Tour de France

[Jack Frederick]

I began following the Tour since the mid-80’s when the great American rider Greg LeMond began winning the Tour. It is just a great event. It is hard as h*** to follow, but so pleasant to watch the beautiful scenery. Phil Liggett and Bob Roll, the announcers play very well together.

[John Terefenko]

Lost interest since Armstrong was caught cheating and believe now they all cheat.

[Larry Frank]

Yes, many probably cheat. I am still amazed what they can do. How the heck can the body do the mountain stages? And the tour has the biggest idiot people along the route.

[Lee DeRaud]

What always amazes me are the poor buggers filming while riding backwards on the back of a motorcycle.
I couldn't do it: there is literally no one on earth I would trust to drive the thing.

[Todd Trebuna]

Lost interest since Armstrong was caught cheating and believe now they all cheat.

i understand the idea and I’m not justifying, but this is one event where “cheating” probably has the least impact. Essentially these are humans riding bicycles over 2000 miles over 22 days. Either way it’s superhuman, cheating or not. . Totally respect your decision to not watch it, just noting that performance enhancing drugs probably play less of a role in an event of this duration and intensity.

[Tom M King]

It wasn't just drugs. They saved their own blood beforehand, and did blood transfers overnight to start with a fresh, oxygen rich supply the next day. They also adjusted the amount of red blood cells. It was their own blood, enriched by manipulation, but not after being filled with lactate the day before. Russians and East Germans did that back in their days at the Ollympics too.

That's what they meant by "blood doping". They could still pass a drug test because it was their own blood.

[Alan Lightstone]

I also used to follow the tour religiously. A good friend of mine actually used to have one of Lance's bikes on his wall with a jersey. Since removed.

I was not at all surprised to see all the cheating revealed. We were asking these riders to perform superhuman feats. We shouldn't have been surprised at all that they all cheated to be able to do them.

The most telling fact regarding the level of cheating came from Greg Lemond. He was injured in that freak accident, after winning the Tour, and came back 2 years later in what he described the best shape of his life. He couldn't keep up with the peloton. So something had changed, and was rotten. Now, of course, we know what that was.

[Thomas Wilson]

It wasn't just drugs. They saved their own blood beforehand, and did blood transfers overnight to start with a fresh, oxygen rich supply the next day. They also adjusted the amount of red blood cells. It was their own blood, enriched by manipulation, but not after being filled with lactate the day before. Russians and East Germans did that back in their days at the Ollympics too.

That's what they meant by "blood doping". They could still pass a drug test because it was their own blood.

WADA is onto that and has it pretty well policed. They use a long term monitoring program called the Blood Passport for red blood cell count, testosterone level, and other natural factors.If the count varies downward during training periods or upward during competition, that is a positive test for blood doping. Also, there are blood additives for storing blood and impurities from the blood bags and tubing that are detectable. If the riders keep the amount of whole blood or EPO OR HGH below the positive test threshold then they can get away with doping, but the performance enhancement is small too.

Most of the PED usage today is asthma drugs and is prescribed and given a waiver. I don’t remember the percentage of riders who have asthma exemption but it is way higher than asthma in the general population. So many riders have died from doping, most riders are strongly anti doping and want the rules rigorously enforced.

[Marc Fenneuff]

I watch the coverage every year and this year's tour has been amazing! The Vuelta España will be on Peacock in August as well.

[Jerome Stanek]

i understand the idea and I’m not justifying, but this is one event where “cheating” probably has the least impact. Essentially these are humans riding bicycles over 2000 miles over 22 days. Either way it’s superhuman, cheating or not. . Totally respect your decision to not watch it, just noting that performance enhancing drugs probably play less of a role in an event of this duration and intensity.

I saw where they were installing a small electric motor to help on the hills. You could not tell that the bike had one. Is that cheating

[Marc Fenneuff]

I saw where they were installing a small electric motor to help on the hills. You could not tell that the bike had one. Is that cheating

In most any competitive event it would be. The gendarmes on the world tours use FLIR cameras to monitor the bikes on the road.

For the blood doping, they combat that now with blood testing that looks at red blood cell oxygenation. The pros get tested constantly.

[Warren Lake]

whats next you are going to tell me its been in body building the last 40 years as well.

[andrew whicker]

If everyone cheats, it's a level playing field : )

The cyclists are amazing. Lance Armstrong came over to my neck of woods and a few local fast / pro cyclists got to mtn bike with him.... he's very fast.. blood doping or not. They all are.

I have a friend w/ a USA jersey. When you get to compare yourself to a local amazing athlete and then you see that guy compete against a world level athlete... then you start to get a sense of how slow you are

[Thomas Wilson]

Tomorrow is a big day in the Pyrenees at Peyragudes. Could decide the winner.

[Jason Roehl]

I remember an announcer quipping quite a few years ago, before the Armstrong scandal broke, “you just have to wonder if something is up when you see guys pulling away from the pack, going uphill, with their mouth closed.”