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Cookson is worse for cycling than McQuaid

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mrhender said:
He does not present himself or his organazation very well in that interview.

Where is the dialogue? The embracing of fans?
The transparency mantra is also as good as dead...

Instead he has resorted to bullying and mocking/generalising concerned fans...
All while centralizing all power within the UCI and it's independent branches :rolleyes:

He displays that there is no middle-ground...
No discussion, and no information....

it is the Cookson way or the highway.....

Perhaps David Walsh will write a simialr book like he did in 09? About Cookson selling cycling? :rolleyes:


2w3741f.jpg


AS: They also say it's time for the Tour, so obviously it's time for another book by you guys. It's just another...you'll never stop as long as there's money to be made by tearing down the sport.

DW: Well, (laughs) I would love if we'd been able to tear down the sport, because the sport needed to be torn down. When I talk about the sport, I'm just talking about professional cycling. It NEEDED to be torn down. And sadly, there weren't too many people out there with journalistic responsibilities who were prepared to do it.

As for the money making bit, I've made virtually nothing from all of this, I'm sure if you spoke to my accountant I'm sure he'd tell you it's actually cost me money. The money doesn't interest me, never has it interested me. Andy, you're talking to me now in a South African hotel, we're speaking on my mobile phone because there isn't a phone in my room. I don't care about that stuff, I never have. I don't fly business class, I don't wish to fly business class. I don't have an expense account, I don't wish to have an expense account. So money has always been a complete irrelevance for me here. And this book, it will have cost us as much to do it as we will earn from it. So what. That's not what it's about.

And the people who say that make me laugh, because we are investigating people who might well be committing fraud to earn millions of dollars, and we operate at the very least in the few thousand dollars, and we're the ones who are considered the mercenaries. How absurd is that?

http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2009/david-walsh

;)
 
Oct 16, 2010
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Race Radio said:
that doesn't bode well for the integrity of WADA.
Anglophones holding hands.

By the way, WADA look awful after the Russian doping revelations.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that for years WADA has been receiving warnings/hints from Russian athletes and appears to have done nothing with that intel.
Die Welt-Anti-Doping-Agentur (Wada) reagierte geschockt. Gründungspräsident **** Pound sieht nun die Glaubwürdigkeit von Sport und Dopingfahndung bedroht. Allerdings stellen sich nun nachdrückliche Fragen auch an die vom Sport so oft betonte Schlagkraft der Wada. Dem Vernehmen nach hat sie über Jahre selbst von Personen aus dem russischen Sportsystem Hinweise erhalten. Geändert hat sich nichts.
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/doping-in-russland-du-musst-dopen-so-laeuft-es-1.2250599
 
Race Radio said:

I am disappointed.
Earlier I was going to post: "cue WADA being part of the global conspiracy to insure world domination of the anglos, will now follow from the tin foil hat brigade."
Then I thought surely not. Nobody is that daft.
I see I have already been proven wrong.

So, I guess we need another independent, independent testing body then.
Made up entirely of Russian doctors and politicians, no doubt.:rolleyes:
 
Oct 16, 2010
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Mellow Velo said:
I am disappointed.
Earlier I was going to post: "cue WADA being part of the global conspiracy to insure world domination of the anglos, will now follow from the tin foil hat brigade."
Then I thought surely not. Nobody is that daft.
I see I have already been proven wrong.

So, I guess we need another independent, independent testing body then.
Made up entirely of Russian doctors and politicians, no doubt.:rolleyes:
cut the strawmen and play ball, not man.

we need independent bodies where conflicts of interest are minimized.
at the moment one wonders why England are topping the medal rankings and winning TdFs whilst avoiding doping scandals.
you're not gonna argue that it is because they don't dope, are you?

imo, in fact, the real discrimination here is done not by those who claim Brits are dopers, but by those who seem to imply that Brits are somehow endowed with better morale than other nations.
I think they aren't. And thus, I think they dope just as much, but have a system in place that is much more resistant to scandal.
What do you think?
 
sniper said:
cut the strawmen and play ball, not man.

we need independent bodies where conflicts of interest are minimized.
at the moment one wonders why England are topping the medal rankings and winning TdFs whilst avoiding doping scandals.
you're not gonna argue that it is because they don't dope, are you?

imo, in fact, the real discrimination here is done not by those who claim Brits are dopers, but by those who seem to imply that Brits are somehow endowed with better morale than other nations.
I think they aren't. And thus, I think they dope just as much, but have a system in place that is much more resistant to scandal.
What do you think?

There is no ball to play on this.

WADA do not cease to be independent overnight, simply because they hold a different view on Cookson to you and those few who share your agenda.

Get over yourself. Strawman, indeed.
 
Jul 21, 2012
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seems like doping does indeed pay.

This year’s Tour de France Grand Départ saw 3.5 million people lining the roadside to watch the race and brought in £128 million for the UK, according to a report issued by Welcome Yorkshire.

The 64-page report, written by the company eventIMPACTS, detailed the economic benefits felt by Yorkshire and the rest of the UK during the three-day opener to the Tour de France, which was deemed a huge success for the region.

“There is no doubt the Grand Départ of the Tour de France was incredible for many businesses in Yorkshire and the benefits will be felt for many years to come,” said Welcome Yorkshire CEO Gary Verity.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2014-tour-de-france-grand-depart-watched-by-3-5-million-spectators
 
Aug 13, 2009
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sniper said:
that doesn't bode well for the integrity of WADA.
Anglophones holding hands.

By the way, WADA look awful after the Russian doping revelations.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that for years WADA has been receiving warnings/hints from Russian athletes and appears to have done nothing with that intel.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/doping-in-russland-du-musst-dopen-so-laeuft-es-1.2250599

Actually WADA has been on to Russia for several years. They suspended the main lab right before the Olympics because it was such a mess. They have been investigating the mess in Russia long prior to the ARD report.
 
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Race Radio said:
Actually WADA has been on to Russia for several years. They suspended the main lab right before the Olympics because it was such a mess. They have been investigating the mess in Russia long prior to the ARD report.
that's a fair reminder (i had forgotten and apparently so had that reporter of the Sueddeutsche).
Note though that the news item in 2013 said something about Wada provisionally suspending the lab. What happened after that? Was it reopened again?
"They have been investigating", what does that mean? That's an honest question which I think WADA should try to answer.
Why haven't they taken any action? As Benotti suggests they seem to have been rather inept not taking any concrete action besides 'provisionally' suspending that lab.

The athletes that have talked to Hajo have they also talked to WADA? If not, why not? If yes, why hasn't WADa taken any subsequent action?
 
Some of you are entirely missing the point. WADA is run by the sports federations. As well intentioned as guys like Howman are, they cannot do anything as long as the sports federations are in charge. USADA basically threaded a needle and did it brilliantly.

Any board of directors that has Sepp Blatter on it is going to have integrity problems. McQuaid was on the board too, likely thanks to Verbruggen's standing at the IOC. So, compromised at critical control points.

Technically, wada is the right org. They need authority to disclose and sanction.
 
Aug 13, 2009
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sniper said:
that's a fair reminder (i had forgotten and apparently so had that reporter of the Sueddeutsche).
Note though that the news item in 2013 said something about Wada provisionally suspending the lab. What happened after that? Was it reopened again?
"They have been investigating", what does that mean? That's an honest question which I think WADA should try to answer.
Why haven't they taken any action? As Benotti suggests they seem to have been rather inept not taking any concrete action besides 'provisionally' suspending that lab.

The athletes that have talked to Hajo have they also talked to WADA? If not, why not? If yes, why hasn't WADa taken any subsequent action?

I am a big fan of Hajo but writing an article is much easier then prosecuting a bunch of Russian crooks. I don't have the links right now but I have heard the stories of athletes getting drugs from the Federation before and know there was action being prepared.

regardless your point is a good one. WADA needs to be empowered to suspend Feds like Russia, and others, when they are so clearly corrupt. They have to be able to move faster
 
Race Radio said:
regardless your point is a good one. WADA needs to be empowered to suspend Feds like Russia, and others, when they are so clearly corrupt. They have to be able to move faster

BUUUT, As long as there's money/payoffs to be made, it'll only continue. I'm with you RR, I just don't see it doing much good for a long time.
 
Jul 21, 2012
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TheSpud said:
Can you explain what you mean by that? The TdF start comes to mainland Britain for only the second time and loads (and that's an exaggerated loads) turn up to watch it. What has that to do with doping?

Many of those hadn't heard of the tour the france before 2012.
 
Jul 21, 2012
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del1962 said:
You seem clueless on what the UK is like almost to the point of being a bore. And pretty obsessive about it, I recommend you see a shrink to deal with these negative feelings.

ball, not man.

I am going to stick to my point that the UK has had a cycling boom since 2012.
 
Jul 21, 2012
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TheSpud said:
Really? What about the estimated 1m+ people who turned up in 2007 for the Grand Depart in London? Have they suffered amnesia and then only rediscovered the Tour a few years later?

so, you are saying 2012 did nothing for the popularity of cycling in britain?
 
the sceptic said:
so, you are saying 2012 did nothing for the popularity of cycling in britain?

No I'm not saying that. It certainly did help, but I don't think you should under estimate the awareness of cycling and the TdF in the UK before 2012. A lot of that would have come from Cavendish, Nicole Cooke and also indirectly from the track scene (Beijing).

I was at the 2007 depart and I've never seen crowds like it.
 
The surge in popularity started with Obree and Boardman, then the track success just pushed it to the next level. (I was always more of a fan of Obree myself)

This years Grand Depart was something else to witness and be a part of though. Never experienced anything like that.
 
TheSpud said:
No I'm not saying that. It certainly did help, but I don't think you should under estimate the awareness of cycling and the TdF in the UK before 2012. A lot of that would have come from Cavendish, Nicole Cooke and also indirectly from the track scene (Beijing).

I was at the 2007 depart and I've never seen crowds like it.

Likewise but these are one off events. Everyone came out to enjoy the day rather than check out gear ratios and talk racing tactics. The weather was beautiful for those two days in London. That helped. Wasn't bloody raining for once! :cool:
 

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