Operation Puerto
I wish this thing would go away...no firm proof yet presented, just many riders, sponsors, team staff all unemployed, no doubt with families dependent on their income...all thanks to trial by media. Fair enough if there's somethng concrete to use as evidence in court, but until then...
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Interesting that not one paper in the UK has picked up this story about Fuentes being linked to the top football teams in Spain. Seems it's OK for them to knock cycling but some sports are off limits. Maybe I'm just a bit cynical, but perhaps money has something to do with this...0
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It does seem the media are far more up for trashing cycling than looking at the national sport of football. I imagine there are many more football fans in the mainstream media who are more reluctant to focus on the fact it could be a sport with big doping problems...the players run 5-7 miles per game, many goals are scored in the final 15 minutes when players are getting tired...blood doping would help players score goals0
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Not surprisingly, there's been nothing in the Times since the weekend, despite the rumours breaking on Reuters last week. If there's one group of sportsmen who would have the motive and means to use PE drugs is footballers - anything that gurantees their place in the team and the big wages without the risk of getting injured in training plus getting extra time to go 'shopping'. They've never shown much adversity to recreational drugs, so doing some EPO along with the coke wouldn't be too difficult.Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..0
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Interesting that not one paper in the UK has picked up this story about Fuentes being linked to the top football teams in Spain. Seems it's OK for them to knock cycling but some sports are off limits. Maybe I'm just a bit cynical, but perhaps money has something to do with this...</i><hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Mmmm. funny that....
I remember one Euro cup final involving a british team. It was a really fast game which went to extra time. In between the end of full time and the start of extra time, instead of the team sitting on the turf, stretching, getting electrolyte drinks into themselves and generally making some attempt at recovery, the players were walking about the field chatting! I immediately thought 'EPO'. A few months later, an infamous sports doctor - a pioneer of of organised EPO administration in conjuction with event targeting - was placed under investigation. In the records seized by police was details of payments for consultancy work from a number of top-level soccer teams, including the one that rang alarm bells for me earlier!
Coverage in the UK press - zero!
Nothing changes!0 -
It was proven in an italian court of law that Juve doctor was using EPO in 1996 and for 4 years after. they won 1 european cup and 3 league title. players at teh club included - Del Piero, Zidanne, Davids etc and there has been NO fallout, titles handed back. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article396203.ece]As far as main stream media is concerned there is only one type of cycling story - doping and there is only one type of doping story - cycling!!
Getting back to Puerto issue it is not black and white. It is unlikely that any athletes have broken the law. As of the time of the investigation doping was not a crime in Spain. The government are only investigating it from the point of view of a doctors neglect to a patient. This is different from athletes using doping products - that is against Wada but not breaking any law. The UCI has not been given full access to all the information that the government has. The government says it needs are more important than the UCI and only after its legal proceedings are finished will they pass on the evidence. I believe there is strong evidence against many athletes but it is not in the public domain. That is not to say the contents are not know unofficially to the UCI hence the hardline. If this is the case then I believe it is the correct course.
Let me ask a question why did a number of riders decide to retire immediatly after it blew up and said they wanted nothing to do with cycling - (you can fill in these names yourself). Then months later when evidence does not materialise they decide a come back..... hmmmm bit suspect i think.
So yes there are riders/staff who have been effected by the whole incident but I only have sympathy for those that never crossed the door of Fuentes!! The blame lies with the Fuentes and the athletes who went to him not the media.0
