LAMPRE (Rumsas)
STEPHEN: Lost in all of the hoopla of Cipo not making the Tour is that the organizers decided not to invite a freaking podium finisher in the last Tour. Rumsas isn’t a huge name rider, but his third place finish was one of the best stories of last year’s race. He doesn’t deserve a chance to defend his podium spot? Besides, Cassagrande was thrown out of the Giro for starting a fistfight. You can’t buy that kind of entertainment.
JASON: I’ve got no sympathy for Lampre or Raimondas Rumsas missing the Tour de France. Rumsas was a great story last year–a newcomer from a team with little TdF success fighting his way to the podium. Heck, he even attacked Beloki twice on the Champs Elysees. Later that day his wife was caught smuggling performance-enhancing drugs into the country. In the midst of a fine Giro 2003, he had a positive dope test. Think about the history of doping at the TdF–would you invite this punk? I wouldn’t invite another scandal to the 100th anniversary edition of the Tour. Drop Lampre and make room for Saeco and Vini-Caldirola.
Stephen: Come on! They let Virenque in. If they were leaving out everybody who failed a drug test, well, it would pretty much be Lance versus some Estonian we'd never heard of. I don't have sympathy for them, but Lampre is boatloads of fun: fistfights, drug scandals, smuggling, in-fighting... it's like a little episode of Melrose Place.
JASON: Virenque cheated & paid the price. He was expelled from the Tour, suspended from racing, taken to court, and his reputation was ruined. He did his time and came back. You're lobbying for a known Cheat to get into the race and possibly take a podium slot from a rider who would earn it. It's moot—his second sample was positive for EPO. The UCI just suspended him. See ya!
STEPHEN: You’re just no fun. We need corruption and cronyism or else it wouldn’t be the Tour. Lampre is such a wonderfully corrupt team that it’s like they are a traveling parody of the sport. Then again, I’d rather have them in than the loads of second tier French teams that let in.
STEPHEN: Lost in all of the hoopla of Cipo not making the Tour is that the organizers decided not to invite a freaking podium finisher in the last Tour. Rumsas isn’t a huge name rider, but his third place finish was one of the best stories of last year’s race. He doesn’t deserve a chance to defend his podium spot? Besides, Cassagrande was thrown out of the Giro for starting a fistfight. You can’t buy that kind of entertainment.
JASON: I’ve got no sympathy for Lampre or Raimondas Rumsas missing the Tour de France. Rumsas was a great story last year–a newcomer from a team with little TdF success fighting his way to the podium. Heck, he even attacked Beloki twice on the Champs Elysees. Later that day his wife was caught smuggling performance-enhancing drugs into the country. In the midst of a fine Giro 2003, he had a positive dope test. Think about the history of doping at the TdF–would you invite this punk? I wouldn’t invite another scandal to the 100th anniversary edition of the Tour. Drop Lampre and make room for Saeco and Vini-Caldirola.
Stephen: Come on! They let Virenque in. If they were leaving out everybody who failed a drug test, well, it would pretty much be Lance versus some Estonian we'd never heard of. I don't have sympathy for them, but Lampre is boatloads of fun: fistfights, drug scandals, smuggling, in-fighting... it's like a little episode of Melrose Place.
JASON: Virenque cheated & paid the price. He was expelled from the Tour, suspended from racing, taken to court, and his reputation was ruined. He did his time and came back. You're lobbying for a known Cheat to get into the race and possibly take a podium slot from a rider who would earn it. It's moot—his second sample was positive for EPO. The UCI just suspended him. See ya!
STEPHEN: You’re just no fun. We need corruption and cronyism or else it wouldn’t be the Tour. Lampre is such a wonderfully corrupt team that it’s like they are a traveling parody of the sport. Then again, I’d rather have them in than the loads of second tier French teams that let in.
posted by Poseur at 2:17 PM
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