Santambrogio +

Ed-tron

Hmm, heavyweight?

That mean Nibali now given stage 14 of the Giro? :P

slim_boy_fat

Was bound to happen but...

@mrconde: Is it bad for Nibali that the only rider able to follow him in the first part of the Giro was one full of EPO? Not judging, simply asking.”

...how does cycling escape from the past. As I see it the sport does more to beat the dopers than any other. Will other cyclists always be tarred by the dodgy practices of these idiots?

lostboysaint

Ed-tron wrote:

Hmm, heavyweight?

That mean Nibali now given stage 14 of the Giro? :P

For how long?!

goonz

Does it sound like the UCI really does everything in its power to prevent doping or do they want there to be an element of it to keep the racing interesting and not just really slow tactical stuff which is what it would become imo.

Even the negative publicity the doping brings is better than no publicity at all I guess.

dsoutar

Slim Boy Fat wrote:

@mrconde: Is it bad for Nibali that the only rider able to follow him in the first part of the Giro was one full of EPO? Not judging, simply asking.”

The problem is that this is a perfectly fair question. I wonder what the peleton are thinking

Turfle

It's a fair question, but I think those who couldn't follow Nibali are, for the most part, riders I wouldn't expect to be able to follow him.

above_the_cows

Were Vini Fantini banking on the idea that if you don a fluorescent workman's jacket you can get away with anything? :roll:

No_Ta_Doctor

It's been argued by the Sports scientists site that the bio passport has placed a speed limit on doping, you just can't get the top end doping performance without showing up as suspicious. You may be able to get a tweak, but nothing extraterrestrial. So Nibs could easily be clean and beat doped riders.

thomthom

goonz wrote:

Does it sound like the UCI really does everything in its power to prevent doping or do they want there to be an element of it to keep the racing interesting and not just really slow tactical stuff which is what it would become imo.

Okay, I'm going off topic now but this has never made sense to me. Bar the time it takes them to defeat the mountains it should be exactly the same racing with attacks, pacing, dropping etc as some riders would be better than others. The fact that we now often see a big bunch of riders with 1 km to go up a mountain just tells me that there are clean and dirty riders.

No_Ta_Doctor

Above The Cows wrote:

Were Vini Fantini banking on the idea that if you don a fluorescent workman's jacket you can get away with anything? :roll:

Seems like their kit was the only thing bright about them.

above_the_cows

No tA Doctor wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Were Vini Fantini banking on the idea that if you don a fluorescent workman's jacket you can get away with anything? :roll:

Seems like their kit was the only thing bright about them.

Their kit also suggested they were dirty ars*s. Ooo a new cycling fad, divining the nature of teams 'training methods' by analysing their kit.

jimmythecuckoo

Will these idiots not learn?

Get him out and keep him out.

thomthom

dsoutar wrote:

Slim Boy Fat wrote:

@mrconde: Is it bad for Nibali that the only rider able to follow him in the first part of the Giro was one full of EPO? Not judging, simply asking.”

The problem is that this is a perfectly fair question. I wonder what the peloton are thinking

No, it's little use.

What about every other rider that have beaten Nibali then? And the riders that beat the rider that beat Nibali.. etc..

squired

What would be interesting to find out (which presumably we won't) is how long and how frequently he has been taking EPO. In theory the Biological Passport should be picking up this sort of thing. At least if the UCI told us he was targeted as a result of suspect results on his Biological Passport that would be something, and show that it is working (despite the apparent cutbacks and reduced testing).

lostboysaint

ThomThom wrote:

dsoutar wrote:

Slim Boy Fat wrote:

@mrconde: Is it bad for Nibali that the only rider able to follow him in the first part of the Giro was one full of EPO? Not judging, simply asking.”

The problem is that this is a perfectly fair question. I wonder what the peloton are thinking

No, it's little use.

What about every other rider that have beaten Nibali then? And the riders that beat the rider that beat Nibali.. etc..

As much as you want to defend him the Peleton clearly have suspicions about a lot of riders so may well have have doubts about Nibali. It's not as if they didn't about a certain Texan is it........ And the last time a Giro was won with such panache by such a heavyweight it turned out that he'd been eating a particularly well marinaded beef.

jimmythecuckoo

It seems this change of lab for testing might have caught them out... well done testers if that is the case. I hope JV is right and we are finally one step ahead.

frenchfighter

Oh FFS.

There`s me thinking this lad has been doing really well since leaving BMC as he had been able to ride for himself rather than others :roll:

Ugly fellow too. Spoilt the photos.

At least the drug testing is working. But how on earth they think they are going to get away with it with such a known substance is beyond me. TBH, I don`t think they care and are just chancing their luck to get a bigger salary. There should be a doping clause in every rider`s salary where they forfeit all their salary over the minimum wage.

I feel sorry for the people who put trust in them, but then maybe that was their fault.

It`s funny how the peloton and other people close to the sport seem to know whats what with regard whose drugging. Maybe they shoould be more vocal to the people in charge (not in the news).

ozzzyosborn206

This is funny I was chatting to a mate just yesterday who said he thought Santambrogio was going to get pulled up for a positive soon, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Nibali+ soon either. I don't think it is possible to be 'a step ahead' because you need the drugs before you can have a test for it, all you can do is for people to still take the drug before they realise there is a test for it. Thats why when they find a new test you often have alot of riders testing +ve for the same drug in a short space of time. It is also why Armstrong got away with it for so long because he had so many people in the know about what they could test for.

thomthom

lostboysaint wrote:

ThomThom wrote:

dsoutar wrote:

Slim Boy Fat wrote:

@mrconde: Is it bad for Nibali that the only rider able to follow him in the first part of the Giro was one full of EPO? Not judging, simply asking.”

The problem is that this is a perfectly fair question. I wonder what the peloton are thinking

No, it's little use.

What about every other rider that have beaten Nibali then? And the riders that beat the rider that beat Nibali.. etc..

As much as you want to defend him the peloton clearly have suspicions about a lot of riders so may well have have doubts about Nibali. It's not as if they didn't about a certain Texan is it........ And the last time a Giro was won with such panache by such a heavyweight it turned out that he'd been eating a particularly well marinaded beef.

I'm not 'defending' anyone. Nibali has had plenty of dodgy connections that making him suspicious would be, I guess, normal. I'm just not buying the argument that because he beat riders, that would normally never be considered GC contenders yet somehow managed to be so (doping), makes him more suspicious.

Following this logic we have quite a fair share riders to frown about looking how they beat Santambrogio comfortably in, for example, that mountain TT

Not sure I agree about his 'heavyweight' way of winning it either. The worst stages were cancelled, his strongest opponents quit and he's biggest winning margin was what.. 1 minute on that snowy last stage?

I agree he was 'heavyweight' (what's up with this expression here...) in that way he fought himself through ridiculous weather but so did the rest that were still rolling when they hit Florence.

Richmond Racer

Daniel Friebe ‏@friebos 4m
As @gregorbrown noted to me at time, Santambrogio was tested pretty much every day in first week of Giro. Clearly targeted.

Richmond Racer

And Aru done out of a podium place at Trentino

Cheers Santa :roll:

No_Ta_Doctor

Richmond Racer wrote:

Daniel Friebe ‏@friebos 4m
As @gregorbrown noted to me at time, Santambrogio was tested pretty much every day in first week of Giro. Clearly targeted.

Wonder whether it was dodgy passport values or a whistle-blower from the peloton that got him targeted. Either would be good.

Richmond Racer

No tA Doctor wrote:

Richmond Racer wrote:

Daniel Friebe ‏@friebos 4m
As @gregorbrown noted to me at time, Santambrogio was tested pretty much every day in first week of Giro. Clearly targeted.

Wonder whether it was dodgy passport values or a whistle-blower from the peloton that got him targeted. Either would be good.

Agree, encouraging

dsoutar

frenchfighter wrote:

It`s funny how the peloton and other people close to the sport seem to know whats what with regard whose drugging. Maybe they should be more vocal to the people in charge (not in the news).

Good post - maybe they (the peleton) are and that's why he got caught. It's certainly pretty obvious why no-one in the peleton would want this to be in the public domain until there were facts (i.e. test results) behind it.

Maybe I'm being too optimistic here

rickyrider

just caught this amongst paternity leave baby madness - sadly no surprise here at all. if anyone in the peloton was looking sus in past couple of mnths it was santa. what a kn*b.

slim_boy_fat

dsoutar wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

It`s funny how the peloton and other people close to the sport seem to know whats what with regard whose drugging. Maybe they should be more vocal to the people in charge (not in the news).

Good post - maybe they (the peloton) are and that's why he got caught. It's certainly pretty obvious why no-one in the peloton would want this to be in the public domain until there were facts (i.e. test results) behind it.

Maybe I'm being too optimistic here

I don't think so. Remember every break Di Luca made was chased down hard. They didn't want him to have success. I get the feeling the good guys are starting to get a hold.

Le Commentateur

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to Appeal we go....

Richmond Racer

someone who's not a luddite (i.e. not me) needs to post an image @kristoframon has just posted on his twitter feed

says it all

blazing_saddles

Richmond Racer wrote:

Daniel Friebe ‏@friebos 4m
As @gregorbrown noted to me at time, Santambrogio was tested pretty much every day in first week of Giro. Clearly targeted.

Middle of the road, one day racer with a shady past, leaves a WT team and is immediately climbing with the big boys on the big hills in the biggest races?
Tirreno had me convinced, so no wonder they targeted the guy wearing a big bull's eye on his fluorescent chest.

Turfle

Richmond Racer wrote:

someone who's not a luddite (i.e. not me) needs to post an image @kristoframon has just posted on his twitter feed

says it all