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5671. wabbit - 7/24/2007 1:09:45 PM  Alexandre Vinokourov won the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Monday with a gutsy performance that was overshadowed by the challenges facing overall leader Michael Rasmussen. The Dane weathered several attacks from main rival Alberto Contador to defend the yellow jersey in what is becoming a two-man race, but took an unexpected hit when the head of cycling's governing body said the doping speculation surrounding Rasmussen would make it bad for the sport if he won the Tour.
Vinokourov, a former race favorite whose faint hopes of a Tour victory vanished after he lost nearly 29 minutes to Rasmussen on Sunday, crossed the finish line alone in 5 hours, 34 minutes, 28 seconds.
Rasmussen has been dogged by the doping cloud that hangs over the sport. He was dropped from Denmark's national team last week for failing to tell anti-doping officials of his whereabouts for drug testing before the race began. He missed two drug tests by the Danish anti-doping agency in May and June, and failed to respond to two warnings from the International Cycling Union since April 2006. A third infraction with either the UCI or the Danish agency would be considered equivalent to a positive test and lead to a ban. Whitney Richards, a former amateur mountain bike racer from Boulder, Colo., said Rasmussen asked him to carry a pair of cycling shoes in March 2002 when Richards was moving to Italy. When he opened the box, Richards said he found 14 IV bags filled with human blood substitute, which he poured down the drain.
Le Tour de France news
5672. wabbit - 7/24/2007 1:22:06 PM Michael Vick was ordered by commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday to stay away from the Atlanta Falcons' training camp until the league reviews the dogfighting charges against him.
"While it is for the criminal justice system to determine your guilt or innocence, it is my responsibility as commissioner of the National Football League to determine whether your conduct, even if not criminal, nonetheless violated league policies, including the Personal Conduct Policy," Goodell said in a letter to the quarterback.
The NFL said Vick would still get his preseason pay and Goodell told the Falcons to withhold any disciplinary action of their own until the league's review was completed... 5673. iiibbb - 7/24/2007 3:23:34 PM Vino bounced oddly back after a very bad day; kind of like Landis bounced back after a bad day.
No one is calling him out on his obvious use of testosterone.
Still, it's been an exciting tour this year. 5674. arkymalarky - 7/24/2007 10:36:33 PM I just read he tested positive. 5675. arkymalarky - 7/24/2007 10:40:22 PM Positive Test 5676. wonkers2 - 7/24/2007 11:53:03 PM I'm not in favor of dog fighting or even cock fighting, but it strikes me as a bit inconsistent to crucify Vick while allowing this kind of fighting Extreme Toughman Fighting I guess the two cases could be distinguished by the fact that the "tough men" engage in their sport or entertainment voluntarily while this is not true of the pit bulls and other fighting dogs.
5677. wabbit - 7/25/2007 1:39:34 AM The difference you bring up is the whole point. What people choose to do with and to their own bodies is entirely up to them, provided they make their own choice. Now, if I get to throw an unarmed Vick into an inescapable pit with a hungry wild tiger, we're getting closer to a fair comparison. How about getting a little blood flowing and dragging him around False Bay? I'd settle for having him stripped, coated with honey and staked out on a fire ant hill - for a couple days. 5678. wonkers2 - 7/25/2007 1:53:51 AM True, but in both cases promoters are producing bloody, inhumane combat as public entertainment for their own profit. 5680. jexster - 7/25/2007 5:17:38 PM 
Iraqis celebrate in Baghdad. Two car bombs killed at least 13 Iraqis in Baghdad as they celebrated their national team's victory in the Asia Cup football semi-finals, police and medical sources said.
5681. jexster - 7/25/2007 6:54:31 PM This means war....
Savafids to Meet Saudis in Asia Cup Final 5683. robertjayb - 7/26/2007 2:28:50 AM Rasmussen pulled from tour over doping suspicions...
GOURETTE, France (AP) -- Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen was removed from the race by his team after winning Wednesday's stage, the biggest blow yet in cycling's doping-tainted premier event.
''Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating (the team's) internal rules,'' Rabobank team spokesman Jacob Bergsma told The Associated Press by phone.
The expulsion, which Bergsma said was ordered by the Dutch team sponsor, was linked to ''incorrect'' information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director over his whereabouts last month. Rasmussen missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28.
The 33-year-old rider, who won Wednesday's stage, had looked set to win the race, which ends Sunday in Paris.
''We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable,'' Tour director Christian Prudhomme told the AP.
The leader of cycling's governing body applauded the decision.
''My immediate reaction is, why didn't they do this at the end of June, when they had the same information,'' Pat McQuaid said. ''The team decided to pull him out; that's their prerogative. I can only applaud that. It's a zero-tolerance policy, and it's a lesson for the future.''
With Rasmussen out, Spanish rider Alberto Contador of the Discovery Channel team moved into the race lead.
''It's in no way a celebration on our end. It's the third piece of bad news,'' said Discovery Channel spokesman P.J. Rabice. ''It reflects badly on our sport.''
5684. wabbit - 7/26/2007 1:20:09 PM I deleted a couple duplicate posts.
Sports Illustrated is running a series on cheating in sports. None of the writers has taken on cycling. 5685. wabbit - 7/26/2007 1:26:55 PM RIP Bill Flemming
Bill Flemming, a longtime ABC sports broadcaster who covered events as varied as the Olympics, college football and cliff diving, has died. He was 80.
Flemming died Friday of prostate cancer in Petoskey, a Lake Michigan town near his summer cottage, his daughter, Lindy Flemming of Larkspur, Calif., said Tuesday.
In addition to football and golf play-by-play announcing, Flemming reported on more than 600 events for ABC's "Wide World of Sports" program.
He followed 11 Olympics and the showdown between chess titans Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1972. He grew up in Ann Arbor, graduated from the University of Michigan and considered the Michigan-Ohio State football matchup one of his choice assignments.
Flemming's other speciality was bringing little-known sports such as parachuting and hurling -- an Irish game similar to hockey and lacrosse -- to American audiences.
Flemming entered broadcasting in 1949. He worked for WWJ-TV in Detroit and appeared on NBC's "Today" show before joining ABC's "Wide World" in 1961... 5686. iiibbb - 7/26/2007 5:23:15 PM Michael Rasmussen is out of the TDF!!!! 5687. alistairConnor - 7/28/2007 10:38:13 PM The Tour will survive. This is a watershed year. Talking tough and acting tough on dope. Some people were still convinced they
Vinokourov and Team Borat got booted, no surprises there.
The Rasmussen case is pretty interesting.
I didn't follow today's stage, a time trial. It seems to me that the Australian Cadel Evans had a good chance of taking the yellow jersey in this stage. Or it could be the Quiet American. But never underestimate the motivational power of that yellow jersey, Contador could hang on and win the Tour. 5688. alistairConnor - 7/28/2007 10:46:43 PM Not a bad call... Leipheimer won the stage, Evans was second, and Contador is still in front overall... with 23 seconds on Evans and 31 on Leipheimer, he's assured of overall victory tomorrow barring accidents. It will apparently be the closest Tour in history.
And that's fitting. Incredibly, a week into the race, there were still 10 riders who could have won it... it's been a real sporting competition, a rare thing in the 20 years I've been following the Tour. Most years, it's been dominated by a Boss (Indurain, then Armstrong). I like it more like this. I may be wrong, but I don't think we'll see those days again soon. 5689. alistairConnor - 7/28/2007 10:59:27 PM The Rasmussen thing is interesting because he was inadvertently ratted by a TV commentator.
When he did his big number in the Alps last week, this Italian commentator threw in an anecdote about how he saw Rasmussen training in Italy in June in very tough conditions, and had talked to him briefly. He was just doing his job, trying to build up the myth. But as it happens, Rasmussen, who missed drug tests during that period, had claimed he was in Mexico at the time... It all unravelled after that.
Moral of the story? You can't run, you can't hide, the drugbusters will get you. Well, that's my optimistic version. 5690. jexster - 7/29/2007 3:37:56 PM FINAL: Iraq 1, Saudi Arabia 0 5691. wabbit - 7/29/2007 4:53:25 PM  Skipper Younis Mahmoud's thumping headed goal crowned Iraq as the Asian Cup champions for the first time with a stirring 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in the final here Sunday. Mahmoud powered home the 71st-minute header off a Hawar Mohammed corner for the only goal in the fiercely-contested all-Arab final over the three-time champion Saudis in a seething Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. The huge roar inside the stadium was no doubt bettered by wildly celebrating supporters back in their war-ravaged homeland where Iraqis risked death to rejoice the unifying triumph of their national football team.
Iraq blunted the resistance of the Saudis, who could not counter the determination and steel of their Gulf rivals in the crackling decider to the three-week continental tournament.
Saudi Arabia, which has appeared in five of the last six finals, is a three-time champion. Iraq had never been to the finals and last played in the semifinals 31 years ago.
5692. wabbit - 7/29/2007 4:54:03 PM  The verdict was never in doubt when Lawyer Ron hit the top of the stretch in the $750,000 Whitney Handicap. The chestnut colt came roaring around the final turn and pulled away for a 4 3-4-length victory over Wanderin Boy on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, breaking a 33-year-old track record in the process. Ridden by John Velazquez, Lawyer Ron charged to the front and took the lead from Wanderin Boy, then the 4-year-old colt turned on the afterburners and covered 1 1-8 miles in 1:46.64, bettering the track record of 1:47 set by Tri Jet on Aug. 3, 1974. The victory earned Lawyer Ron an automatic berth in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27, thanks to a new "Win and You're In" qualifying format created this year.
In other races that carried automatic Breeders' Cup berths:
- My Typhoon ($8.10) surged to the lead on the far turn and won the $500,000 Diana Handicap by three-quarters of a length over Argentina, clinching a spot in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
- -- Diabolical ($7) moved past Attila's Storm in the final strides and captured the $250,000 Albert G. Vanderbilt Handicap by a half-length. Trained by Steve Klesaris, the 4-year-old colt clinched a berth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint with his second win in four starts this year. Diabolical covered the six furlongs in 1:08.67.
- -- Ginger Punch ($4.50) took charge in the stretch and pulled away for an easy victory in the $250,000 Go for Wand Handicap, earning a spot in the Breeders' Cup Distaff.
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