So, It Was Moreau, After All...

blazing_saddles

Seems like the rumours about Christophe Moreau are correct:-
http://www.lemonde.fr/sports/article/20 ... id=1066184
L'Equipe now reporting the same story.
A rough translation is:-
What is certain however, is that according to our information, Christophe Moreau was notified in March, after Paris-Nice, a doctor of the Federal French Cycling Federation (FFC), an "against - indication "the practice of cycling because of cortisol (rate of cortisol in the blood) collapsed.

With the hematocrit, hemoglobin and reticulocytes, cortisol is part of the parameters controlled under the medical monitoring of riders. A rate of cortisol collapsed is the consequence of a hotel on steroids, it blocking the production of cortisol. This season, Christophe Moreau, 37 years, is the only rider who has been french impose against an indication in the follow-up longitudinal imposed by the FFC.

Sort of implodes the myth of the clean French?

Kléber

But article says Moreau was not one of the tested 10-20 suspect riders in the Tour, he was normal for July.

calvjones

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Sort of implodes the myth of the clean French?

But he's not French, he's Swiss now. Which kind of backs up the claims that French cyclling's longitudinal controls might work (a bit better than others anyway)

Only an idiot/Frenchman/McQuaid would have claimed that French riders were somehow morally superior to everyone else, and would hence never dope.

blazing_saddles

Which would explain how he fell out the back of the peloton so quickly....

I wonder if this lets young l'Hôtellerie off the hook?
His name was being passed around the rumour mill, after Paris-Nice, but Moreau's timing fits perfectly.

I suppose if he's the only rider to be carded, it does suggest a fairly clean French peloton....

aurelio_-_banned

calvjones wrote:

Only an idiot/Frenchman/McQuaid would have claimed that French riders were somehow morally superior to everyone else, and would hence never dope.

Actually, to his disgrace, McQuaid has claimed the opposite, arguing that `The French` are one of the supposed `Mafia nations` responsible for the doping problem, and to be compared with some mythical `Anglo-Saxon` culture morally opposed to doping. (You know, the culture which has produced the likes of Hamilton, Landis and Armstrong! :roll: ).

Anyhow, the issue here is not really one of morality, but whether or not the longitudinal testing and the criminalisation of doping introduced in France in the wake of the Festina scandal reduced the level of doping amongst French riders. The evidence suggests that it has.

steviedonut

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Which would explain how he fell out the back of the peloton so quickly....

I wonder if this lets young l'Hôtellerie off the hook?
His name was being passed around the rumour mill, after Paris-Nice, but Moreau's timing fits perfectly.

I suppose if he's the only rider to be carded, it does suggest a fairly clean French peloton....

is L'hotellerie in some sort of bother after Paris-Nice?i hope not because i found him exciting to watch during that race.

iainf72

steviedonut wrote:

is L'hotellerie in some sort of bother after Paris-Nice?i hope not because i found him exciting to watch during that race.

It was alleged that he was flagged up by the UCI's biological passport scheme and recieved a letter saying he was showing weird results. There was also a rumour that his team mates were displeased with him for endangering their jobs etc.

jimmythecuckoo

Of all the people who should have learned their lessons, someone on the Festina team from 1998 should have done.

Utter fool. Goodbye and good riddance.

DaveyL

For any Francocentric Conspiracy theorists who are still tuned in, what odds on Moreau being "advised" on the quiet to leave the race, as a new test was about to come to town?

drenkrom

There's little doubt that's the reason he left, considering his version is that he suffered from backaches his team knew nothing about for a few days. uh....huh..... riiiiiiiiight...