hmmm... what does it mean?... hamilton was positive for blood boosting and it didnt change much... so i think the beat will go on after heras too...
as a person who believes in due process and fairness under the law i am very interested to see what happens with his inevitable appeal... there have been a few riders to be exonerated after this epo test... and i do believe that if there is reasonable doubt as to the reliability of a test it shouldnt be used... and i also believe a person has the right and responsibility to challenge the validity of claims against him...
it would be nice if a positive B sample was a guilty verdict and then you could sanction the athlete right away and be done with it... a nice and tidy process... but i think that in the case of this epo test currently in use a positive B sample is just like an indictment... with the real trial to follow... there is a nice sized hole in the epo test, one big enough to drive a legal process through...
the story
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Hey, how about the documentary movie "Pumping Iron" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and big Mike Cats?
Clearly those beefcakes were all on drugs. Back in the 70's they were all competing in the Mr. Universe, I bet the general public thought those guys were clean and everyone was blown away by their girth.
Then Arnold's huge stardom probably had to do with the 1980's love for hyper-excess and post-modernism. The timing between his bulked body and pop culture was perfect. I mean, get huge like Arnold now, and maybe if youre lucky, you'll get paid like a thousand dollars to pose wearing daisy dukes cut off shorts and military boots for "Muscle and Fitness" magazine.
Back to Roberto Heras:
All these cyclists that fail the test for EPO, it's a way out for them from a failed relationship with a sport. Couples do this same self-destruction when they want to break up. Using EPO is like bringing in the 3-way with your girlfriend and her best friend.
Yeah, due process, etc. etc. Everybody deserves a fair trial, of course there are flaws on the tests and systems. So let's give Heras what he deserves, while we sit around another two years to find out what we already know... he is just another cheater. Oh well. Congratulations on your four fake Vuelta wins Roberto. Too bad you sucked at the Tour.
whats wrong with the 3 way with your girlfriend and her hot friend?? i don't think that i can agree with this analogy.... i can see how it is so hard for these guys in europe to resist the temptation of drugs, when they seem so easy to get. you have guys like me who's h-crit is naturally like 40 having to compete with guys whose h-crit is like 53 all the time and they get a UCI waiver. seems kinda unfair to me....
"Beke
Beke
Beke
It's all his damned fault!" -
Dick Pound, late at night, in the back corners of his twisted mind...
The shame isn't in the using, it's in the getting caught.
Yo E-rok...
You were on Jay Leno on thanksgiving...
I hate Leno, but was watching because they said Dnae Cook was comming on...
Anyway, they did a little segment where they said Lindsay Lohan is here... And the entire crowd was millitary guys, so of course they went apeshit... And then Jay goes, Of course we can't leave out our female soldiers, so here is a clip for the ladies...
The clip was your Kmart underwear comercial... But they superimposed the band leader guy's head on your body... So it was you and your abs dancing aroundwith the tonight show band dude's head on it..
And that was a treat for the ladies...
I am not making this up...
Peace out.
The shame *is* in using. You're a cheater. Even if no one finds out, any prize you've won is a lie. So it perpetuates the problem and you never feel like a winner because, plain and simply, YOU'RE NOT.
....and then, later in life, you get the karma thing going on, with poor health, early death, etc...for what? Glory days? When you beat out a young RaboBank Eastern European at the Vuelta after having such a sorry Tour?
innocent until proven guilty---but I'm betting that Heras is done bike racing...He'd be smarter to just follow Saunders' lead and quit the sport at this point.
"In the peloton, refusing to dope means refusing to 'do the job'; it's like refusing to train or get a massage."
"Athletes have doped from day one."
"Doping itself has become a form of high-level competitive sport. They should do dope checks on the docs."
-Paul Fournel
If the doping has become a competive sport, is the whole process of catching people part of the game as well? Does it really matter who is innocent and who is guilty, or are there just winners and losers?
The basic thing here is that everyone has a choice on whether to cheat or not. Some people will always cheat at the drop of a hat, others need hard times to set them off and they'll cry about it afterwards and beg for understanding. Also, from what I've heard (and believe) some people get set up, whether they've cheated or not. There are a million possible scenarios. If a person's dishonesty isn't rooted out by others, sometimes people subconsciously out themselves, or help in the process--like Millar saving his vials.
I don't really know how pervasive the doping culture we keep hearing about is, or even if it actually exists. I don't know how good the tests are when the periphery of circumstances surrounding some cases just seems so contrived and manipulated.
It sucks to be a fan and know that this kind of shit goes on, but you know it does. How can anyone come to a clear conclusion, though. It's too easy to be cynical on one hand, or have your head in the sand on the other.
Anyone ever read "Rough Ride," by Paul Kimmage. Pretty good book. He whines a bit too much, but the guy really gives the impression of honesty. Above anyone else, he implicates himself--that's usually a good sign that someone is telling the truth.
"...its not about the money and fame..."
What's it all about then after you've won the race? You honestly think that there is enlightenment in pulling off your wet, filty chamois and not the belief in the chance of fleeting fame after winning a race?
Just wondering after all these years chasing wins what the hell I've been doing. Maybe you can help.
i like the 3 way analogy...
http://cyclismag.com/index.php?op=edito
who dat?
It must be because the UCI is trying to destroy their sport by manufacturing a massive fraud by destroying the career of one of the sport's most elite and popular athletes......Once again gang, can we please take off the rose colored glasses and stop questioning the tests?
The sport gains nothing by exposing high level cheating. It is an unbelievable embarassment that the winner of a Grand Tour is exposed as a doper. Why would the UCI want to do that to itself if it weren't obvious to them that cheating had occured?
It was a Spanish Tour. It was a Spanish rider on a Spanish team. If there were going to be any shady dealings, it would have been to cover up the results not to manufacture a false test result to destroy the reputation of an athlete, his team (Spain's premier team, at that), and that of the Vuelta.
Why is it that fans can't credit professional cycling for attempting to clean up a sport that has been dirty for decades?
Let's stop drinking the "tests are flawed" koolaid and let professional cycling clean it's house.
"...nothing is worth sticking needles in your body while lying about it."
tell that to the guy who'd work in a shoe factory in Slovenia rather than racing his bike. Unlike here in the US, where the average cyclist comes from the upper middle class, most Euro guys are trying to avoid working blue collar jobs. We have it so spoiled here that I think we really shouldn't judge. You think all the L.A. olympic riders should give back their medals? Ask Gorski when you see him standing next to the Discovery van.
Ah- Ullrich, wasn't he suspended for taking ecstacy at a club in the off season? Why wasn't Armstrong suspended for taking EPO during his cancer treatment?
You really can't fault a guy for cheating, it's human nature. We, as a species, are always looking for the easy way and the UCI has had many a chance to help clean up the sport, but they took the easy way, even as recently as '98- they leave the loopholes open. No governing body of any sport wants their athletes to get caught. That's why you never get your blood tested here in the US.
"Why wasn't Armstrong suspended for taking EPO during his cancer treatment?"
Maybe he wasn't holding a license at the time? (and thus couldn't be tested?)
I don't know, was he not?
Should you be suspended and fined for a drug that won't affect your cycling performance but only your sexual performance- in December no less!
Double standard. That was my point.
I hate to be the one to point this out, Billy, but a German doing Time Trials with an erection may constitute illegal use of a fairing...
(Should Cam'ron be busted for "Burrito Propulsion"?)
Damn, never thought of that- you're right, screw der Kaiser!!!
Amusingly enough, it would be legal for RAAM competition....
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