Bernie Kohl are anything to go by, this is like a pub full of drunkards telling the young kid with a pint to stop being irresponsible. Go for the teams, it's one thing to gamble with your own career but start messing with others and the net would soon close in. Besides, its a team sport and if the guy dragging you to the foot of a climb at the head of the group, or leading you out to the line is guilty then i'm sorry but your win is pretty hollow too.

Until then I await the late summer calls of 'ban em all for life' as some top guy goes on performing miracles while the kid 22 minutes down the road breathing out of his ass tests positive.

How about something like a truth and reconciliation commission in pro-cycling? A reduced ban (say 12 to 18 months) for those who confess and co-operate (to be judged by someone independent of the UCI), but 3 years plus a lifetime ban from the grand tours and the World champs if you're caught?

You gotta give people a chance, no-one's perfect (even Paul Kimmage took stimulants, at least once, he said so in A Rough Ride), but the dopers have got to have something to lose.

fancy getting caught using epo now. what a clown, shows how much he cares about the sport of cycling.

madeincumbria, I don't understand your comment about Chambers.

"Money talks with sponsors, look at Dwain Chambers. The fast man in Uk over 100m. He is a cheat. But would another runner who finishes 8 seconds behind Bolt be acceptable to the big backers, no. That's why the BAA has bowed and let the cheat back in."

- He's not the fastest man in UK, he finished second in the 100m UK champs recently.

- No sponsor will go near him because he is so tainted. The guy is broke and struggling to pay bills because few meeting want him running.

- Who are the BAA? British Airports Authority? Do you mean the BOA, the British Olympic Association? I presume not as he is still banned from the Olympics. Maybe you meant British Athletics Association or something? There's no such body, but UK Athletics have not welcomed Chambers back at all, they tried to ban him from the national champs a few years ago but failed, basically because he was operating within the rules having served his ban.

In athletics drug cheats have a far tougher time than in cycling. Even if they admit to doping, as Chambers has, there is much less forgiveness, espcially from follow athletes.