2008 TdF Positives (Survivor TdF Edition)

I seriously doubt that Armstrong would come out of retirement if there were even the remotest possibility of turning up a positive.

Besides, the new CERA test was known before Armstrong announced his plans.

Yeah…I'm not up to speed on CERA testing.

I'm pretty cynical when it cmoes to road racing and all top riders (past and prsent but especially Armstrong). I just can't believe one single athlete can dominate to the level he did (and may still do) when all his principal rivals (and many team-mates) tested positive. It sucks 'cause I got into the sport for it's beauty and pain (i.e. black and white pictures of Coppi going over some Italian mountain pass - later to find out that Coppi too was a doper!)but the doping controveries have sure affected my view of it.

It sucks 'cause I got into the sport for it's beauty and pain.

Well, I hear where you're coming from, because I got into the sport as a teenager and had no inkling back then (during the Hinault years).

Regarding Lance, I feel it was a level playing field even if LA doped, knowing now the extent of doping among the top riders.

At the end of the day, LA rode smarter, worked harder in the off-season (no extra schnitzel and sauerkraut), had the best team (most years) and DS, and saved his bullets for the TdF, and the results showed it. My $0.02.

Love what Bobke says… how he laments how he didn't dope and as a result, he never won. And every year, they play the clip of him chucking the bike when the pedal broke.

Somehow, I still want to believe that some of the top riders are actually riding through their own skill and goodness.

"Doping: The Gift that Keeps Giving"

Bernard Kohl (3rd overall, climber's jersey) tests positive for CERA.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/oct08/oct13news4

Bernhard Kohl of Gerolsteiner tested non-negative for CERA, French sports paper L'Equipe reports. The French anti-doping agency AFLD had tested Kohl's blood samples. Kohl finished third in the Tour de France and won the climber's jersey.

Kohl was one of the riders whose samples from the Tour de France were re-tested specifically for CERA. Kohl's teammate Stefan Schumacher had already tested positive for the same substance.

A few days ago, Gerolsteiner manager Hans-Michael Holczer described on German TV how he told the team about the new test. "Everybody except Stefan [Schumacher] started cheering. It was explained to me that it was something with his girlfriend." Whether Kohl was also cheering is currently not known.

The B-sample analysis is still outstanding. Should it confirm the result, Kohl will face a two-year suspension and the possibility of losing his Tour de France results.