bam_bam wrote:sakimano wrote:I don't get why it's illegal.
Because it's not legal. When something is illegal, it is on the wrong side of the law, thus, not legal or correctly termed, illegal. Tell me which part of illegal is confusing you and I will try to help but could you please answer a couple of simple questions before I waste any time:
- what is the spirit of sport?
- do you understand right from wrong?
- do you ever consider ethical repercussions before allowing enhancing drugs or other procedures into top-level international sport?
- should the health and safety of the Tour de France competitors even be a remote consideration or would you like to see someone die?
Why? Because it's cycling, not blood transfusions on wheels. It's about the bike and the man. When you walk into a bike shop do you always check out the newest bloodbag products or does your eye wander over to the Dura-Ace® syringe wall? When I listen to the commentary I don't want to hear "...Lance must've used his 3rd allowed blood transfusion last night, he's powering up the side of that sheer cliff face to take the yellow jersey for the 19th consecutive day".
What's next, cyclists attached to carbon-fibre lung machines so as to augment breathing? That'd be a great legacy, wouldn't it?
Interviewer: So what do you remember most about watching the 'tour' growing up?
157th equal 1st place winner Tour de France 2023: "I 'member how big dem 1st LanceLungz were innit. Itz well lolz to lok bak on dem fings"
Interviewer: "Errrm, is there anyone you'd particularly like to thank for helping you win the tour?"
157th equal 1st place winner Tour de France 2023: "I lik 2 shout 2 mi hommies @ Dow Chemikalz an 2 mi bluds up @ Bloodpakz4u. Peace."
It's about principles and tradition, it's meant to inspire due to it's accessibility. I watch it as kid, I get a bike for my birthday, I dream of riding in the
peloton and I train my guts out. Where's the inspiration in knowing that even if you rode the perfect tour, wear the
maillot jaune for 20 days, complete perfection, top of your game, the fittest in the world, unstoppable. However, someone beat you with a catheter and a blood pack. It's no longer about self-belief and hard graft, it's about medicine and medical strategy.
Would you want to grow up in a world like that? I wouldn't.
You can go swapping blood out where ever you want but fcuk off and start another event, just don't do it on the tour, it sullies the good name of all the guys that did it the proper way. The bar has been set, if you cannot compete, train harder. If you cannot dig deeper, toughen up. If you're a faggy, new-age hipster ready to blame your parents for shitty genealogy, then by all means, reach for some undetectable drugs and a blood pack and take the credit for winning, because that'd be alright, we all understand how it must feel to be you.
...and if you've just survived cancer but you still want to compete in the greatest and most prestigious human endurance event the world has seen, then we'll make a special exception for you too.
It's a simple principle.
- The tour is created
- The tour is amazing
- No one takes drugs
- No one has ever had blood transfusions
- The world marvels at these feats of human endurance
- At some point, someone, either inferior, in-secure or unscrupulous, takes drugs/blood to cheat on the tour
Beyond
that point, what's the point of it all? It has lost its identity, its history and it's no longer about the bike and the man. It is no longer. The tour is dead to me.
Fcuk Lance Armstrong and everyone like him.