Spinopsys

Going slow

Posted July 12th, 2007 in Race, Dope, TdF 2007

In addition to digging Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin riffing on about the relative merits of renewables versus Nuclear energy last night, I really enjoyed Liggett’s opening comments on the TdF broadcast. Unfortunately I forgot to save them for posterity.

His comments were made in the context of a discussion on the tiredness and the lower speeds seen in the peloton so far. In part, Liggett attributed some of this to a changed doping environment; that without the usual medical assistance the riders are now unable to judge what they have in the tank and are saving up for a rainy day.

For the record the speed of stage three was around 35.81km/h and last nights was 41.69 km/h

Certainly, the racing seen so far has been interesting from that standpoint, it has an almost old fashioned feel to it with the peloton starting quite slowly and finishing fast as opposed to the past few years where the hammer came down as soon as the flag was dropped.

Then as if to confirm Liggetts assertions we have noted cycling photographer Graham Watson stating essentially the same thing in his daily Tour podcast. One thing is for sure, as serious cycling insiders and media guys privy to Tour scuttlebutt this has to be the consensus view so far.

But it’s not over yet. As if to remind us of an uglier time, along comes the B side of Mattias Kesslers recent non-negative. From Cyclingnews.

Matthias Kessler’s B-sample has also tested positive for testosterone, with an equally “exorbitantly high value” as the A-sample, according to the Sueedeutsche Zeitung, leading the newspaper to say that he had “obviously been caught in flagranti.”

Kessler, who has denied doping, also gave an explanation for the positive tests. He told his attorney, Michael Lehner, that shortly before the Fleche Wallone, when he was tested positive, he swallowed the contents of four packages “with Chinese writing on them.” He had received the packages from his alternative health practitioner, and assumed they were food supplements.

The German rider tested positive on April 24, and the test showed a testosterone value of 85:1, while a normal value is 4:1. Professor Wilhelm Schaenzer, leader of the Biochemistry Institute at the Sports School in Cologne, Germany, said that a natural value of over 15 to 20 is “not possible.” His is currently suspended by his Astana team.

Looking at his highly amusing descriptions of an “alternative health practitioner” and description of the contents of what he took as containing “Chinese writing” on them, one can only assume that Kessler is either as dumb as a bag of hammers or he thinks we’re totally stupid. By now even he would know that he is totally responsible for what enters his body. And that we would know he’s lying.

Would any one of us when presented with the kind of scenario he describes just guzzle the stuff down without knowing what it is?

Then there is the reported testosterone values he’s returned. 85:1 as opposed to norms that are much lower. Anyone knowing a bit about Chinese medicine can only assume that this was as a result of a massive ingestion of Rhino Horn and Tigers Penis. I look forward to him using that excuse.

technorati tags: cycling, tourdefrance, doping

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