Liggett questions Ullrich's sportsmanship

"Donald Munro" wrote in message
m...
Nick Burns wrote:
Yeah, really. I just HATE the misnomer "pain killers" since anyone that
has
not ever had serious pain seems to think that medicine can *always* take
away pain, right?

Then again, I try to cut people slack since even a lot of MDs are
misinformed about pain.

And they often have side effects as well. I recently had an operation
to put a pin in a broken collar bone and the pain killer they injected
me with after the operation (without asking me if I wanted it) caused
me to have to stay overnight at the hospital instead of going home on
the same day as it messed up my blood pressure or something. Must be
becaue my bodies not used to all these narcotic chemicals as I don't

There is a very good chance you would have been sorry if they had not done
that. I don't know if they debriefed you but sometimes there are indications
in the operating room that you may wake up with very high levels of pain.
The anesthesiologists are typically the best educated with regard to pain
and the medicines and was likely the one that resommended it, probably based
on the medicines he had to give you will you were in surgery. The medicine
used to keep you asleep was also an opiate (narcotic, but I try not to use
that word since it has been used by law enforcement with negative
connotations and is also used to cover a wider scope of drugs) coctail so it
is not as if you would have gotten out of there without any opoid medicine
in your body.


drink (alcohol) either.

And I couldn't persuade any of the nurses to practise their pubic
shaving skills on me either.

It can get boring in there, eh? You were lucky since a lot of times they
don't even use shaving cream. The lucky ones are asked if they want to do it
themselves.

In article ,
says...
I know many basques, and they are extremely decent folks, hospitable and
full of integrity. I think that this discussion is based upon an insane
number of assumptions. I still haven't seen anything to suggest that Mayo
and Zubeldia did anything outrageous. Mayo attacked just before Armstrong
went down. He bridged back to the group, rode with them at pace before
attacking again. Armstrong's counter blew him to pieces. Anyone
following the subsequent chase would agree that everyone in the group was
then hammering at 100% capability. The idea of wheel sucking seems a wee
bit extreme. If there was any concern about bonus seconds, I'm sure that
Mayo and Zubeldia were not trying to deny Ullrich anything. I think they
were simply trying as hard as they could for the locals and for the team.
While comradery and nobility are supremely desirable characteristics,
slavish observation of them would be the demise of any competition.
Think of it. Should the attack up Alpe d'Huez have been tempered to give
Hamilton a fairer chance, given that his collar bone was affecting the
high end of his climbing speed? Should all have stopped for Beloki? If a
rider is sick, should there be a parade until he is recovered? Where does
it end? Had Mayo cut across Ullrich's line, or Zubeldia held him to
insure Mayo's sprint, that would seem to meet the standard of beastliness.
In the end, I doubt this race, close as it is, is going to result in these
4 secs. becoming an issue in the final classification. But one never
knows... In the end, the person with the most to lose over what happened
is too noble to comment!

I don't buy that everyone was working at 100% capability during the
Armstrong chase. Mayo and Zubeldia were conspicuous in their strategy
of hanging on Ulrich's wheel with no intention of taking the lead, in my
opinion. I doubt very seriously that either of them would say they
chose never to respond to several requests on the part of Ulrich for
them to pull a little of their own weight in attempting to minimalize
the Armstrong damage because they were "hammering at 100% capability."
Likewise, I doubt that they took any particular pleasure in denying
Ulrich 2nd place, but the limits to which they were willing to stoop for
the sake of pleasing the local crowd were regrettable. It's nice to see
Basques do well in Basque country, but it's too bad a bottom-feeder
strategy was apparently required to do so. Granted, sportsmanship can
be taken to silly extremes (the ultimate expression of which is
professional mixed doubles in tennis) but this situation didn't fall in
that category, IMHO.