I saw this at Facebook on Besty Andreu’s page last week. I guess it is from USADA’s report, page 107, that shows some or all of the payment’s that were paid to Dr. Ferrari from Lance. Or more accurately, according to Besty, Lance’s mom. I looked a little at the USADA Report and went to page 107, but it sort of creeped me out reading about how Kevin Livingston and Christian Vande Velde “signed” up to work for Ferrari. It’s too early in the morning for that kind of stuff.
Anyway, I had never really thought about how much it might cost to have a systematic doping program, individually and custom made for an athlete. It really didn’t seem like a million dollars was so much. I very much doubt that this $1,029,754.31 was all the money paid. There are a lot of years missing there, so the amount, realistically, has to be at least double that amount. Plus, I’d assume, that there would be other doctors involved, so they would need compensation.
But whatever the real number, you would have to agree that it was a pretty great investment, financially. I have no idea how much money Lance has made from being Lance, but the number has been estimated at a number of places on the internet to be around $125 million. So if that number is close to accurate, and my guess that he paid at least 2 million to doctors, then it was a 60 fold return. Pretty great investment, really. These numbers could all be off by a lot, but whatever the real numbers, it was still a deal.
When I saw this, I asked my friend Vincent how much he thought that Lance paid and he guessed 25 million. I kind of laughed, but when you really think about it, paying a doctor a 20% fee for having results like Lance did doesn’t seem that outlandish. There are lots of other occupations where services take a cut like that. It would be a deal compared to what some attorneys take for representing someone.
Anyway, I think the whole thing is really interesting. Tyler Hamiliton only paid Dr. Fuentes $50,000 for three years of doping, so that would be a really great deal compared to what Lance paid. I wonder how much Dr. Ferrari charged Christian, Kevin and George?
You should have kept reading Steve. It wasn’t Tyler who paid some of the doctor bills. There are receipts for Andy Rihs for Tyler in the USADA report. Does that name sound familiar? It should. He signs Trudi’s paychecks.
Not much incentive for the young riders to go clean there eh? As Levi said, everybody cheats and when they do it is a heck of a good WWF style show!
Of course Tyler got popped thru Dope control. He should of paid the big bucks….Ha
It’s Betsy.
Well, onlookers who were following the sport at the time can’t help but wonder how much Armstrong had to do with Hamilton’s positive given so many others were doping with impunity.
Remember also the nature of Floyd’s positive. A sample was tested then retested until the technician got the desired results. The situation remains very, very far from a normal sample handling. Floyd was definitely doping, just not the stuff he got sanctioned for. Again, someone, somewhere, was very intent on kicking Landis out of the sport. Armstrong seems just the kind of guy to want it.
channel zero, show me where on the books the analyst can’t take another sample of sample A if that analyst needs to do further testing. Show me where that is written. In my experience, enough has to remain for a second party retest and that’s it. Additional sample can be used.
Steve, have you noticed how Bill Cosby’s paid liars are using many of the same terms as Lance’s paid liars did to try to discredit the women who are coming forward again Cosby? Cosby’s ppl are using the same tactics and I bet it all ends up the same for him too: confession on Oprah!
But he gets to keep his money, just like Lance.
time to move on with your life, Steve
DAYUM!!!
Those fine lads that you mention were just innocent tykes, before the prince of darkness got his hands on them.
(just ask them)
To be honest, I’ve always had a lot of admiration for this dope stuff.
It’s a bit dangerous, and cheating, but there lies within a level of dedication and thought in the risk and calculated action of it all that I think is pretty cool. I still have a huge admiration for these guys… but I’ll stick to riding for fun and exercise… I use to work in a Chem lab and got pretty good at the Gas chromatograph, the main tool in dope control RE urine and blood analysis. Very fun to use, and very, very difficult to get any exogenous substances past a semi-skilled lab tech. even in super small amounts if you use even a half-decent machine. I have a lot of confidence in today’s riders. No one is perfect, and who cares about that 🙂
Ride hard!
In sum, I am stating I have a lot of confidence in terms of today’s riders but admit that it would be silly to judge a rider, team, peloton just on the occasional bad egg. This, based on my experience in the Lab.
“time to move on with your life”…. That’s what Nazi sympathizers used to say.
No, don’t let it rest.
The sooner we forget and move on, the sooner we’ll see a repeat.
Keep rocking the boat, Steve.
that old saying “you get what you pay for” comes to mind perfectly here. Lance paid HUGE bucks and got the absolute best. Tyler paid $50k and got his blood bags mixed up with those of teammate Santiago Perez. Both tested positive for homologous red blood cell populations.
Where’s the Rihs payment cited? It’s eye-opening that someone tied to a payment like that would be (allowed to be) a current team owner. I did a CTRL-F search on the USADA .pdf and ‘Rihs’ didn’t turn up. Not challenging your assertion per se, just wondering where you saw that.
Jeff, the sport’s administrators just don’t care.
Rihs’ money is good and he spends a ton of it on cycling. The UCI won’t say or do anything despite the fact the guy paid for dopers and doping.
Thom Wiesel, the guy that ran USPS and knew full well about doping long before he landed USPS is still running USA Cycling. Some guys who stayed at his vacation home long ago for nationals in Utah could probably fill us in better.
It’s a dirty sport all the way into the UCI.
Dope control,
All true. But, you are subtly altering my argument. You’ve got some reading to do.
https://archive.org/details/Floyd_Landis_Case_Documents_Exhibits
Comparing Nazi sympathizers with people tired of professional dopers – you need to go for a ride
This is old news. The payment spread sheet’s been out there for a long time. So BA’s just now postin’ it up? Speaking of Nazi’s. You know some worried if they’d ever finish the job, they’d loose all purpose in life. The hate. The intense focus. That’s BA & you to an extent Steve, move on. Be a bodhisattva & just let the ‘us & them’ go.