Cycling - Cheats are Cheats

bredal14

Hi,
like to comment on the obvious double standards being displayed at the moment by most publications in the UK and elsewhere. I find it amazing that David Millar, a cheat who at first denied his gulit is now lauded as some sort of hero and at the same time convienently Ivan Basso is villified. The same magazines then go onto take advertising money from a Belgian cheat who has a new bike brand with flax in it or was that EPO.
Guys, get real be part of the solution not the problem. Basso , Millar and every other low life in this sport we love should be banned for life because the problem in cycling is not a cut requiring a band aid but bloody open heart surgery. Get tough, get principled and get on board.
Take the career away and then deny any reward post cycling - surest way to ensure compliance. I couldn't believe that a magazine recently gave Millar a full spread and editoral licence - my god thats a great example to the young guys coming up in the sport. Hey cheat, if you get caught there may be redemption anyway!
Get real guys - take the bias out, Millar is British and still a cheat.....end of story
Regards
Greg

iainf72

No, the way to get compliance is to make it so people will get caught.

Which they more often than not don't.

Lifetime bans will achieve nothing. The solution is not in punishment or penalties. Doping works therefore people will do it. It's not like it's an option part - You're never going to perform at the same level on and off EPO (I give you David Millar)

Unless you're suggesting a few scapegoats so that we can pretend everything is ok?

secretsqirrel

In cycling (and many other sports) doping does not necessarily = cheating.

If it is widespread, there is less possibility of getting an unfair advantage.

ms_tree

If you'd killed someone or committed another bad crime you would serve your sentence and them get on with your life in some way. Why should it be any different in sport. Professional sport is after all business and sometimes the lines are blurred in business.
What I find most irritating is certain people who can't stop telling us how marvellous they are now they have 'repented'.

st68

didnt like millar n e way like him even less now be better if he kept his gob shut

giant_man

bredal14 wrote:

Hi,
like to comment on the obvious double standards being displayed at the moment by most publications in the UK and elsewhere. I find it amazing that David Millar, a cheat who at first denied his gulit is now lauded as some sort of hero and at the same time convienently Ivan Basso is villified. The same magazines then go onto take advertising money from a Belgian cheat who has a new bike brand with flax in it or was that EPO.
Guys, get real be part of the solution not the problem. Basso , Millar and every other low life in this sport we love should be banned for life because the problem in cycling is not a cut requiring a band aid but bloody open heart surgery. Get tough, get principled and get on board.
Take the career away and then deny any reward post cycling - surest way to ensure compliance. I couldn't believe that a magazine recently gave Millar a full spread and editoral licence - my god thats a great example to the young guys coming up in the sport. Hey cheat, if you get caught there may be redemption anyway!
Get real guys - take the bias out, Millar is British and still a cheat.....end of story
Regards
Greg

I totally agree with every word you have written!!

carbonfiend

I'll tell what lets throw the baby out with the bath water shall we. We know from punishments in society that the harsher the penalty doesn't act as any sort of deterent, if it was the case nobody would commit crimes especially those of a violent nature. Judgements like this just serve to make us feel better as we feel cheated and violated so we want to lash out. This isn't how you defeat doping you do it by changing the culture and the people involved. Look at Slipstream (Garmin) and High Road (Columbia) by removing people that surrounded the teams then you make it increasingly difficult for people to do this and it will be left purely down to the individual also changing the pressures and demands on cyclists as well. You should read some of millars comments about why he doped, the pressure to conform to what was accepted behaviour, the pressure to constantly perform as team leader (Cofidis) he was forced to race once whilst suffering from Bronchitis, these are excuses but reasons we need to look at as to why the choice to use is made and by speaking to those that made that choice we can then realistically deafet the problem from the inside as opposed to just banning them sending them to coventry and throwing away the keys.

idaviesmoore

Ms Tree wrote:

If you'd killed someone or committed another bad crime you would serve your sentence and them get on with your life in some way. Why should it be any different in sport. Professional sport is after all business and sometimes the lines are blurred in business.
What I find most irritating is certain people who can't stop telling us how marvellous they are now they have 'repented'.

I agree I just wish Millar would stop banging on about drugs. There's nothing worse than a reformed addict. If you're clean fine but please don't adopt a holier than thou attititude, cos it cuts no ice.

MOVE ON :!:

carbonfiend

Sorry I have to disagree, one of the main reason doping has had such a stranglehold of cycling is the so called code of omerta and the complete wall of silence from the pro peleton about it. The old ideals of the 'dopers dope and those that don't stay silent and get on with it' is what keeps it so strong. It has to be talked about in the public eye by those in the peleton. Remember the peleton is a very very strong psuedo society and to talk against it can lead to you being treated like a virtual lepar but with those that don't dope finally being ableto speak about it is how the stranglehold of the old guard is defeated.
I admit millar can come across slightly high and mighty but I'd rather that than the opposite, what we now need is somebody like Basso talk about it in a negative light as this is what makes it 'sociably unaccepable' in the peloton and how the war is won.
Riders have to talk about ridining clean those who have been caught need to talk about the mistake they made and give up the information then we have a chance.

Mark Alexander

Cheats are not just cheats.
They're dirty, weak minded scum.
in my humble opinion

Odly, I have more time for him now than I did before If only a few other ex-cheats riders would come out of the shaddows and speak up. 1 ex-cheat lends more weight than a non user