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Posted by Squarerigger: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 12:28 1st Post
I am surprised no one has been chatting about the Tour so far. I have been watching every evening and very much enjoying the race so far.

Couple of observations I've made so far -

1. I fully expected to see Ed, as the race went through Switzerland, standing on the back of one of those motorcycles with his new D400 and D800 taking world class shots of the riders.

2. I am pissed that Evans' team is supporting him so poorly.

Guess I will just continue watching on my own and making comments that if I were 40 years younger, I could beat some of those slackers. :rofl:

Edited in the interest of global Harmony.



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Gary


Posted by Eric: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 14:29 2nd Post
Squarerigger wrote:

3. I have my suspicions that someone in the royal family has bought off the race so Wiggins wins for the Queens anniversary present. Anniversary, Olymics, and Tour de France all in one year? Cooincidence? I think not.

Hardly.
French hate the Brits and wouldn't sell us the scrapings from their noses.

:no:



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Eric


Posted by Squarerigger: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 14:47 3rd Post
Eric wrote:
Squarerigger wrote:

3. I have my suspicions that someone in the royal family has bought off the race so Wiggins wins for the Queens anniversary present. Anniversary, Olymics, and Tour de France all in one year? Cooincidence? I think not.

Hardly.
French hate the Brits and wouldn't sell us the scrapings from their noses.

:no:

Ouch! Really! Feelings that hard between France and GB?



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Gary


Posted by Robert: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 15:12 4th Post
Mostly, yep. Unless we are giving them cash.



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Robert.



Posted by Squarerigger: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 15:21 5th Post
Changed original post to promote Global Harmony. :sssshh:



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Gary


Posted by Robert: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 15:50 6th Post
:lol: :lol: :lol:



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Robert.



Posted by Eric: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 17:31 7th Post
I don't know which coverage you get in the US, but I watch Sky HD. The incidental filming and commentary are superb. Even if they don't win the team event ...their coverage is a winner.

One of the anecdotes that Carlton Kirby (commentator) was relating during an early stage says something about the depth of French dislike of the English. Outside a boucherie in Crecy at a stage in 2010, he bumped into a Frenchman. Apologising in French, the Frenchman recognised he wasn't French.
"You are English?" he enquired
"Yes" replied Carlton
"You killed all our young men!!!" the Frenchman snorted and walked off.

The Battle of Crecy was in the 1340s!!

It amazing how some people look for a reason to dislike their neighbours by dredging up impossibly distant instances that have no bearing on the now.



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Eric


Posted by Eric: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 17:35 8th Post
Squarerigger wrote:
Changed original post to promote Global Harmony. :sssshh:
Interestingly, we don't seem to have ever had any French members on the forum.



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Eric


Posted by jk: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 17:42 9th Post
Eric wrote:
Squarerigger wrote:

3. I have my suspicions that someone in the royal family has bought off the race so Wiggins wins for the Queens anniversary present. Anniversary, Olymics, and Tour de France all in one year? Cooincidence? I think not.

Hardly.
French hate the Brits and wouldn't sell us the scrapings from their noses.

:no:

I think Lance Armstrong is doing enough of that to try and dupe/dope all the authorities!
:lol:
I find cycle racing as boring as some people find F1 and MotoGP. I prefer the latter to the former.
Chacun a son goute!



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Posted by Robert: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 17:50 10th Post
Proportionally very few European.

I think as far as the French are concerned, they avoid anything which isn't French. I have heard Parisians have a distain for the rest of France too, apparently they see themselves as sort of superior French!



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Robert.



Posted by jk: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 18:01 11th Post
Robert wrote:
Proportionally very few European.

I think as far as the French are concerned, they avoid anything which isn't French. I have heard Parisians have a distain for the rest of France too, apparently they see themselves as sort of superior French!

Yes indeed. i used to work in Paris and Cannes. Very interesting French disdain was more prevelent in the Paris v. Cannes group.



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Posted by jk: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 18:03 12th Post
Eric wrote:
Squarerigger wrote:
Changed original post to promote Global Harmony. :sssshh:
Interestingly, we don't seem to have ever had any French members on the forum.

Monsieur they have been here but they prefer to be in Paris!
Very true Eric but there are French Nikon groups as well.



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Posted by Squarerigger: Thu Jul 12th, 2012 18:56 13th Post
I see my quest for Global Harmony has been dashed. :doh:

Jonathan, it is a sad commentary on the number of American athletes who are using drugs of one sort or another for enhancement.

But really, Lance Armstrong doping?? Just because he won the Tour every year until he reached the age of 65 and went on social security is no reason to believe he isn't clean.:rofl:



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Gary


Posted by Eric: Fri Jul 13th, 2012 05:58 14th Post
I think the dope testing should be on the idiots running alongside the cyclists in silly costumes waving banners.

They would all pass!


Why do they do it?

o.Oo.O



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Eric


Posted by jk: Fri Jul 13th, 2012 08:28 15th Post
I think on the doping issue there are two sides to the argument.
Same as the mind bending drugs.

If we didnt have the current system where it was illegal to use mind bending drugs then they would have little or no street value so organised crime wouldnt be interested. Those 'fools' who wanted to use would use and there would be a very small and short term increase in deaths due to addict problems (over-doses and withdrawals).
The above statement is not one of my own but a paraphrase of advice that was given to me when I was at school (40 years ago) as we had a UN drugs advisor as one of our school master. He was an expert in the cannabis, marijuana and other opiates field and in his school holidays did work for UN in this area. He advocated that the drugs should be legalised as this would then remove the drug trafficing and street problems in first world countries.


Same in sports with drugs. If you allowed use yes you would have a two tier sport but then you could have 'enhanced' and 'un-enhanced' records. Those who used would be very obvious and wouldnt need testing. Those that claimed to be un-enhanced would need to be tested to prove this state. There would be a lot of athletes from the enhanced group who died young (30-50) dues to side effects and toxicity problems. (The candle only burns so bright for a limited time).



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Posted by Squarerigger: Fri Jul 13th, 2012 09:02 16th Post
Eric wrote:
I think the dope testing should be on the idiots running alongside the cyclists in silly costumes waving banners.

They would all pass!


Why do they do it?

o.Oo.O

Quite right! A couple of nights ago I saw one rider who had to push one of the runners out of the way he was getting so close.

The riders need to carry tazer guns and just drop any fool who gets too close.:thumbsup:



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Gary


Posted by richw: Tue Jul 17th, 2012 08:15 17th Post
jk wrote:
I think on the doping issue there are two sides to the argument.
Same as the mind bending drugs.

If we didnt have the current system where it was illegal to use mind bending drugs then they would have little or no street value so organised crime wouldnt be interested. Those 'fools' who wanted to use would use and there would be a very small and short term increase in deaths due to addict problems (over-doses and withdrawals).
The above statement is not one of my own but a paraphrase of advice that was given to me when I was at school (40 years ago) as we had a UN drugs advisor as one of our school master. He was an expert in the cannabis, marijuana and other opiates field and in his school holidays did work for UN in this area. He advocated that the drugs should be legalised as this would then remove the drug trafficing and street problems in first world countries.


Same in sports with drugs. If you allowed use yes you would have a two tier sport but then you could have 'enhanced' and 'un-enhanced' records. Those who used would be very obvious and wouldnt need testing. Those that claimed to be un-enhanced would need to be tested to prove this state. There would be a lot of athletes from the enhanced group who died young (30-50) dues to side effects and toxicity problems. (The candle only burns so bright for a limited time).

My father who worked most of his life in a law enforcement roll would agree with the above.

For me with the social problem simple economic principles apply - you can't control this problem by attacking the supply, the more effective you are at this, the more the price goes up, therefore the more tempting it is to take the risks to supply. For the kingpins the risk vs reward factor is always going to be attractive (assuming they don't have a moral issue with what they do).

If you want to control the problem you need to attack the demand and yet all the heavy penalties world wide are targeted at the suppliers not users (demand), and the risk of using is considered very low. No first timers believe this will ruin their lives or they will become addicted. Whilst morally understandable (users = disease = victim) this approach is fundamentally flawed as the rules of supply and demand will always kick in. If conversely (and making an extreme argument I don't believe in) you made selling legal, but made drugs tests mandatory for any form of work, insurance, social security and business license and were prepared to put all the vagrants this would produce into jail then the problem would disappear pretty quickly.

In sport I think it gets very confusing, many of the food supplements that all athletes take verge very close to drugs, and drugs that have been discovered that enhance performance but not yet made illegal are widely used (this effects the social problem as well). The old full time professional vs the amateur debate is also similar these folk are on such different playing fields it's probably a bigger difference than drugs vs clean. I think the whole thing is way too confusing in the modern Olympics.

Once upon a time I had hopes of going to the Olympics to represent the UK in Judo, never quite made it. I must admit one of the best things about giving up is being able to take cold and flu drugs if I get ill. By the way I know for sure that one of the guys that did go to the Commonwealth Games and beat me in one of the deciding competitions (I came second) took a year out to use steroids. He built up his strength and then came off them early enough to flush them out of his system before coming back and winning a spot on the team. He was tested every time he fought and never got caught. Another close friend of mine risked a cortisone shot to his shoulder (which he genuinely needed and was prescribed by his doctor, but was still illegal) if he had got caught he'd of been given a two year ban.


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