Astana?

[Mayomaniac]

I'll say this: Vino and the team honouring Scarponi's contract and paying his remaining salary to his widow alone makes him waaay less of a scumbag than Lance and mainly Johan.

 

[markene2]

well, Vino bought races, got a positive during the TDF, his team had half a dozen positives and he still runs it and the team still going. I'd get behind anyone, even Lance, calling out Astana.

Races get sold all the time, 95% of all athletes dope in a top sport, lance ratted out mayo, destroyed countless carrers etc with his powerplays and ego, he should just shut up and follow the omerta.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Races get sold all the time, 95% of all athletes dope in a top sport, lance ratted out mayo, destroyed countless carrers etc with his powerplays and ego, he should just shut up and follow the omerta.

At modern day Astana most people also leave on good terms and we've seen multiple riders return over the last few years. Compare that to how Johan and Lance tried to sabotage a riders career if he didn't re-sign...

 

[zlev11]

either way it's still hilarious that the sport came together to banish and shame Armstrong and Johan and then pretended that doping was over, only to let literally every single other doper and enabler from that same era remain in the sport. as time goes on and more of these scandals break (remember the Fuglsang and Lutsenko Ferrari rumor a few years ago?) you truly realize how hypocritical that was.

 

[carton]

either way it's still hilarious that the sport came together to banish and shame Armstrong and Johan and then pretended that doping was over, only to let literally every single other doper and enabler from that same era remain in the sport. as time goes on and more of these scandals break (remember the Fuglsang and Lutsenko Ferrari rumor a few years ago?) you truly realize how hypocritical that was.

The problem was not just the doping and the lying and the suing and the taunting and the omerta, it was that mellow homelander was an absolute monster who did it all with a grin, would crap on people just for giggles, salt the earth beneath anyone who dared cross him. That he managed to successfully convince most of the world's media that all he ever did was try to make the world a better place for cancer victims while everything he touched turned to dust was just white icing on the feces cake. That's not saying Next Ventures is the reason Cyclingtips and Velonews are dying on the vine, but the pattern holds.

Next to him, Vino is an uptight boy scout. Hypocrisy nauseates me as much as the next guy -maybe more- but as Norm Macdonald used to say about Bill Cosby, the hypocrisy is definitely not the worst part. If there's anything the UCI and cycling journalism, in general, has done right during the last decade is banishing HWMNBN and those who enabled him. Sure doping goes on and there are other bad people in cycling, and figuring out who is truly rotten and who deserves another chance is a very tough call, much less how to deal with them. But letting go of the very worst of the worst is a good call, IMHO.

And as to that, after a few years of not broaching the subject, I'm going to try to follow my own advice for as long as I can muster.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Could it possible be that Astana done the right thing?

Superman has fallen!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1683860240914161664

View: https://twitter.com/UCI_media/status/1683860240914161664

 

[Izzyeviel]

Does this mean he won't be at the tour of Portugal?

 

[saganftw]

Does this mean he won't be at the tour of Portugal?

tour of portugal finished this past sunday

 

[Izzyeviel]

no, it starts in two weeks. Its usually a forum favourite for clinic goers.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

A bit sad that such a talent will be stuck at home watching his competitors on tv, but that's cycling I guess.

 

[topcat]

The Volta a Vingo finished on Sunday. MAL was too human to be invited.
So lemme get this straight:
The UCI don’t care about MAL clubbing baby seals in Colombia but once they hear he’s going to the wcrr, they suspend him. Seems transparent enough.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

The Volta a Vingo finished on Sunday. MAL was too human to be invited.
So lemme get this straight:
The UCI don’t care about MAL clubbing baby seals in Colombia but once they hear he’s going to the wcrr, they suspend him. Seems transparent enough.

It seems a bit suspect given they still can‘t tell us what he supposedly took. But I guess doping and transparency never go hand in hand. But I‘d assume if this was someone like Pogačar and Vingegaard they would not be provisionally suspended.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Yeah a part of me wanted for them to wait until after the road race so we could see him maybe attacking the favourites whilst the commentators spoke through gritted teeth, but if he's done it then throw him out obviously, I'm just interested as to why it took so long.

The timing as said is interesting, right after The Tour and before the World Championships, maybe a coincidence maybe not as it seems they got the relevant information a month ago.

Would also love to know what prompted Saint Vino's 'Road to Damascus' moment, unfortunately it is likely we may never know.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Anyone here believe that Lopez is dirty but Vingo is clean because the latter "never tested positive"?
Just checking IQ levels.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Anyone here believe that Lopez is dirty but Vingo is clean because the latter "never tested positive"?
Just checking IQ levels.

Superman is also clean because he never tested positive.

 

[samhocking]

I don't think UCI have much to do with it do they, it was a Spanish Anti-Doping Organisation case.

It seems a bit suspect given they still can‘t tell us what he supposedly took. But I guess doping and transparency never go hand in hand. But I‘d assume if this was someone like Pogačar and Vingegaard they would not be provisionally suspended.

You don't have to have taken something to have an ADRV. Given it's a result of the Spanish Police & CELAD investigation into Dr. Marcos Maynar it's probably trafficking given that seems to be what Astana suspended him over. There was rumour he had a reaction to Menotropin in 22 Giro and why he pulled out, but that wouldn't be a Spanish law enforcement issue.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Menotropin, same as what Joni Brandão got caught with, although the results it came up with for me suggest it's a fertility drug rather than HGH?

Seen Clomid used to regulate testosterone amongst steroid users but other than that nothing.

Any medics/pharmacists?

 

[samhocking]

Think I read about the Menotropin in ABC paper, but looks like it's been reproduced here re. Lopez.

Miguel Ángel López may have abandoned Giro d'Italia due to reaction to a prohibited substance, according to report

Miguel Ángel López has had his contract with Astana Qazaqs

cyclinguptodate.com

 

[Bolder]

Anyone here believe that Lopez is dirty but Vingo is clean because the latter "never tested positive"?
Just checking IQ levels.

No, but I like the description of doping controls as IQ tests. 🙂

Anyway, I guess this is the other shoe dropping from Astana giving him the boot.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Anyone here believe that Lopez is dirty but Vingo is clean because the latter "never tested positive"?
Just checking IQ levels.

No. I know Vingo is clean because he's from a country full of lovely people who would never do such things. And he has a family you know.

 

[Tim Cahill]

The main snippet of information we had prior was the adverse reaction in stage 4, however the wording in the press release suggests other reasoning;

'potential ADRV for use and possession of a prohibited substance in the weeks prior to the Giro d’Italia 2022.'

 

[Ilmaestro99]

What a JOKE. A JOKE. UCI thinks they can suspend literally Superman. Because he dares to get bored of trouncing opportunity-deprived Colombian teenagers who UCI doesn't care about, and come and taint a big race with his presence in Europe where we have to pretend the top guys ride on fish salad and beetroot juice . If he was a bourgeois rich Danish or British he would have just finish on tour de france podiuum and Tour de france official twitter accounts would be making posts celebrating him

 

[Mayomaniac]

The writing was on the wall, you don't get Astana to terminate the contract of their best rider unless you're a ticking time bomb. They probably knew that the Spanish police investigation had found some dirt on him.

 

[samhocking]

The writing was on the wall, you don't get Astana to terminate the contract of their best rider unless you're a ticking time bomb. They probably knew that the Spanish police investigation had found some dirt on him.

I think Astana were probably already thinking ahead to having two ADRV in 12 months because of Gazooli's ADRV so they should be able to persuade UCI Committee to not be suspended given how proactive they were re. Lopez investigation.

 

[The Clogger]

What a JOKE. A JOKE. UCI thinks they can suspend literally Superman. Because he dares to get bored of trouncing opportunity-deprived Colombian teenagers who UCI doesn't care about, and come and taint a big race with his presence in Europe where we have to pretend the top guys ride on fish salad and beetroot juice . If he was a bourgeois rich Danish or British he would have just finish on tour de france podiuum and Tour de france official twitter accounts would be making posts celebrating him

You have a super doper from Slovenia taking the piss on everyone and he is still riding and getting celebrated. Nationality has nothing to do with it.