Which type of TDF would you rather see?

donrhummy
donrhummy Posts: 2,329
edited June 2008 in Pro race
Which type of TDF would you rather see?

Comments

  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    Why do we have to choose between two? Is it not possible to have a thrilling clean race? Or just go back to the early 90s for some of the most boring editions, where riders where using EPO whilst singing in da rain.

    Besides, what makes good TV - battling mountain stages - is worthless if doping scandals appear. Several TV channels will drop coverage and even last summer several French newpapers weren't printing the GC each day, saying it was meaningless, a pharmaceutical league table unfit for the sports pages.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,549
    +1 to what Kleber said.
  • guv001
    guv001 Posts: 688
    +2 spot on.
  • biondino
    biondino Posts: 5,990
    I'm going for b) because only through a year or two of b) can we look forward to a clean, super exciting race in the future.
    My Focus / My Bob Jackson
    Blog (incl. bikes)
  • donrhummy
    donrhummy Posts: 2,329
    Sure, ideally we wouldn't have to choose but I think answering this helps show whether the most important thing is an exciting race or a clean race. There are lots of sports fans who just want exciting and don't really care about how drug-free it is. That's why I asked.
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    I'm looking forward to some quality post-stage interviews from Ricco and Cav.
    I like bikes...

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  • LangerDan
    LangerDan Posts: 6,132
    Has there even been a TdF (exciting or otherwise) where all the main contenders have been clean? A clean, exciting race would be good but it may be a novel departure rather than the return to old values some believe.
    'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    While I agree with Kleber, I don't think that was the purpose of the original post.
    I'd rather the clean option, or rather the lack of any whiff of scandal option.

    I've seen on here (and other forums) people wanting Ras and Vino back as they were exciting riders and moaning about 'boring' riders like Evans for only wheelsucking these cheats. I don't understand this stance.

    I've nothing against Contador as I don't believe he was actually involved in Puerto but I'm kind of glad he's missing as it opens up the race a bit and it meant an non-Italian won the Giro for once.

    I hope Valverde doesn't get into yellow at any time (exciting though he is) as the Valv.Piti stuff will rise up again.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • feersumendjinn
    feersumendjinn Posts: 148
    And there are those who believe no one can win a Tour without doping. How long will it be, I wonder, before whoever wins is tainted by some rumour about thier past team, doctor, advisor, or DS?
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    feersumendjinn wrote:
    And there are those who believe no one can win a Tour without doping. How long will it be, I wonder, before whoever wins is tainted by some rumour about thier past team, doctor, advisor, or DS?

    You see, I don't believe that. The ones who usually say it are doctors who have "training plans" to sell.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • rhinsliff
    rhinsliff Posts: 3
    I reckon its going to be a good race this year. No firm favorites a couple of good riders i good form. Evans, Valv, Cunego even one of the Schlecks could do something. As long as the updates and highlights packages are of actual guys on bikes and not in press conferences i ll be haps. What i really would like to see is Stuart O'Grady taking a stage win that blokes had a hard time of it since he won the Roubaix and he still keeps coming. Unlikely to happen though.
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    LangerDan wrote:
    Has there even been a TdF (exciting or otherwise) where all the main contenders have been clean? A clean, exciting race would be good but it may be a novel departure rather than the return to old values some believe.

    Aye, I've often wondered what people would say if everyone was clean and it was boring. :lol:

    Its in the Tours interest not to have any positives so we'll have an exciting race.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,725
    Some of the most boring Tours have taken place during the "golden era" of rEPO.
    High doses of testosterone have been known to produce the odd "ET" performance, bike chucking, climbing the side of the podium etc. Even that is rare.
    So, dope doesn't spice up a race, just the speed it's run at.

    On the other hand, a clean peloton offers more hope for those wishing to attack. Knowing you aren't necessarily going to get run down by the leader's train, must encourage a gutsy optimism.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • Moomaloid
    Moomaloid Posts: 2,040
    Bit of a silly poll if you ask me. I believe that with a clean race you'll get more excitement...

    Fingers crossed anyhow :shock:
  • Mar ge
    Mar ge Posts: 88
    I want neither.....

    I hope we can have a nail-biter like the Giro...
    Ricco certanily brings some added colour to the Tour.
    I would have liked to have seen Gesink riding too but hopefully Menchov can live up to his position of team leader.
  • feersumendjinn
    feersumendjinn Posts: 148
    RichN95 wrote:
    You see, I don't believe that. The ones who usually say it are doctors who have "training plans" to sell.

    No training plan to sell..... unless beer & pork scratchings is a plan?
    I hope we get a scandal free, exciting Tour & rest of the season
    To nick a phrase from the X Files " I want to Believe"
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    My problem is that we've had earlier moments of excitement, think of Landis cracking one day and the press say "look, it's proof of a more honest cycling" and then going on the rampage the next and testing positive. You can have a moment of cycling brilliance but a whiff of scandal and the sport gets set back a year.

    The Tour is always interesting. It's sports but also a soap opera, with storylines for the different jerseys, the local rider, the lanterne rouge and so much more. For the good of the sport, the Tour needs three years without scandal, to rebuild confidence and to ensure strong TV coverage and good sponsorship.
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    I disagree - to an extent. If there are riders doping, they need to be caught. If this causes scandal, so be it. In the long term, that will be better for the sport, even if it means bad publicity and sponsors pulling out for a few years. It's the only way to a long-term sustainable pro sport. Any other way is just a vicious circle, and we go back to the years between Festina and Puerto, where there was little scandal and lots of people made lots of money out of the sport, so the sport seemed apprently to be in very good health, when in fact it was as rotten as ever.

    How exciting a race is has little to do with riders being clean or not. It's just about having closely matched rivals. TdF '03 and Giro '05 were very exicitng but no-one would say they were clean GTs.

    For what it's worth, I think last year was pretty exciting. Sure there was a lot of soap opera style drama, with the daily revelations and busts (which was kind of fascinating in its own right, especially as I was in France for the latter part of the Tour) but remember the top three guys were within 30 seconds of each other at the end, and any one of them could have taken it on the final TT. Some people seem to be re-writing it as a fait accompli for Contador once Ras was kicked off the race, but I don't remember it like that.
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • andy_wrx
    andy_wrx Posts: 3,396
    If everyone was doped vs if everyone clean : both level playing fields, so the races will be equally exciting or equally boring, with or without dope.

    What will differ will be media coverage - and I mean mainstream press and TV coverage, not this forum or C+ & RW.

    Personally I want a clean race with the media covering cycling as a sport.
    Doping exposes simply cause apoplectic reporting in the mainstream press and 10 o'clock news, TV stations drop cycling from their sports coverage.

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