Doping -- Le Monde editorial

The French journal Le Monde ran an editorial (July 27) suggesting that the
TdF may not be free of doping, despite the extensive urine and blood testing
that is now performed under the direction of the UCI. While not an
accusation, the article notes that the average speed of stage winners this
year is the fastest on record, even faster than in 1997, the year preceding
the Festina affair, when EPO use was presumably widespread.

The piece goes on to suggest two possible reasons: (1) Climate conditions
were ideal this year, and the riders also benefited from tailwinds, or (2)
New techniques for evading the chemical controls have been put into play.
The official TdF line is apparently (1). The speeds themselves are not
disputed, since they are essentially a public record.

For perspective, Le Monde is something along the lines of the New York
Times -- a fairly well-respected middle-of-the-political-spectrum newspaper
(rather than a tabloid, for example), but not particularly a sports rag. I
don't know its history well enough to know whether it has any axes to grind
with the TdF.

The article (in French) is available by going to www.lemonde.fr. In the box
at upper left entitled Rechercher, type in "dopage" (no quotes needed) and
click the arrow. On the list of articles that comes up, look for "Un Tour
trop vite?" Right now it seems to be the second article listed, and for the
moment, at least, it is available for free. I don't know of an English
version, but I know there are at least a few francophones out there who
might find this of interest...

------------

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 21:00:22 +0200, "AMG" wrote:

For perspective, Le Monde is something along the lines of the New York
Times -- a fairly well-respected middle-of-the-political-spectrum newspaper
(rather than a tabloid, for example), but not particularly a sports rag. I
don't know its history well enough to know whether it has any axes to grind
with the TdF.

I'm sorry but with the way Le Monde throws out the accusation of
doping so easily Le Monde is more on the lines of the NY Post, or at
least the Blair written articles of the NY Times.

Lindsay
----------------------------
"One of the annoying things about believing in free
will and individual responsibility is the difficulty
of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And
when you do find somebody, it's remarkable how often
his picture turns up on your driver's license."

P.J. O'Rourke

"AMG" wrote in message
...
The French journal Le Monde ran an editorial (July 27) suggesting that the
TdF may not be free of doping, despite the extensive urine and blood testing
that is now performed under the direction of the UCI. While not an
accusation, the article notes that the average speed of stage winners this
year is the fastest on record, even faster than in 1997, the year preceding
the Festina affair, when EPO use was presumably widespread.

The piece goes on to suggest two possible reasons: (1) Climate conditions
were ideal this year, and the riders also benefited from tailwinds, or (2)
New techniques for evading the chemical controls have been put into play.
The official TdF line is apparently (1). The speeds themselves are not
disputed, since they are essentially a public record.

For perspective, Le Monde is something along the lines of the New York
Times -- a fairly well-respected middle-of-the-political-spectrum newspaper

actually Le Monde is pretty left wing. So too is the NY Times.

(rather than a tabloid, for example), but not particularly a sports rag.

That is true.

I
don't know its history well enough to know whether it has any axes to grind
with the TdF.


I don't know about this either but I do know that Le Monde has numerous axes
to grind with the U.S. government, U.S. private sector companies, and
Americans in general. If I'm not mistaken, they were one of the main forces
behind some of the allegations surrounding Lance Armstrong.

The article (in French) is available by going to www.lemonde.fr. In the box
at upper left entitled Rechercher, type in "dopage" (no quotes needed) and
click the arrow. On the list of articles that comes up, look for "Un Tour
trop vite?" Right now it seems to be the second article listed, and for the
moment, at least, it is available for free. I don't know of an English
version, but I know there are at least a few francophones out there who
might find this of interest...

------------

"AMG" wrote in message
...


The piece goes on to suggest two possible reasons: (1) Climate conditions
were ideal this year, and the riders also benefited from tailwinds, or (2)
New techniques for evading the chemical controls have been put into play.
The official TdF line is apparently (1). The speeds themselves are not
disputed, since they are essentially a public record.

How about better equipment, better training regimens, and better
tactics?

No wonder the French can't win anymore.

M.

"Ed-D" wrote in message
...

actually Le Monde is pretty left wing.
So too is the NY Times.


The NY Times left wing? Bwahahaha! Left of Genghis Kahn, you
mean.

Ed-D wrote:
"AMG" wrote in message
...
The French journal Le Monde ran an editorial (July 27) suggesting that the
TdF may not be free of doping, despite the extensive urine and blood testing
that is now performed under the direction of the UCI. While not an
accusation, the article notes that the average speed of stage winners this
year is the fastest on record, even faster than in 1997, the year preceding
the Festina affair, when EPO use was presumably widespread.

The piece goes on to suggest two possible reasons: (1) Climate conditions
were ideal this year, and the riders also benefited from tailwinds, or (2)
New techniques for evading the chemical controls have been put into play.
The official TdF line is apparently (1). The speeds themselves are not
disputed, since they are essentially a public record.

For perspective, Le Monde is something along the lines of the New York
Times -- a fairly well-respected middle-of-the-political-spectrum newspaper

actually Le Monde is pretty left wing. So too is the NY Times.

Actually, not.

(rather than a tabloid, for example), but not particularly a sports rag.

That is true.

I
don't know its history well enough to know whether it has any axes to grind
with the TdF.


I don't know about this either but I do know that Le Monde has numerous axes
to grind with the U.S. government, U.S. private sector companies, and
Americans in general. If I'm not mistaken, they were one of the main forces
behind some of the allegations surrounding Lance Armstrong.

What has this to do with the content of the article?

The article (in French) is available by going to www.lemonde.fr. In the box
at upper left entitled Rechercher, type in "dopage" (no quotes needed) and
click the arrow. On the list of articles that comes up, look for "Un Tour
trop vite?" Right now it seems to be the second article listed, and for the
moment, at least, it is available for free. I don't know of an English
version, but I know there are at least a few francophones out there who
might find this of interest...

------------

"Clovis Lark" wrote in message
...
Ed-D
I don't know about this either but I do know that Le Monde has
numerous axes
to grind with the U.S. government, U.S. private sector companies,
and
Americans in general. If I'm not mistaken, they were one of the
main forces
behind some of the allegations surrounding Lance Armstrong.

What has this to do with the content of the article?


The article was an editorial. As such it is almost expected to
reflect the biases of the writers or the paper as a whole.

JT

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Le Monde is the "intellectual" newspaper, in the sense that French society
is extremely polarised: people either read Le Monde or L'Equipe but
not both. As far as I can tell, the only interest Le Monde has in bike
racing is to continually insinuate that all bike racers are dopers,
including completely erroneous reasoning, such as finishing articles
with: "Armstrong's cancer, whose presence has still not been explained."
Or course, anyone with any knowledge of epidemeology knows that you
can't explain any one single cancer, except for a few exceptions like
the one you get from asbestos or plutonium.

As for the increased racing speed compared to previous years, it's
clear that, apart from good weather, the UCI rankings, internationalisation
of the race, and no more "patrons" are all responsable. In particular,
in the old Hinault day you went 30 kph at the start, or else Hinault
would seek you out and make sure you got dropped. Also, riders realise
that winning a stage will make their whole career, so you now see
the race starting from the gun, which almost never happened, even in
1999. The first mountain stage this year literally started this way,
with an attack as soon as the start was given, whereas in 1999, it
was a procession for the first climb, with Cipollini at the front
for the whole climb.
I bet that they didn't mention any of this in the article.

I've having to say all this stuff all the time recently, and I'm
getting pretty annoyed by it.

-ilan

"Ed-D" wrote in message
...
"AMG" wrote in message
...
The French journal Le Monde ran an editorial (July 27) suggesting that
the
TdF may not be free of doping, despite the extensive urine and blood
testing
that is now performed under the direction of the UCI. While not an
accusation, the article notes that the average speed of stage winners
this
year is the fastest on record, even faster than in 1997, the year
preceding
the Festina affair, when EPO use was presumably widespread.

The piece goes on to suggest two possible reasons: (1) Climate
conditions
were ideal this year, and the riders also benefited from tailwinds, or
(2)
New techniques for evading the chemical controls have been put into
play.
The official TdF line is apparently (1). The speeds themselves are not
disputed, since they are essentially a public record.

For perspective, Le Monde is something along the lines of the New York
Times -- a fairly well-respected middle-of-the-political-spectrum
newspaper

actually Le Monde is pretty left wing. So too is the NY Times.

(rather than a tabloid, for example), but not particularly a sports rag.

That is true.

I
don't know its history well enough to know whether it has any axes to
grind
with the TdF.


I don't know about this either but I do know that Le Monde has numerous
axes
to grind with the U.S. government, U.S. private sector companies, and
Americans in general. If I'm not mistaken, they were one of the main
forces
behind some of the allegations surrounding Lance Armstrong.


Of course, Le Monde must be left-wing or anti-American or both, because it
cant be true what it's writing. Sure, there are doping products that cannot
be detected, but it's impossible to imagine that professional riders would
use it. They all dead against it (except Pantani and Rumsas of course). It's
just a coïncidence that two years ago the police discovered that 37 riders
were in possession of illicit drugs and that none of them had tested
positive. And what about that average speed? Must have been the heat. It's
true that before the Tour of 1999 Leblanc was expecting that now that the
riders were "clean" that the average speed would drop from 39,98 to 37, and
that it rose to 40,276 instead, but what knows Leblanc about racing?
Besides, although he is politically a right-winger, he's French, so he can't
be trusted anyway.

Benjo Maso

"Rico X. Partay" wrote in message
et...
"Ed-D" wrote in message
...

actually Le Monde is pretty left wing.
So too is the NY Times.


The NY Times left wing? Bwahahaha! Left of Genghis Kahn, you
mean.


Not sure what that is supposed to mean, but it's common knowledge that the
Times is left-of-center.