Any guesses about how many idiots there really are?

What does that even mean?  They'll really make sure they don't screw up the test if you win a stage?  If you don't win a stage, yeah, they'll test you, but they might contaminate the sample, mix them up, whatever. 

I guess I should have said 'scrutinize' rather than test. The point is that they pay attention to performance when they profile the riders in order to detect doping.  I assume that winning a stage counts as 'high performance' and thus, in the minds of the tour directors, merits closer scrutiny.

Agreed on all points.  I'll be interested to hear why Saunier Duval decided to withdraw (apparently they didn't start today, although it must have been a last-minute decision because they were suited up).

This is what the Saunier DS was quoted as saying: ""We only found out ten minutes ago. The entire team is ceasing its operation, not only in the Tour de France."

Yowza. Sounds like the Boiler company blew a gasket and said we've had enough of cycling. Can we have our bus our bikes and our money back.

Let's see what surfaces later today  

Wow, you wake up an blam another breaking story.   He had the KOM and White jersey.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jul/17/tourdefrance.cycling3?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

I don't get it.  Why do these guys keep doing this?  The stupidity just amazes me.  You KNOW you are going to be tested.  It's not even stupidity.  I don't know what it is.  Foolhardiness?

It's like if one was out at a bar, and saw the police checkpoint 1/2 mile down the road, and yet decided to get drunk and drive through the checkpoint anyway.

I just don't get it. 

fcuking idiot. came up with a cunning plan to 'deal with' drug cheats.

give them a bike like this:

make them ride up this:

with no:

or:

then kick them off the top. IF they survive they are clean  

as a first time watcher of the Tour, i'm just about already done watching.   i'm watching and telling my wife how amazed i am with these athletes, only to find out in a few days they were cheating.

i just don't know if i can watch much more because i'll be second guessing nearly all the riders.

Even the ones that are taking EPO are amazing riders and you should still be amazed by them... you could fill most people to the brim with EPO and we still would be slow compared to tour riders.. the EPO gives that very slight edge.. enough to have an impact when time is measured in seconds..

to answer NL:
This is a new type of EPO.. supposedly has a long half-life and is therefore detectable in the system much longer.. that and I believe it wasn't revealed that they could test for this type of EPO before hand

That kind of test will never stand up. They don't prove why someone has elevated red blood cell counts or testosterone levels and those things can occur naturally.  Besides, those values are a range.  People can naturally be high or low.

Let's say a rider normally has a testosterone level that's low.  So, he takes testosterone to put him in the normal range.  Here he's doping, but it wouldn't be detectable by your test. 

Sorry, but I am going to have to say this.
The majority of the tour riders are clean, there is no other proof otherwise and the riders that cheat get caught.  If your reason for not watching the tour is because of the cheating then you would not follow any sport.  All sports have their cheats but the problem with cycling is that they receive so much publicity and it takes away from all the other fantastic athletes.

New EPO or not, it really does not matter. The riders ( and teams and coaches, and nannies, and second cousins twice removed onthe motthers side, of the riders) are warned: we will be freezing samples and retesting them years down the road when new and better test are out. If we see that you wetre cheating, we will still take everything you won, form you. And publicly humiliate you.

1d10ts

The problem is though, they don't.  Bjarne Riss even admitted he doped when he won the '96 Tour de France and he has been allowed to keep his yellow jersey.  Erik Zabel admitted to doping and he is still riding the Tour.

To be honest I wouldn't be at all surprised if the labs were found to be at fault.  Apparently there have been concerns from team managers about the selection of riders that are to be tested and also about the methods of gathering samples.  The French anti doping agency is in charge of doping controls for the TdF and I'm sure it's no coincidence that apparently a disproportionately small number of French riders have been tested...

I think this is the hardest part for me. When everyone is saying "of course I don't cheat" then morons are still getting busted it makes me suspect all of the riders, even though I don't really want to. And, when a guy or a couple of guys pull of a great performance or a great comeback in the back of my mind I can't help wondering "Are we going to hear in a few days that they were taking something?" It's really disheartening, but I have no plans to stop watching the Tour.  There are enough riders there that worked their butts off and haven't cheated, why should I stop watching something I like because of a few bubbleheads?

I think this quote is too funny:

"It's just amazing. It's irresponsible," British cyclist David Millar said. "This guy does not have any love or care for the sport."

As an Astana fan I like this one:

"The bottom line is that teams like ours are changing it. One day there will be 20 teams here with the attitude we have. At the moment, we only have three teams that are really like us - Columbia and CSC" D. Miller

There'd be one more if ASO hadn't excluded Astana.

right on, since when have we been able to trust the French.....for anything?