"A Dirty Deal" - what really happened with Vladimi

SpaceJunk

http://nyvelocity.com/content/features/2010/dirty-deal

Interesting stuff to say the least.

SpaceJunk

Sorry, not sure how I stuffed up copy and paste in topic title

samb01

SpaceJunk wrote:

http://nyvelocity.com/content/features/2010/dirty-deal

Interesting stuff to say the least.

Veeeeery interesting. Thanks for linking.

sherer

interesting story. Wonder if that has anything to do with why Anna Gripper left the UCI.

afx237vi

It's an interesting story, alright, particularly the bits about Rasmussen - maybe his claims about being blacklisted weren't that crazy after all.

luckao

I don't personally know any of those people involved. Couldn't possibly comment.

sherer

afx237vi wrote:

It's an interesting story, alright, particularly the bits about Rasmussen - maybe his claims about being blacklisted weren't that crazy after all.

don't forget Heras too. I was a big fan of his but he was frozen out too. When he was banned the UCI had this two year ban plus two years at Continental or lower rule afterwards so really it meant a four year ban. As far as I can tell Heras is the only one this happened to.

andyp

A very interesting read, thanks for sharing it.

I've heard some interesting things on Bruyneel's involvement in the Gusev case and that article seems to back that up, namely that he was actively trying to share the results of the Damsgaard testing regime with the UCI to get a positive test so he could fire Gusev.

DaveyL

I thought Damsgaard's programme was designed so the values were automatically shared with UCI, so that it couldn't just be used as an internal control by teams.

Or was that just with CSC, and not Astana?

andyp

Just with CSC I believe (and the article seems to corroborate that).

Here's my theory on Damsgaard's programme: those teams that signed up to it did so in order to have an advantage over their rivals when the UCI introduced the Biological Passport. Discuss.

redd

"During the same tour the French anti-doping authorities found "suspicious syringes" in Astana’s waste container."

After all the great effort of consealment, would the people at Astana leave something so "suspicious" in such an obvious place?, I wonder?

iainf72

andyp wrote:

Here's my theory on Damsgaard's programme: those teams that signed up to it did so in order to have an advantage over their rivals when the UCI introduced the Biological Passport. Discuss.

Likely. Also, what also strikes me is Damsgaard seemed to oversell what he'd detect. The recent Ashenden interview indicated they wouldn't be able to identify some kinds of blood doping with the passport, but Damsgaard said he would.

If a team are paying someone to monitor their riders, I fail to see how it can be called Independent in anyway shape or form

No_Ta_Doctor

In football, at least in England, it's actually prohibited for teams to drugs test their players, though I think many of them probably do. There were strong rumours when Mutu tested positive for coke that he'd been shopped by Chelsea who wanted to terminate his contract, which they did.

Kléber

iainf72 wrote:

what also strikes me is Damsgaard seemed to oversell what he'd detect. The recent Ashenden interview indicated they wouldn't be able to identify some kinds of blood doping with the passport, but Damsgaard said he would.

There's a gap between what you can use as evidence in a conviction and data which suggest a rider might be dabbling with the "hotsauce".

But the original story is pretty sinister, it seems riders simply are not equal. If you have a UCI licence, your treatment depends on who you know, not what the rules say. Now there might be people who say "that's life" but this arbitrary justice is being administered, or at least supported by the President of the UCI.

Yorkman

Where do the UCI officially gain the funding for their anti doping programme?

bipedal

Amazing, depressing article