Right to be cynical about Sky

Welsh boy wrote:crikey

Welsh boy wrote:

crikey wrote:

Meh.
I can’t find the enthusiasm for yet another doping story; it’s cycling, there are dopers…

It’s not just cycling, it’s all sport. These guys and galls have 15 years or so at the top of their profession to make as much money as possible, hopefully to see them through a long retirement or whilst training at the age or 35 for a second career. All sportspeople are driven, motivated individuals looking to maximise their earnings and fame. Of course some (most?) will look for an edge over their rivals to try and better themselves. Such is life.

If you look at how few teams there are and basically how crap the pay is, riders will do whatever they think they can get away with that gets them a place. Short term contracts, teams in a constant state of flux, not exactly helpful to the situation.

I would state every rider is on something, IMO the majority are within the rules, they may push to the limit, i.e. asthma, tramadol, etc. a few may go over the limit, EPO, blood doping. I would also say things are better than they were, as for whether dopers should be allowed in the sport, as most current DS’s were riding through the worst of times banning every implicated DS would leave no one. Does it matter, IMO not really, it depends on the DS’s attitude to drugs, someone who denies and evades, or someone who admits they f***ed up. The knowledge of how to race is far more than simply knowing how to mix pot belge.

Gkam84 wrote:
Sky needs to go

Gkam84 wrote:

Sky needs to go through an Astana style audit by the UCI, THEN and only then should they be given any trust, at the moment. I wouldn’t trust them at all with their closed doors policy

This may be the most mind-numbingly stupid thing I’ve seen you write.
At no point have Sky ever been accused of any doping – not beyond the tin-foil hatted twitterati – there’s been no positive tests, no suspicion of covered up positive tests, and no evidence of any doping. The closest we get is their top riders performing close to an arbitrary limit of human ability, which is either evidence of top athletes at the top of their game, or average athletes taking a load of banned substances. Seeing as Sky are one of the very top teams and have a roster of supremely talented athletes, which is most likely?
Astana had several athletes busted for doping, and worked with banned doctor Michele Ferrari, and their manager is completely unrepentant and corrupt Alex Vino.
Sky hired a few people who may or may not have doped back in the days when every fucker was doping. I repeat, it’s almost impossible to find a suitable DS who has no link to some sort of doping in the past 20 years.
So you see how the two teams are different? Do you see how one team deserves a thorough investigation and going over, and one team doesn’t?

Meh.
I can’t find the
Meh.
I can’t find the enthusiasm for yet another doping story; it’s cycling, there are dopers…

I don’t read the Mail; see
I don’t read the Mail; see above.
With a name like Servais Knaven, he’s obviously an untrustworthy foreign type and is probably implicated in the death of Princess Di too.

Yates was SACKED, the
Yates was SACKED, the “retiring” then appearing with another team months later….aye ok then.

Sky needs to go through an Astana style audit by the UCI, THEN and only then should they be given any trust, at the moment. I wouldn’t trust them at all with their closed doors policy

You’re a bit fucked if you
You’re a bit fucked if you want a DS who was a rider in the last 20 years who has no links to doping.
I’m sure Sky will have to sack him if this story blows up; their zero tolerance policy is incredibly hard to achieve but they’ve done their best to stick to it.
When the current generation of riders retires and goes into management, then we’ll have teams without links to doping. Possibly.
Other thing to note is that past doping by no means means they’ll be doing it now. In the 90s, early 2000s, doping was just part of the job. If you wanted to race, you did it. You had to. Now, you don’t. The teams and riders are working under a different set of parameters.