Sinkewitz and Quick-Step

LangerDan

Looks like Stinky didn't learn to be a bad boy in T-Mobile..

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... /nov04news

We can probably expect the normal response from Lefevre - more spin than a Whirling Dervish plus a threat to drag Pat S. through every court on the Continent.

jimmythecuckoo

I am beginning to feel a shred of sympathy for little Patrik now...

ridgerider

I think it would have been more shocking if he had named a team that was NOT at it...

iainf72

Aye, but he says he did not mention Bettini as his dealer

http://www.tuttobiciweb.it/main.php?pag ... d&id=13835

QS obviously pay off the right people.

vermooten

Yeah now that he's spoken up, it seems he's a human being after all.

skavanagh.bikeradar

Well, it exposes the problems in a nutshell really - the rider wanting to do well, but faced with only one of doing it (it seemed to him), teams ambigious (at best) about it happening, the authorities turning half a blind eye (until it suits them)....a sorry mess all round really. The UCI need to pay attention to Sinkewitz and everyone needs to take him seriously.

LangerDan

I wonder if he'll be as quick to exonerate other members of the Quick-Step team that joined around the same time - for example a rider who went from two pro victories in two years to 24 victories in a single year.

skavanagh.bikeradar

Who do you mean? Ha! Of course, but this is the other thing Sinkewitz is exposing - the difficulty in coming forwards and naming names. Obviously one of the former QS riders is better erm, connected than the other, as Sinkewitz said (and is reported on Cyclingnews.com):

Bettini warned me, 'If it was you that said it then you will be crying.'"

There may be something lost in context and translation but it sounds slightly menacing!

iainf72

LangerDan wrote:

I wonder if he'll be as quick to exonerate other members of the Quick-Step team that joined around the same time - for example a rider who went from two pro victories in two years to 24 victories in a single year.

Not one with perfectly normal blood values, surely?

LangerDan

iainf72 wrote:

LangerDan wrote:

I wonder if he'll be as quick to exonerate other members of the Quick-Step team that joined around the same time - for example a rider who went from two pro victories in two years to 24 victories in a single year.

Not one with perfectly normal blood values, surely?

When I mentioned this about 18 months ago, a certain ex-pro who would occasionally frequent the old forum smacked me on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper and told me I was a bad puppy - the rider in question was merely "learning his craft" and hence the improvement. Which, to be fair to the guy, is probably the case.
However if the rider in question had joined, say, T- Mobile and shown similar improvement, we'd be looking back and shaking our heads.

Perhaps it was as a consequence of Bettinis outburst in Stuttgart that Pat S has exonerated him specifically but can any implications be drawn from the people that Sinkewitz doesn't exonerate?

Matchstick Man

i think it was a recent copy of Procycling which contained a quote from (IIRC) Bettini who said:

It's far easier to dope for the one-day races

an interesting fact when you read what PS is saying about lack of training controls in the lead up to one-day races. I've thought through recently and of all the riders who've been convicted for doping in recent times, not many have been one-day racers - they've all been stage racers by and large. Makes you wonder just who is getting away with it in the Classics. huh?