When is it Suitable to Imply Doping???

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I was watching Amstel yesterday and the announcers for Eurosport were talking about the history of the the trifecta of the Ardennes Classics of Amstel, Fleche Wallone and Liege and that Davide Rebellin did it back in 2004, but implied that he was super charged for that. I guess they doubted these results since he tested positive in the Olympics in 2008 and had to sit out two years.

On Universal Sports, a couple weeks ago during Vuelta al Pais Vasco, commentators Steve Schlanger and Todd Gogulski got into a discussion about whether the winner, Nairo Quintana, a young guy from Columbia, was doping because, according to them, he rode beyond he capabilities at this race.

I’m just wondering where stepping over the line is when throwing questions out there about doping in the sport. I have to agree about Rebellin. In my book, all his results are bullshit once he got popped for EPO in China. But, they were talking about the impossibility of winning all three of the Ardennes classics.

So, since Philip Gilbert won those three races just two years ago, does that imply that he must be doping since it is such an impossibility? It seems to.

But, I’m not big on the 2nd issue at Basque Country. As the sport get cleaner, there will be many more exciting finishes and unexpected winners. I don’t think that Steve and Todd did their due diligence because this young guy, Quintana, has some pretty stellar results already. I would never publicly accuse someone, that I no virtually nothing about, of doping with no evidence at all other than winning a race.

When Lance was smearing everyone at the Tour and the French media was using the “you say you are clean, but everyone else you’re beating are doping, so you must be doping” rational, all the American media seemed to think this was completely unfair. I personally thought it was pretty logical thinking, but to publish it worldwide, that is another thing.

The Lance deal is logical. So if that is so logical, then now, since most of his team mates, US at least, plus a ton of the Rabobank guys and lots of others have said that they doped, if you use the same logic, then anyone that won a major race from the late 90’s until very recently must have been doping.

I get comments all the time, and lots of emails about if it’s so easy to spot who’s doping, they why don’t you call them out. I don’t call them out publicly, because it is only my opinion. My opinion isn’t evidence. It’s good enough for me, but not good enough for me to “out them” publicly. Of course I talk to my friends about unnatural bike racing that I personally witness, but I’m not going to be posting it here most likely.

A great example of the Rebellin deal is when Alexander Vinokourov won the Olympics last year. Vino had tested positive for a few things and had to sit out two years. Then he came back and made a weird statement, wearing a jersey with his own imagine on it. He never really made any remorseful statement, he just came back to his team.

The belief of a lot of people I talked to, Alexander Vinokourov tested positive, so all his results are suspect. This is my belief. All past and future results are bullshit in my opinion. Him winning a race like the Olympic Road Race was a disaster for the sport. I don’t care if he didn’t test positive at the race, I give him no credibility the least. I wish he wasn’t allowed to race and hated it that he won. But, those are “our” rules and he served his time. And I have no problem stating that here. It’s my blog and a lot of what is stated here is just my opinions.

But, I can’t really say that if the announcers of the Olympic Road Race would have implied that he was doping still, I could support that. I might agree with it, but don’t think announcers have the right to state their own opinions in situations such as these. It really isn’t fair.

Anyway, all these things are intellectually bothersome. When Phil Ligget is going overboard on defending Lance last year, he makes statements like, USADA which is really a nefarious locals drugs agency in the United States.. I don’t know which is worse, all these announcers claiming how clean the sport is now or the ones implying that the riders are doping? Both are very extreme and neither is accurate.


Some of the Universal Sport’s after race coverage of The Tour of Basque Country.

Vino seems so much nicer in real life than his sublimated imagine on his cycling jersey.

Vino seems so much nicer in real life than his sublimated imagine on his cycling jersey.

Got Nothing

This entry was posted in Racing on by .

The title says it all. I don’t really have much of anything to say today, for once in my life. I woke up feeling like I got ran over by a truck. It’s probably for all this riding and lack of sleep. I’ve slept a little better the last couple nights, but not close to enough to feel good training. If you look at the Strava numbers to the right, I really haven’t been riding all that much, but when you throw in a very minimal recovery, it’s about all I have in me. Plus the weather has been gyrating over 30 degrees, day to day, plus the wind and that is about it.

I could write about how unbelievably sad it is that we live in a world where people get blown up at supporting sporting events, but that is our world now. We created it somewhat, so we have to live in it.

I’ve run into a few more people that have had the same shoulder surgery that I had and it is no good news. This last guy says I’ll start sleeping good somewhere between 5-8 months out. I’m at 8 weeks. Wow. I am still looking for the guy that says that it will all get better at 10 weeks.

Vincent took off back to Colorado and the 10 inches of snow. Dennis is still camping out down here. It snowed 14 inches up in Cable over the weekend, so this cold spring doesn’t seem so bad to him. The normal high here in Topeka is 67 right now. We’ve only had a couple days that warm all year. Crossing my fingers that spring will be here soon.

Trudi is taking off at the end of the week for her first BMC outing. She is doing a training camp with the BMC U23 guys before the Tour of Gila, then coming back to California after and doing the Tour of California with the Pro Tour Team. She is kind of stressed trying to get ready. She has been taking a cat to the vet every morning for the past few days. She still has 3 to go, so someone is going to get left out.

Alright, like I said, nothing. I could probably race some bike race now, but shouldn’t really. I can ride out of my saddle, thou with not much power, but the problem is absorbing bumps and quick movements. My arm really has no ability to handle those situations. But, it’s getting better slowly. Probably sometime in May I’ll be good. Wow, that is a long time from now.

This is Dennis about ready to take Vincen'ts dad's Lamborghini Diablo out for a spin. You need a very strong left leg if you're going to drive this car, the clutch is killer.

This is Dennis about ready to take Vincen’ts dad’s Lamborghini Diablo out for a spin. You need a very strong left leg if you’re going to drive this car, the clutch is killer.

Vincent hung around on Sunday and rode, before heading back to Denver. This is some of the stuff he was taking with him. Not an easy drive for a super windy day.

Vincent hung around on Sunday and rode, before heading back to Denver. This is some of the stuff he was taking with him. Not an easy drive for a super windy day.