Doping Measures in le Tour 2009
So far during the tour we have had 0 positive tests. Either we can draw that cycling is now a relatively clean sport with all the targeted cyclists + the stage winners riding clean or it means that we have taken 1 step forward for 5 backwards and the dark ages have returned with cyclists, teams, doctors being again ahead of the doping agencies in covertly operating doping programs.
With cyclists failing in the recent past be that Rebellin, Di Luca etc I am surprised no one has 'positived' during this year's tour. Perhaps the gravity of a positive from top cyclists such as Rebellin has scared everyone, perhaps the knowledge from Bruyneel that he didn't need to win to attract a new sponsor this year but just have Armstrong's pr train in full swing allowed a team that didn't need to lead through artificial enhancement and so also gave the other teams the opportunity to play clean.
Maybe the emergence of teams such as Columbia and Garmin who focus on specific areas and specific riders, building entire teams around them to support and as such create a sum of the parts which allows less on individual performance which often needed to be backed up by artificial enhancement.
I'm very surprised that no-one has been caught. The last year has heralded a change in the way doping agencies behave, using associations with drug companies to stay ahead of new products and detection, targeted testing, a new model of blood passport analysis etc. All of these were meant to make doping much harder to escape without detection.
Performance is still sky high and it makes me wonder why cyclists ever doped if clean cyclists could ride as well as Cancellara, Cavendish, Contador, Wiggins, A.Schleck, Kloden, Armstrong etc
hmmm it has been an interesting Tour but I cannot believe everyone is suddenly clean, as when have such intrinsic problems been purged so quickly?
With cyclists failing in the recent past be that Rebellin, Di Luca etc I am surprised no one has 'positived' during this year's tour. Perhaps the gravity of a positive from top cyclists such as Rebellin has scared everyone, perhaps the knowledge from Bruyneel that he didn't need to win to attract a new sponsor this year but just have Armstrong's pr train in full swing allowed a team that didn't need to lead through artificial enhancement and so also gave the other teams the opportunity to play clean.
Maybe the emergence of teams such as Columbia and Garmin who focus on specific areas and specific riders, building entire teams around them to support and as such create a sum of the parts which allows less on individual performance which often needed to be backed up by artificial enhancement.
I'm very surprised that no-one has been caught. The last year has heralded a change in the way doping agencies behave, using associations with drug companies to stay ahead of new products and detection, targeted testing, a new model of blood passport analysis etc. All of these were meant to make doping much harder to escape without detection.
Performance is still sky high and it makes me wonder why cyclists ever doped if clean cyclists could ride as well as Cancellara, Cavendish, Contador, Wiggins, A.Schleck, Kloden, Armstrong etc
hmmm it has been an interesting Tour but I cannot believe everyone is suddenly clean, as when have such intrinsic problems been purged so quickly?
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Comments
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I think you need another option - going in the right direction, but of course there will always be cheats.0
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LA just twitterd that he was tested again this morning - the 11th of the tour.Head Hands Heart Lungs Legs0
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afx237vi wrote:johnfinch wrote:I think you need another option - going in the right direction, but of course there will always be cheats.
How is it going in the right direction if they were catching cheats last year, but this year they're not. That's a step backwards, no?
Because people might have the idea that the current raft of anti-doping measures won't kill the practice entirely, but may limit it.
It's possible that this year there are fewer cheats to catch, although we'll probably have to wait for a few years to judge.
Besides, how do you know that in 5 weeks the organisers aren't going to say "right, all the Tour samples have been tested completely now, and we've caught 9 riders"?0 -
johnfinch wrote:afx237vi wrote:johnfinch wrote:I think you need another option - going in the right direction, but of course there will always be cheats.
How is it going in the right direction if they were catching cheats last year, but this year they're not. That's a step backwards, no?
Because people might have the idea that the current raft of anti-doping measures won't kill the practice entirely, but may limit it.
It's possible that this year there are fewer cheats to catch, although we'll probably have to wait for a few years to judge.
Besides, how do you know that in 5 weeks the organisers aren't going to say "right, all the Tour samples have been tested completely now, and we've caught 9 riders"?
Maybe they will. Although in comparison we had 4 caught during the race last year. We'll see, but I won't hold my breath.0 -
Bordry comments on the race
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bordry- ... -be-in-use
Interesting bit about Ricco.Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0 -
I am not picking any of those 3 options. Nor am I going to suggest rider A or rider B is doping.
However, I will be more concerned with the thought that no one got caught doping in this years' Tour, especially after 4 riders did in 2008.
I would find it incredulous that the ENTIRE peloton rode the COMPLETE race without the use of ban substances.
If no one gets caught in '09, I fear that even if the % of dopers has dropped in recent years, this might encourage others to dope in the future. The peloton would have to know that there are riders who are 'suss' and that they are getting away with it.
I wonder if deep down that is why Di Luca doped? He knows of others who are doping - they aren't getting caught; so he tries the same doping methods believing he won't get caught either.
I know my post is pessimistic - I just find it hard to believe the peloton could have cleaned up it's act so quickly.0
