I’ve only had the “pleasure” to write the name Maxim Iglinskiy down on one occasion. And it wasn’t when he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2012. It was in a post I wrote back in May of 2012 about Bradley Wiggins training in Tenerife and how the Astana team director, Alexander Vinokourov gushed praise upon Iglinskiy for finally getting his shit together, at age 31, and having his breakthrough moment. I implied that having two high altitude training camps in Tenerife, before the classics, seemed more than just a little screwy.
Now the Iglinskiy brothers, Maxim and Valentin, both who have been riding for the MPCC clean team, Astana, have both provisionally tested positive for EPO usage. Man, what a surprise?
This whole things stinks. Maxim helped his team mate, Vincenzo Nibali secure his win in the 2014 Tour de France. Neal Rogers wrote a great piece at Velonews.com, explaining a lot of the past history of Maxim and Astana and the implications for the Astana Team, since they are members of MPCC.
These guys have been riding for Astana for pretty much their whole careers. Winning races and getting paid a ton. They can now sit back and enjoy the fruits of their “labors”. Those labors, that once again, robbed honest sportsmen of their true victories.
Isn’t it just about time that the sanctions step up to the crimes. I never want to see either of these guys racing bikes again. For that matter, I don’t want to see anyone in an Astana jersey racing bikes again.
In my humble opinion, Vinokourov’s win at the London OIympic Games made a huge joke of the sport of cycling. It might be the low point of the sport, in the current age of anti-doping efforts. Worse than Lance winning 7 Tours? Probably. Yes, The Olympic Games are special and the gold medals need to be worn by the pure, worn by true sportsman. Nothing these guys do fall into that category.
The beat just keeps going on.
Here’s a nice photo to be charished, from Robb Nixon’s fickr account, of Robb, Maxim and Vino hanging together at a start $$$ race in Chihuahua, Mexico.
I’ve always had the urge to punch Vino right in his drug-swollen smug face. Just wanted to get that out there for anyone who happens to see Vino in person.
First things first, the whole Astana/Vino has never smelled right…no will it ever. But…look in the mirror, dude. The godfather of it all in the US sends you $ to keep the lights on and catfood in the bowl at your casa. Spread the indigence around as fair is fair.
vino is a piece of shit, hopefully this we be the start of his removal from the sport
There should be lifetime bans for adverse findings, no involvement in the sport of any kind! Banished and never heard from again…..
Why is och still involved?
Hi Steve,
I think one should note the profound cultural differences between mainstream USA and Eastern Europe, Asia, and most of the rest of the world. The reality is that much of the Kazakh Astana team will have different beliefs on what is ‘right” and “wrong.” Not you, me, or anyone else has the privilege of deciding if PEDs are “bad.” For your health, its not generally a great idea. It’s laughable that a poor Ukrainian kid for example will have the same concerns you would if asked to take relatively safe drugs in order to make more money riding a bike! Point being, what is “bad” in cycling or any other BUSINESS will only be what is bad for business and the health of the riders/employees. Profits and money are universally accepted concepts that translate across cultures. Cultural relativism does not. But hey, it just happens that doping isn’t very good for business right now…
NEVER bite the hand that feeds you!
Not you, me, or anyone else has the privilege of deciding if PEDs are “bad.”
Ok, PED aren’t bad. A sport like cycling hypothetically now operates under the assumption that doping is okay.
Jay let’s imagine you have a daughter who is a gifted national-level athlete as a young teenager. Someone will be doping your daughter. Will it be you? A coach? What doping is okay? There’s no way around it, your kid is doping in this hypothetical world. What’s first Jay? HGH? Steroids? Testosterone does great things with HGH and EPO. Ask Tammy Thomas about steroid abuse that USAC permitted. How about asking USAC about Geneviève Jeanson?
You win. Doping is okay. How are you going to dope your hypothetical elite cycling teenage daughter? I want details.
Och makes money for the UCI.
Just make enough money for any given IOC sports federation and you too will be welcome regardless of your doping history.
Why does he get to be the bad guy? The UCI permits him to be in the sport.
My point is that we are lucky that this sort of shenanigans is not tolerated in the States.
Unfortunately, it is not so elsewhere.
The converse argument (although silly) is that my daughter Sally CAN’T take PED.
Now she will “never make it to the elite ranks due to her naturally low heamatocrit, testosterone levels, etc.” It’s unfair that more naturally gifted athletes are given an advantage…
I used to want to play bball in the NBA… but I am too short. Life is unfair, so amateur athletics should be a refuge from that… where everyone is on the same rules.
Should we hold professional, profit earning organizations to the same level of fairness? I think so… but the lines on fairness are fuzzy. Personally I strongly prefer transparence and good health, so I hope things are squeaky clean for as long as I’m around!
“It’s laughable that a poor Ukrainian kid for example will have the same concerns you would if asked to take relatively safe drugs in order to make more money riding a bike!”
So being a poor Ukrainian kid it’s different than my situation of growing up poor, working class without an extra dime every month to spend only to see the 7-Eleven van pull-up at local road races and have those amp’ed-up, syringe toting disciplines of Och steal money from me every race? Please.
Boys, some of you have seen it first hand but this much I know – karma is indeed a bitch.
Vino..Also huge payout scandals.
Not only doping but making huge deals in the middle of the race for large cash sum payouts.
It was a hypothetical and yes of course it is different. There is no upward mobility in Ukraine like in the US (though there is not much here) so any American may not NEED to make $$ riding a bike but could do so another way.
Aaarrghh, now I’m bordering troll status.
Meant to ask a hypothetical because it is so bizarre that this would happen to Astana.
Sorry if I offended 🙁
Don’t forget Steve’s Facebook friend Eddie B.
Bit like Garmin…………
Jay – I’m just sayin’ a lying cheat is a lying cheat….that’s all. Stealing from your competitors is stealing regardless if it’s in the 50+ Nationals or the TdF. And now watching all these ex-riders fall over dead, get crazy ailments and some not confined to just themselves. . . . karma is catching them and someday I’m sure the Turk will come knocking on Och’s door too. It will be interesting to see what happens to the health of Lance, Georgie, Levi, Floyd (enter a long list here) in their old age. Lance already showed us all that crazy PED use at an early age can cause cancer….boys, get checked regularly.
My point is that we are lucky that this sort of shenanigans is not tolerated in the States.
Oh, but we most certainly do. USA Cycling is okay with doping as long as you pay to play their game under-23.
Remember that USA Cycling’s owner is the same guy who owned the US Postal cycling team and as widely quoted, as having no problem with doping. Steve Johnson, Thom’s 2nd in command, was directly told about doping on Postal and did nothing. The same federation who promised an investigation of Floyd Landis’ claim. Both remain in their respective roles.
USA Track and Field has similar issues with Salazar (Nike) being a lightning rod for much of the controversy.
BTW, not everyone at USAC is okay with doping. Just the person that matters, Thom Wiesel.
Kazakhstan is apparently well known for having PED problems in IOC sports. The country wants to host an Olympic games and the IOC apparently has been reluctant to grant them a games.
When there’s a confluence of events like this with the UCI involved, you always have to wonder what the UCI’s role is and what is the UCI’s end game. In the past, it has not been to ‘clean up cycling.’
So is a job that basically services dopers or enables them in some way in a ethical gray area too? Is it an extension of the concept of dopers stealing from riders that are clean? Their potential enables some funding
The bitter irony. Maybe they should just cancel racing for a while
I agree with all that is written in the post except the part about “robbing honest sportsmen”. I sincerely doubt anyone in the ProTour with a personal objective, or a teams objective is riding clean. As with anything at that level, if you don’t produce, you don’t have a job. If you dont produce, you don’t have sponsors, you don’t have a paycheck. It would be great to get actual data on who and how many “honest sportsmen” are riding or managing in the PT. I’m not that naive.
Bolas Azules (that’s pretty funny),
As I understand, PED (especially any corticosteroid) stuff doesn’t exactly cause cancer, just keeps inflammation, pain, down etc. if you have it. So you won’t have the inflammation, fatigue, pain, malaise, etc. that would normally cause you to take yourself to a doctor. It would also allow for metastasis to occur when otherwise this would be unlikely. In Mr. Armstrong’s case, his cancer was very unusual because of this. If i’m not mistaken it is very rare for his type or any type of testicular cancer to have metastasized as it did, and especially as quickly. Scary stuff… I am sure there are probably dozens of medical professionals who knew of the doping regimen all the way back in the 90’s because of this!
So these guys didn’t show up on a fun charity ride in CA with you, so they’re bad guys?
Doping in cycling sucks, but you’re making a huge bafoon of yourself with these conditional rants, not to mention being a guy that’s profiting from doping in cycling right now.
What honest sportsmen did they steal from? Wake the F up man….. THEY ALL DOPE!!!! So no one is stealing anything from anyone. Ask any pro tour rider who won those 7 TDF’s. They’ll all say Lance. There’s all the proof you need. Half a brain will also get the job done,,,,,
Court of public opinion says otherwise. Now who’s the buffon Levi?
Jay – LA’s teenage drug use ran the gambit – per what was said in that hospital room – and being a Texas boy – much like the footballers in that state – a lot of questionable things come across the boarder with some of it note intended for human use. Many knowledgeable Docs think he gave himself the cancer.
I don’t know if he gave it (cancer) to himself but I always thought the use of HGH accelerated it.
Raced against those two at Vuelta Independencia in the DR 10 years ago. Could’ve called it then.
Since when did the opinions of cheats and dopers count?
One of the problems with the sport is the small minded thinking riders have as posted by Levi, well he must be doping so it is ok if i dope.
Grow up Bottle.
Which is worse:
Vino operating under the idea of “catch me if you can” and winning London
OR
All of the “clean teams” claiming to be so clean and the gradually stuff leaks (not rumors but proof) that
they cheated – Ryder, Michael Berry Etc,
???
This is really the only way to straighten out the sport, and all sports for that matter.
Jay: There is a LOT of upward mobility in the US. In fact, the vast, vast majority of millionaires in this country are self-made. The top 20% of the population and the bottom 20% of the population by income have tremendous amounts of change from decade to decade (if not year to year). Most people do not stay in their income/economic position for the entirety of their lives.
You want the fuckin Khazak mob doing a hit on ya?
Couldn’t agree more. What a couple of dirty turds.
Vino no like stupid comment. Vino hope he never see Stu(pid) in publik. Vino make mincemeat with Stu. Vino real winner.
Vino pass test at Olympics. Vino real winner. Vino cash checks, make wife hapy.
JR, that’s simply false. The US has become one of the least upwardly mobile countries in the developed world, comparable to places like El Salvador. Check the stats-too many people believe the American myth.