Astana got "favourable" treatment during the tour

penexpers

This was just published in Le Monde

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2009/10/05/le-traitement-de-faveur-d-astana-sur-le-tour-2009_1249219_3242.html#ens_id=1249221&xtor=RSS-3208

Essentially the French Anti Doping agency states that Astana were given favourable treatment by the UCI during the Tour this year.

Here's the translation

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Fsport%2Farticle%2F2009%2F10%2F05%2Fle-traitement-de-faveur-d-astana-sur-le-tour-2009_1249219_3242.html%23ens_id%3D1249221%26xtor%3DRSS-3208&sl=fr&tl=en&history_state0=

tunney

Surprise, surprise, the UCI are not dumb.
Had LA or AC tested positive it would have killed the sport. They had to make sure that they didn't catch them.

Chips Lovell

If it's proven the UCI gave preferential treatment to Astana, it would kill the sport far quicker than any positive test for Armstrong or Contador.

Diarmuid

el tonto wrote: »

If it's proven the UCI gave preferential treatment to Astana, it would kill the sport far quicker than any positive test for Armstrong or Contador.

I think UCI are mid way through their plan to kill it with a long slow death.

SACH Central

What are you guys talking about? Both contador & armstrong are both clean, they have nothing to hide. Sure aren't they as pure as driven snow. And as for the rest of the whole Astana setup, I'm convinced they wouldn't know how to dope, even if they wanted...................................not!

petethedrummer

The sport won't die. How many scandals have there been now and how much suspiscion over every single win?

Quigs Snr

The sport won't die, but pro cycling is long since dead. Its like the wrestling these days, I still love it, but more as theatre than actual sport. Give me the RAS anyday. Real racing.

RobFowl

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-denies-preferential-treatment-on-testing-towards-astana

Note it's Anne Gripper who replied and she has alot of credibility not just in cycling but throughout anti-doping worldwide

However, the UCI’s head of anti-doping services, Anne Gripper, insisted any problems over testing procedures had been dealt with during the Tour. “The UCI is confident that there was no preferential treatment given to any team during the Tour,” she told Cyclingnews. “It was an issue raised and dealt with while the Tour was happening. There's nothing further than we can say on this matter. We had discussions with the AFLD on what they think happened and we've told them what actually happened.”

niceonetom

I don't see what all the fuss is about; surely Lance deserves special treatment, right? Do you honestly expect the greatest athlete/humanitarian of all time to be treated like the pack-fill he has to ride with? C'mon.

Yet again the French pro-cancer media bias rears its ugly head. It's sad really.