so now whats with the tour de France's credebility?

Answer 1

There are a couple of schools of thought.

Most people at first glance say the race, and perhaps the sport has little or no credibility left. Former winners admitting use of performance enhancement (Riis), Operation Puerto, Landis, dubious laboratories, EPO, etc.

A small minority, perhaps correctly notes that the entire peloton may well be in the enhancement game. The winners are just better at it. The race outcome is what it is. Cycling fans, and fans of the TdF will remain.

Where money and sport converge, there is every opportunity for fraud, deception, and outright cheating.

My spin? I think cycling fans will remain, but the sport as a whole will collapse in size and influence to the pre-LeMond era. The media will see to it that the public is turned off by the doping, and accusations. Drugs are now the focus, rather than the race itself.

Answer 2

Sure, the Tours credibility has taken a blow but it will recover. People have to realise that for cycling to change and become clean it has to get worse first. The cheats have to be caught and removed from the sport. And it is working, riders who dope in this day and age get caught.

But let us not forget about the other riders in the Tour. The clean riders. There is more to the Tour than Vino, including the battle between Rasmussen and Contador. Cancerelleras two fantastic wins, the great showing by barloworld (a wild card team) to name a few.

True cycling fans will continue to watch the Tour and support cycling and have faith that the vast majority of riders are racing clean.

Answer 3

I think the sport loses more credibility if they do not release this information. Let's face it...the whole sport is dirty. Riders should be dealt with just like any other person accused of of a crime. Of course proof is required, which is why we have B sample testing. But when you are a public figure, your misdeeds should also be public.

Unfortunately I think the battle is largely lost already. I raced for several years and I love the sport. But when I watched Rasmussen and Vino in the TT last weekend, rather than being amzed by such a great performance, I was immediately skeptical. It's sad.

Answer 4

Another blow to the sport I love. If it proves positive in the B sample then Vino is history and a disgrace to his sport and his nation. Ras needs sorting too. However lets not forget that there are riders out there not doping otherwise we'd see lots more test failures. Let's also remember that cycling's aurthorities are at least trying to clean up the sport and keep the problem in the open, unlike other sports. Where are the names of the 70% of non-cyclist implicated in Operation Puerto? If you don't look very hard for doping then your sport will seem clean. Cycling looks hard for dopers and so appears dirtier.
Try and keep the faith and lets hope the new generation like Thomas and Cavendish and Wiggins can restore our faith.

Answer 5

I am not sure about that, but I do know that the Blood Transfusion Service should use this as a method of getting more donors.

Answer 6

Let's not ask this question yet. It is bogus that Vinokourov did this considering the state the sport is in. I wish they had waited to release this news but of course, the French don't let that happen.