Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Ullrich's Lost Maillots Jaunes
Not entirely surprising, but Germany’s leading boulevard rag Die Bild adds a new twist to the Armstrong doping allegation. According to their logic, Jan Ullrich should be awarded the Tour victories in 2000 and 2001 (and 2003?) because had Lance’s doping come to light in ’99, there would have followed a long-term ban from competition. Bild goes on to note that the prize money from the 2004 Tour has not yet been disbursed, because of the host of doping allegations against Armstrong.
It should go without saying that if Bild were the only news competition, Fox News not only would sweep the Pulitzers, but get the award for Excellence in Journalism hands down every year. Still, if you are talking about declassification six years after the fact, why not extend it to its logical (or illogical) conclusions like this.
For its part, Radsport-News.com – one of the best cycling news sites in German or any other language for that matter – wryly notes in its original story on the issue that “Ullrich probably would not be too happy about a retroactive investigation of his urine tests from the 1997 Tour de France.”
It should go without saying that if Bild were the only news competition, Fox News not only would sweep the Pulitzers, but get the award for Excellence in Journalism hands down every year. Still, if you are talking about declassification six years after the fact, why not extend it to its logical (or illogical) conclusions like this.
For its part, Radsport-News.com – one of the best cycling news sites in German or any other language for that matter – wryly notes in its original story on the issue that “Ullrich probably would not be too happy about a retroactive investigation of his urine tests from the 1997 Tour de France.”
