t-baum wrote:

That would of made for some crazy fucking racing.

doddy13 wrote:
remember the 09 vuelta route will be his anyways, all the things will be booked up

Smoothie wrote:
What do people think about Contador saying he will be staying at Astana for sure, what do you think will happen with leadership in the team. If Vino joins the team too its going to be mayhem. Who will lead what and will there be too many cheifs and not enough Indians...

Valverde:
In 2009, I would like to race less before the start of the Tour in Monaco and not start racing before the end of March in order to, at least one time, base my season on the Tour only. I am convinced that, if I am lucky, I can climb on the podium and, who knows, even win the Tour. I am ready to sacrifice all the other races in order to reach that goal, at least to try it one year.

After declaring his support for four-year bans for riders found guilty of doping infractions last week, UCI president Pat McQuaid has stated that he opposes re-testing further samples to check for CERA.

In the wake of the scandals surrounding Stefan Schumacher, Leonardo Piepoli, Riccardo Ricco and Bernard Kohl, it was proposed that samples from last year's Tour de France could be re-tested for the presence of this new-generation of the famed blood booster, EPO.

The Irishman told AP that "From the UCI's point of view, we prefer to look forward rather than look backward. To randomly say 'OK, let's take all the samples from 2007 from the Tour de France and put them all through testing processes'... it's futile, it's expensive and it's not going to serve the purpose in the anti-doping fight of today."

All testing at the 2007 Tour de France was conducted by the UCI, and after the events surrounding the feud between that organisation and Tour organisers ASO, the French anti-doping authority (AFLD) was responsible for controls throughout the '08 Tour.

The AFLD has said it is willing to re-test samples from the 2007 Tour and this year's Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, although McQuaid said that could pose more problems than it solves.

"If we're going to start rejigging the podium of every major international race over the past two or three years, by finding new tests for new products, and going back to the organiser and saying 'you've got to rejig your podium'... it makes a complete mockery of sport. You need very good information in order to do that in the first place.

"I couldn't give you an answer as to where the 2007 samples are, nor whether they are adequate for the testing," added McQuaid. "The Giro was over four or five months [ago]. I don't know whether the samples are still [valid], whether they've degraded to an extent."

McQuaid also explained that, "It's very difficult to detect CERA in urine samples. I don't know about the blood samples, what the situation is there. As I say, I prefer that we move forward, rather than move backward."

CrueTrue wrote:
Your source?

I think it's more a matter of bad translation.

issoisso wrote:
Kohl says he "did it all on his own".

I told you he'd say that. In cycling it's simple: if you break the omerta by saying anything else, you'll never get another contract.

EDIT:

then he shoots himself in the foot by saying

"I was told CERA was undetectable."

Contradictions ftw...