Discovery/Postal how many were caught doping ?

moray_gub
moray_gub Posts: 3,328
edited August 2007 in Pro race
During the Disco/Postal years can anyone supply figures about how many riders failed drug tests and or were caught up in Operacion Puerto whilst being employed by them ?

cheers
MG
Gasping - but somehow still alive !

Comments

  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    How many USPS / Disco riders?

    Zero.

    Benoît Joachim produced a positive in 2000 for nandralone but was later cleared.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • moray_gub
    moray_gub Posts: 3,328
    Zero ?

    But surely if they were guilty of the mass doping being alleged in here at least one would have failed a test somewhere along the line in the last 8 years or so ? I mean look at Astana they have failed three or four in the last couple of months.

    cheers
    MG
    Gasping - but somehow still alive !
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Nope

    Not one.

    The closest has been Armstrongs B samples from 99 being tested a couple of years ago and showing EPO.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    People will wheel out the fact that ex-USPS riders have produced positives but really that's a pathetic argument.

    Frankie Andreu is the only ex-USPS rider to publically admit EPO usage and guess what? He did it off his own back, not as part of some super programme of dopage.

    Was there a system? Very likely but there is no smoking gun.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • Ste_S
    Ste_S Posts: 1,173
    Of the riders who left Disco/USPS and later tested positive, how many had a change in form after leaving ?
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    Quite a few! Landis won the Tour with Phonak, something he never managed with US Postal... And didn't Tyler podium in the 2002 Giro and finish 4th in the 2003 Tour with CSC? Heras of course won the Vuelta twice while with US Postal, and I think he also had a couple of wins after going to Liberty Seguros.

    It is difficult to compare performances of these guys when at US Postal versus their subsequent "independent" careers. At US Psotal they were all clearly in a domestique role, at least in the Tour, and then left to become team leaders elsewhere. Heras is the real anomaly here - winning a Grand Tour whilst in the service of The Boss (obviously Savoldelli did this too but he was not such a key man to Lance in 2005 as Heras was while at US Postal) and continuing to win after leaving the fold. The pressures and demands on them in these two roles would be quite different. I don't think any conclusions can be drawn from comparing performances.
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