Recent content by Abstainer

I guess I'm swimming against the tide here, but I have to say it ... I find it bizarre that a man who has a criminal conviction for peddling dangerous drugs seems to regard doping in terms of unfairly influencing racing results. The substances you peddled risked the long term health of those...

A quote from Santoro: Of course some are. Like in every sport where there's much money at stake. It's obvious and very unpleasant to see a doper facing you and you think I trained 3 or 4 hours a day, I made the maximum to prepare my match and he seems to have 4 lungs, he doesn't even breathe...

FYI, Santoro is the only player I know of who has explicitly said that there is doping in tennis, hinting very heavily at Nadal. This was on a French television programme. I've watched a lot of Santoro and while he did a lot of running in his matches, he got tired! It is the players like...

I understand where SiAP1984 is coming from, but what fascinates me about doping is that I feel these moral absolutes break down once you reach a critical mass of doping athletes, which is what has happened with cycling. I feel philosophically it makes little sense to stigmatise Contador when it...

In reality, heavier rackets mean faster shots! That is why Sampras put lead tape on his rackets. In any case, the tension of the strings is probably a much bigger factor. So he expends less energy on serve than most players, and his serving speed is barely in the world's top fifty. We can't say...

As a matter of interest, when do Ullrich fans believe he started working with Fuentes? In retrospect, he was clearly transfusing in 2003

I think the point that NickC is making is that of the twenty listed, only about six (including Hincapie, Evans, Zubeldia) have NOT been caught officially. He is not saying that there is no ground for suspicion about Hincapie et al.

I think it is an act of almost religious faith to claim that Ullrich was not an Über-Doper too.

In truth, I don't believe it is. But I think that it is harder to take quite the same quantities of drugs as before, which means they have a less distorting effect. Which if true, I can live with.

This list just underlines the absurdity of pointing to individuals and calling them cheats. To be a top rider in that era, you prepared with PEDS. End of story. The religious among you can be satisfied that none of the above are going to go heaven. But professional road racing (I say from 1990...

It could be far worse. Consider this: 1. Contador grew up in the Spanish system were doping is virtually mandatory 2. Contador raced for Manolo Saiz, whose riders were routinely doped 3. Contador knew Dr Fuentes 4. Contador rode for Johann Bruyneel, whose riders were routinely doped 5...

Not at all. I think more red corpuscles were racing in 1996 than at any TdeF before or since. Just watch it on DVD - makes Armstrong 2001 look positively pedestrian. Don't misunderstand me - from 1996 to 2010, there is no question that blood manipulation remained pretty universal (certainly...

There are some bizarre comments and double standards here. Contador rode for Saiz, then he rode for Bruyneel alongside Armstrong, then he rode for an Astana minus Bruyneel but backed by Vinokourov ... uhm, how can anyone seriously imagine he didn't "dope"???? That doesn't mean he isn't...

I've not visited doping forums since about 2006 (hence my name) but against my better judgement, decided to have a look around and see what people are saying about the Armstrong business. I don't want to offend you all, but I can't help feeling that you are inhabiting some kind of bizarre...

From about 1990 to 2010, a period of twenty years, virtually every GC rider in professional road racing was blood doping, one way or another. I don't think anyone can seriously dispute that. I feel it is bordering on the intellectually dishonest to label anyone from this era a cheat and while...