Sergio Henao suspended by sky

Face. Palm.
Face. Palm.

And I don’t think there’s a
And I don’t think there’s a single person who is in or follows cycling who thinks Horner won clean.

mooleur wrote:
Your belief of

mooleur wrote:

Your belief of the doping hype is a damaging attitude, such unwarranted negativity does not help the state of things in the public eye. It doesn’t help any of us, especially not those who race. Even I, at an amateur domestic level, get questions and “jokes” from people who don’t know me because they simply assume everyone who races for a team must be on drugs – these aren’t people who know about cycling, but they are people who read articles written by people with ill informed opinions such as those you’re outlining here.

As a friend of pro and ex pro riders both domestic and further afield, I actually find your statements slightly offensive on their behalf, when you consider how much work these guys and girls put in now. Assuming that “every team must have a doper” and other such nonsense is basically like posting your own poo through the letterbox of the guys who have sacrificed EVERYTHING to be at the top of their game. Those guys deserve respect, not constant criticism for an area they aren’t and were never a part of.

When guys are caught, fine, give them hell. But don’t you dare bring down the hard work of folks who deserve nothing but a tip of the cap for the unbelievable work they put in to do what they do.

Well you bow and scrap if you please. I respect endeavour in a different way to you. I think your attitude makes it easier for the dopers to hide behind half truths and plain lies. Chances are that the ones not doping are the ones who don’t win a thing. I would also dispute your junior racers being non-dopers. I know form when I was a lad that my friends (cyclists ) were popping amphetamines, but also that some of the most tragic cases of cycling deaths were young teenage cyclists in Holland who died in their sleep because their blood was like syrup from self-medicating EPO. If you are happy for that to happen then you sicken me. If doping didn’t work or didn’t help then no one would do it.
I get it that even dopers train and try hard, but you should never let them get away from the taint. Time and again the athletes let you down and as long as the window through which they keep passing to avoid anti-doping remains large then they will continue to walk through it.

As I said I enjoy the racing, but when you have the likes of Horner winning and getting away with it it seems blind to trust the system. He easily circumvented it by changing his hotel address the night before – classic tactic.

farrell wrote:So Colin, given

farrell wrote:

So Colin, given that you are the absolute authority on everything cycling, when should Chris Hoy give his medals back?

Nail. Head.

@Colin – please look at the broader picture in cycling at a professional level, there are guys I know guys who are starting their seasons in Belgium doing ridiculous hilly kermesses and one dayers at 27-29mph averages – these guys are young and certainly the only drugs they’ve probably even sniffed at are calpol and their big brothers’ weed. Are those speeds to be sniffed at and dismissed as sure fire unnatural ability?

If you make direct comparisons on grand tours now and grand tours in the Armstrong era the entire STYLE of riding is completely different. The riders look natural, the climbers are tiny skinny whisps like they should be. Not big burly coke sniffing hooligans that can wake up and break records like it wasn’t even hard.

Your belief of the doping hype is a damaging attitude, such unwarranted negativity does not help the state of things in the public eye. It doesn’t help any of us, especially not those who race. Even I, at an amateur domestic level, get questions and “jokes” from people who don’t know me because they simply assume everyone who races for a team must be on drugs – these aren’t people who know about cycling, but they are people who read articles written by people with ill informed opinions such as those you’re outlining here.

As a friend of pro and ex pro riders both domestic and further afield, I actually find your statements slightly offensive on their behalf, when you consider how much work these guys and girls put in now. Assuming that “every team must have a doper” and other such nonsense is basically like posting your own poo through the letterbox of the guys who have sacrificed EVERYTHING to be at the top of their game. Those guys deserve respect, not constant criticism for an area they aren’t and were never a part of.

When guys are caught, fine, give them hell. But don’t you dare bring down the hard work of folks who deserve nothing but a tip of the cap for the unbelievable work they put in to do what they do.

stumps wrote:Colin, after

stumps wrote:

Colin, after watching the likes of Quintana, Sagan etc literally almost at a standstill going up that last 600m ramp i can honestly say if any of them were taking drugs they would not struggle like that.

Based on what Stumps? I don’t think you’ve taken any to know. To be fair neither of us knows when they’re taking. I thought the average of the stage was high relatively speaking, but I wasn’t basing what I said only on what I felt. The Eurosport commentator thought so too. As an ex-pro and someone who watched the whole thing I should think that qualifies the statement a bit. But it matters not.

You know I still enjoy the cycling, but there is a deception about sport. It is wonderful theatre, but like theatre/film things are being made to seem real when they are not. I don’t think Sky are any different to any other team out there. So if Trek has a doper, or Lampre-Merida I think the likelihood Sky has one too is pretty high. The only reason people think they are different is because they tell us so. But the longer they go on the harder it is to stop the cracks appearing in their facade.

I’m just surprised at how ready people are to believe them when all we have ever been told (regarding drugs) is lies and half truths.

You might like this post –
You might like this post – ‘The challenge of monitoring ‘altitude natives’ in professional cycling’ http://decaironman-training.com/2014/03/19/the-challenge-of-monitoring-altitude-natives-in-professional-cycling/

The excuse puts doubt out
The excuse puts doubt out there so that they don’t have to face off a furore about doping and can effectively sweep the issue under the carpet. Buying time from a media storm – because apparently they didn’t break this story originally.

When you listen to the words of the release doesn’t it conjure up the idea that they have commissioned a rather expensive sampling program of Andean residence in order to determine what has happened? How likely do you think that will be for the sake of one pro-athlete? How much will they spend? £1,000, £10,000, £100,000? Well you might as well hire a new cyclist for the last amount – but that is probably twice as much as is needed to do half-way what a decent academic research program costs.

The only person they are going to push and prod is Henao.