dimspace said:
so your suggestion for sean when he finished riding was to go and sit in his armchair and have nothing further to do with it, because be associating with any pro team you are endorsing doping?
You're putting words into my mouth. I said nothing of the sort. For starters, he didn't work for "any pro team." He worked for CSC, Disco, and Astana. Three of the biggest doper teams of the decade, if you ask me. WHy not work for someone with a better anti-doping program, or at least a better anti-doping facade? Why, if he was so super clean, did he not open his mouth and say something about it? Or even keep his mouth shut but work with ADAs or other orgs to combat the doping he must have known was going on (and, as he surely knows, continues)?
And yeah, if you work for a doped team, you condone doping. It's not that complicated.
as for him at sky, massively respected, almost unrivalled experience in the current pro arena, and brilliant DS
as a rider, that 94 tour was wonderful, just a shame he wore yellow the day after it left england.. (of course the year that boardman lost yellow the day before it came to england)
Look, you can be a fan of someone and still call them on their faults. I love Yates -- man, I even pushed my brake hoods way down and eschewed STI until this century. He was a terrific rider, an excellent teammate, pure power, pure class. And my argument is not directly with Yates -- it's with this whole Sky/Brailsford B.S. of "we won't hire anyone who's had anything to do with doping." It's crap. It's PR. But again, if Yates worked for doper teams, he condones (or at least condoned) doping.
For the record, I also think Garmin's got a load of crap on it as well. (VDV: USPS, CSC, LS, etc.) But I think Vaughters's position is slightly more believable: You may have doped then, with them; you're not doping now, with us.