Recent content by The_Captain

Athletes are allowed more than one missed test for exactly this reason - unforeseen events do happen that even the the most careful of athletes can overlook. Now if any of the details in Froome's story turn out to be untrue then that is when this particular incident would start looking...

The level crossing incident could have had serious consequences. If a rider had gone down after clipping the barriers and caused a pile up that would have had horrendous results. Now the blame isn't solely the riders in this case. There is a valid point about being able to slow down and...

Yes. Of course they can. There are too many variables involved in a race, and doping (and even rider performance) is only one of those. Of course the odds change depending on the type of race and how important tactics are. But it also discounts the type of athlete who would dope...

I think there are perfectly reasonably explanations for this too. The nobodies probably aren't running sophisticated doping programs, and therefore are easier to catch. It's all very well demanding the UCI go after people we suspect of doping, but they still need to get a watertight case...

Regardless of whether or not you believe in Sky it's a fair point though. One motivating factor to dope is because you feel that you can't compete without doping. The old arms race thing... The obvious drawback to this point is that it relies on people believing that Sky are competing...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/30007100 I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, unless it's old news being rehashed by the BBC. Jail time does seem to be a rather more effective deterrent than a 6 month holiday in the off season. I just wish that the UK would follow suit.

Of course hard work isn't guaranteed success but without it I'd suggest there is a very limited chances of succeeding. The key to success is where you focus that hard work. And sadly for many the answer is PEDs

I didn't think the interview was that great or inciteful. Quite a lot of the interviewer trying to put words into the guy's mouth. In fact he actually says that altitude training is useful for mountain finishes. The most interesting thing he said was that he thinks there has been no...

Actually, whilst fairly insignificant in itself the whole moto sling thing does encapsulate the whole mentality of doping/cheating etc. Is the sling cheating or just a bit of gamesmanship? Riders probably do it because they think it's generally accepted, like stealing a few yards on a...

I don't think anyone is saying that cheating is ok. Whatever systems are in place there will still be those that try to circumvent those. However, I believe that the majority of cyclists go into the sport wanting to compete clean. There are many reasons that they may be tempted to dope...

There is, I think, a difference in supporting a rider who once doped, and the attitude that I also see from time to time that you hope one rider dopes to beat another rider that you think dopes. That's exactly the attitude that got cycling into the mess it's been in - the arms race...

If that report is true it's scandalous! I don't know what's worse - the fact that SIX of the Dutch team failed the test or the attitude of FIFA. It's just wrong on so many levels, that the only logical explanation is that it's 1st April. Or it's some elaborate s****. Surely...

Cheers. Would be interesting to dig out the article and read it myself. Any idea when it was?

I'm not discarding his contribution at all. It's still an interesting topic worth discussion on it's own. I just meant that I don't think it can definitively conclude what I was trying to find out about. If one of today's riders entered a race using a bike from '98 for example, how...

That's all well and good, but there are still too many variables to be able to draw any definitive conclusions. We know that drugs improve performance, so if there was no change in average winning speed, if anything it indicates that there could be some other factors at work. This is one...