Recent content by cnort

In fairness, were they not very different circumstances in terms of the violations, wriggle room to contest, and evidence. I think Armstrong could have come out marginally better off if he'd fessed up early and thrown Tygart a few bones. I'm sure they had plenty of reason to be suspicious of...

Just imagine if, in a moment of weakness, he had given in to temptation and transfused one of those bags Fuentes was minding for him 'just in case'?

David Walsh and Pierre Ballester published L.A. Confidentiel in 2004 that led pretty quickly to a court case, so they'd been banging on doors with the story for a while. But I agree, Armstrong had been largely left to his own devices for much of his career. If he'd retired gracefully after five...

Do my eyes deceive me or did the Coalminer attack out of the saddle today? Attack!

What a terrific observation. Perhaps it's the muesli. Or the internal combustion engine he has.

Yes, which is why it is disappointing that David Walsh is the one expressing this sentiment. Arguing that the management of all teams have shady paths is a bit disingenuous, because some have fessed up and spoken about their past (not many, I admit), and some may actually have been clean when...

I see David Walsh has a full page article in The Sunday Times today [behind a paywall], titled "I don't judge Pogacar by past of his boss - but seeing them together makes me wince". It's mostly an overview of Gianetti's murky past (PFC case, Mayo, Ricco, Piepoli, Cobo), leading onto managing...

On reflection - of you look at the best seasons of riders like Merckx, Maertens and Kelly - they were winning every month of the season, with maybe a three or four week spell out of racing in there somewhere. Maybe we need to take into account that our illustrious Tadej has fewer race days - his...

Eddy Merckx is an obvious comparison. But remember too that Bernard Hinault won the Tour de France five times, the Giro three times and the Vuelta twice, and also won Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Tour of Lombardy, Paris-Roubaix, Fleche Wallonne and Amstel Gold Race. Fausto Coppi won the Tour (twice)...

From the Wikipedia page on blood doping: Detection for autologous blood doping Autologous blood doping detection is done indirectly via CO rebreathing technique... A joke or wonderful irony!

Is the grey zone not stuff that is technically allowed to some extent but is not entirely in the spirit of clean sport? I'll wager a good few TUEs fall into that category. I think of it as the distinction between tax evasion and tax avoidance - one is criminal and the other is mean spirited. If...

The riders get tested a lot but very few test positive - that does not imply corruption and or ineptitude in the testers, but it also does not give confidence of a clean peloton. It's an unfortunate consequence of circumstances. It's important to bear in mind that a dope test is like many...

I don't disagree with this per se, but I suspect the conditions in track and field are much more consistent and reproduceable. The distances stay the same. The training, diet and footwear have improved, and I don't know how much that has helped. In cycling the climb itself is the same length...

I started following cycling in 1989, and I remember the crazy stuff happening in the early 90s. I agree that for fans, it wasn't entirely clear how the Italians were suddenly so dominant. However, the Gewiss 1-2-3 and Ferrari's orange juice comment, both in 1994 I believe, made it quite apparent...

Hey - this is the Pogacar thread, why Vingegaard into it?