Bertie allowed to race in Le Tour

[neilski]

So to win this year's Tour, it would seem all you need to do is finish second and wait....

http://bbc.in/mhCjAU

[Jimbo.]

For a sport so desperate to clean up its reputation, this is an utter joke. The guys a cheating little toe-rag. Someone, somewhere, has thrown some cash in the right direction.

[neilski]

It's a joke that the date has been pushed back until after the Tour when one possible outcome is that he could be stripped of his win and the second placed rider gets promoted to first with maybe a column inch or two in the back of The Telegraph instead of getting to bask in the glory of standing on the top step of the podium before being offered lots of lucrative endorsement deals.

Who remembers Oscar Pereiro?

[Gooby]

What is a TDF win worth to the victorious rider?

[anonymous-user]

to be fair if Schelck doesnt win the tour this year he may as give up. he has big brother at his side helping him, along with Cancellera and Jens "Shut up Legs" Voight wherever needed. Contador has nothing like that sort of support. it should be a good race, i'm looking forward to it. Sky need a massive performance if they are to not become the proverbial white elephant and a few other big names need a result...

[neilski]

Gooby said:

What is a TDF win worth to the victorious rider?

According to one of the cycling mags (ProCycling I think), Lance used to earn about $20m a year in endorsements from the likes of Trek, Nike, Oakley, Giro, PowerBar etc. and as we all know, he only ever rode one race a year....

I know he was the exception to the rule but look at previous winners like Merckx, LeMond, Coppi & Bottechia who all launched their own bike ranges. Whether they'd still have been able to do this with a successful career but no Tour wins is anybody's guess but I suspect their sales volumes would have been much lower.

A quick look on Bertie's website tells me he's sponsored by those well known cycling brands Hugo Boss and Christian Lay. I wonder if they'd still be sponsoring him if he was a domestique.

Even Carlos Sastre, probably the rider with the lowest profile of recent winners used to be the poster boy for ZipVit and had Lake launch a special edition shoe with his name on.