32 replies to this topic

[dasmo]

There should not be drugs in sports. That said, there are, and was, and always will be. So if they plan to bump up new winners for the Tours I expect them to do the same level of investigation on their drug intake as well...

[kenjh]

myself ..I still believe Lance won ..to say he did not years later ..is bull ..I just don't trust or believe the cr@p after the fact by losers

[Marc]

Is it just me or is it all circumstantial evidence? It's all "witness reports" yet he has passed some 500 tests? I'm undecided still...

It's been recently reported that all of these tests that Lance refers to are not all blood tests but more frequently just urine tests. Urine tests are not as effective at catching doping.

[Matt R.]

It's much, much more invasive to qualify for $300,000 of life insurance these days.

Matt.

[Holden West]

Don't forget, we're not talking about unique, obscure substances, these are drugs whose components are often found naturally in the body. Therefore, the amount suspected must be over a certain threshold. As the documents show (doubters obviously haven't read them) there are many ways to get that ratio down without triggering a positive result.

Those that testified weren't all Lance haters. Hincapie was Armstrong's loyal lieutenant and one of the most respected men in cycling.

I was an admirer of Armstrong until these reports were released.

[Bingo]

Lance Armstrong will give his first television interview since being stripped of his Tour de France titles to Oprah Winfrey, her network announced Tuesday.
A news release from the Oprah Winfrey Network said the 90-minute "no-holds-barred" interview will air at 9 p.m. ET January 17 and will be simulcast on Oprah.com.

http://edition.cnn.c....html?hpt=hp_t3

[Holden West]

That will be must see TV. He must apologize for the reign of terror he waged over those who dared tell the truth or he will be seen as self-serving.

[Bingo]

 (CNN) Cycling's international governing body for a long time failed to tackle widespread and well-known doping problems in the sport and gave special treatment to Lance Armstrong, according to a damning new report.

The investigation by the Cycling Independent Reform Commission slams the way the world body -- the International Cycling Union, or UCI -- operated over a lengthy period and calls for a series of changes to its governance.

The report highlights multiple instances in which top UCI officials protected, defended and made decisions favorable to Armstrong despite concerns that he was doping.

"UCI exempted Lance Armstrong from rules, failed to target test him despite the suspicions, and publicly supported him against allegations of doping, even as late as 2012," says the report by the commission.

In one case, the commission says, the UCI limited the scope of a supposedly independent investigation into allegations that Armstrong had tested positive in a drug test at the 1999 Tour de France.

UCI officials and Armstrong's team became heavily involved in the drafting of the investigation's report, which was released in 2006.

"The main goal was to ensure that the report reflected UCI's and Lance Armstrong's personal conclusions," the commission says. "The significant participation of UCI and Armstrong's team was never publicly acknowledged."

Between 1992 and 2006, UCI's top officials focused on protecting cycling's reputation rather than trying to root out "endemic" doping practices of which they were well aware, the commission's report says.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, USADA, which banned Armstrong from cycling for life in 2012, welcomed the commission's work.

"The report confirms that, for more than a decade, UCI leaders treated riders and teams unequally -- allowing some to be above the rules," said USADA Chief Executive Travis T. Tygart. "The UCI's favoritism and intentional failure to enforce the anti-doping rules offends the principles of fair play and is contrary to the values on which true sport is based."

http://edition.cnn.c...ping/index.html

 

[Mike K.]

Professional cycling is just like professional body building -- everyone dopes.

[Rob Randall]

I like the Cannondale-Garmin team (Victorian Ryder Hesjedal's team). They have a strict no-doping policy. Everyone who signs on pledges not to dope. You may be skeptical but the team owners have pledged that if any rider is caught doping the entire team will be shut down. Not just all the riders fired but the mechanics, chefs, masseurs and managers, everyone.

[Mike K.]

I dunno, I don't buy it. These guys can't compete if they don't dope. The human body can only go so far and then you need steroids and drugs to go further. Perhaps they don't dope before major events but in they lead up they'll do whatever is necessary.

[Rob Randall]

I'm sure there are still dopers but Hesjedal's boss, Jonathan Vaughters (a former doper himself) says the decline in doping is having a noticeable effect in cycling. You're seeing thinner riders because the past massive benefits of doping mean cyclists are now turning to smaller incremental advantages, like aerodynamics and power-to-weight ratio. 

 

 

 

 ...in old cycling, in the end someone would say we can gain five watts in the wind tunnel if we exact your position and use the perfect skinsuit and use this special material or whatever... and then the team doctor says, yeah, but we can gain 50 by doping," Vaughters said.

http://www.reuters.c...N0LO1N720150220

Edited by Rob Randall, 09 March 2015 - 09:30 AM.

[Rob Randall]

Troubling news from Team Cannondale Garmin: one of the riders has a positive preliminary test for testosterone. Tom Danielson denies he dopes and officials are still waiting for the B test to confirm. The team managers says he will press on for now. I think at the very least the team should be shut down for a month or more if the test is positive. That would take everyone, including Hesjedal, out of this month's prestigious Spanish tour.

I think the parents here agree a threat is meaningless without follow-through.