Re:
red_flanders said:
I don't have the slightest problem with "clean" riders hanging out with "dopers". You're part of a fraternity, you know the score and you did the whole time you rode. To imagine that they regard someone has having "stolen" their wins seems to me quite strange. If you were clean and you rode for years in the peloton, you accepted long ago that you would not win against dopers, and you continued in the sport having made your peace with it on some level. You are on a team. These are your friends, your co-workers. People with whom you endure all kinds of pain and suffering. There is a bonding and a brotherhood there.
If it were me, I'd like to think that after it were all over I would be friends with my teammates and others in the group. That my comments about doping would be general, and I would simply acknowledge what went on in the sport, and not call anyone out specifically. I would use percentages, talk about methods in general, issues in general. I would not be inclined to name names of friends and colleagues. If someone wanted to know about what's really going on, I would reveal (maybe) what I knew up to the point where it would implicate anyone specific.
Imagining that a rider would be friends with no one who doped is really just dumb. It's simply not possible.
That all said, I don't care for Gaimon targeting certain people, and I don't care for the fact that there are certain dopers who are attacked by the peloton for whatever reason. But I don't really know why certain riders are scapegoated and others are not. Probably a personality or clique thing more than having anything to do with what they did as far as doping went. But as I don't know, I just kind of accept it. It's their world, not mine.
Good post Red, most people have rationalised the doping situation for what it is, even if it puts them at a disadvantage. Even Bassons had done this until he was shoved into the limelight by his doping team-mates at Festina. People tend to ignore the fact that Bassons did not take the initial step to becoming a crusader, he was shoved into the limelight, then given a platform which he then chose to use.
Bassons was ostracized by his team-mates not because he was anti-doping, but because he was bringing the ire of the big guns on his entire team. They were being punished by the likes of US Postal because of Bassons outspokeness. These guys were seeing their career's being put at risk so naturally as pro athletes tend to be, they were thinking more of themselves than Bassons and his crusade. They tried to reason with him, but Bassons was so wrapped up in the crusade, he didn't really care about the fate of his team-mates. I totally get why they would feel angry at him even though it helped reinforce the ometra. A sad affair indeed.
There are very few people who have come out and thrown everyone under the bus, Kimmage didn't, Bassons didn't, Manzano didn't, Rasmussen didn't. I think Willy Voet was the closest to doing so, but he is full of crap according to many people.
If you want to see real hypocrisy, look no further than the opening poster who criticises Gaimon, but praises Matt Cooke, even though Cooke is equally as selectful about who he attacks as Gaimon is. Cooke attacked the Garmin guys who he barely raced against as they were mostly in Europe, whilst completely ignoring all the numerous former team-mates and rivals who doped on the US circuit and whom he primarily raced against. Does that make sense?
How is it possible to attack one person for doing something and then praise someone else for doing the exact same thing?
Also if you want to take this forum as a reflection of reality, just look at which posters are always crying when one of their "buddies" is rightfully banned for breaking the rules. Oh, but its ok they break the rules, we like them so they shouldn't be banned. Hypocrisy indeed
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