Excellent Walsh interview

[Race Radio]

erader

So how about Mottet and Bassons? To be honest that´s the only 2 of tousands i ever heard being clean.

Danny Pate?

 

[Johnny Rotten]

Wonder How Lance Feels

Well first I have to say that was one of the best most frank interviews on the sport I have read in a while, way to go CN and Mr Walsh.

Second I wonder how poor Lance feels right now? I mean think about it, he was cheated in his comback by a doper! Let alone he was beat by his own doped teamate lol.

I would expect Lance is sitting in his house right now nervous with every knock at his door thinking he could be next.

Has anyone heard any new info in the Lance/Postal investigation?

 

[luckyboy]

Moncoutie?

Can't remember the name, but that guy who retired (90s) because everyone else was doping. Was from one of the low countries I think. Obviously there's been more than one, but I remember this guy.

 

[BikeCentric]

But what I don't understand is how a few postive tests on top riders can cause such a negative reaction in this forum. Everyone here already knew that doping is widespread in cycling and that AC is most likely doped, so what changed? When you realize that there's a problem, every positive test is a good thing. Ideally, lots of big fish should be reeled in.

And it's not like Moncoutie or someone a lot people tout as clean was caught.

Most of the knowledgeable folks on this board have been calling out Contadoper for years. In cycling today I don't think anyone can gracefully climb or TT away from a doped-up field clean. Not Contador, not Pharmstrong. Logical consistency of argument and all that.

So anyway, I doubt many shed a tear for Contador getting busted, I sure don't. But I can't see it as a big positive for the sport, i.e. just another doper taken down.

Instead I see the negatives: more UCI shenanigans - they were apparently not going to announce Contadoper's positive at all untill Alberto came forward with it. Then that disgusting fat pig McQuaid states publicly "looks like food contamination to me!" As a contrast Garzelli didn't get the same backing when he went + for Probenicid back in '01 I think it was and that was a similar case (questionable benefit to PED, trace amount, claimed food contamination).

Next, where was the BioPassport on this? Why was he not busted at the Tour? Etc. etc. etc. endless BS.

Frickin' UCI needs to go YESTERDAY. So sick of their garbage.

 

[Cervelo77]

In other news: Sky is blue, water is wet.

Seriously, before even reading the CN piece I already knew what Walsh would say. Consistent at least.

You've got to admit that bringing special meat from Spain is an especially creative (er, elaborate?) alibi. Points for that, if nothing else.

 

[forty four]

Go ahead Jayzee, BikeCentric, Moose, etc., and turn your back on the disgraced sport of professional cycling. And turn your passion to what? What sport/political party/government, etc., isn't corrupt at some level? The brutal demands of professional cycling make it unique among professional sports. With salaries that pale in comparison to soccer, baseball, basketball, etc., coupled with performance enhancing drugs that do actually work, of course there are going to be people looking for an edge.

The UCI is doing all it can to clean the sport, and the levels of testing are unprecedented in sport. Where recreational drug use permeates other sports and general society, professional cycling is one of the few professions that require a physiological make-up few possess, no matter their passion.

With the drugs and procedures that can bridge the gap between a promising rider to contender, it just invites abuse, no matter the testing.

Contador has been able to elevate himself from pure climber to all-around champion, and enjoyed the fruits of success. Now, he's going to pay the piper...maybe that is the deterrent needed to stop the next Contador.

exactly you have to understand your speaking to mostly naive children as far as the ways of real life go its quite sad. i wonder how many actually race effectively the forum posters on here turn me off to cycling more than anything its shameful.

 

[forty four]

yeah soon all cheating in sport which of course is purely entertainment an nothing more in life will be wonderful and drug free umm no. you all do realize endurance athletes at the highest level have mental defects right? yet you all want them to do things you cannot do yourselves because of mental and physical faillings for your amusement yet when they take drugs your upset. real pathetic find another sport move on.

 

[Tubeless]

Most of the knowledgeable folks on this board have been calling out Contadoper for years. In cycling today I don't think anyone can gracefully climb or TT away from a doped-up field clean. Not Contador, not Pharmstrong. Logical consistency of argument and all that.

So anyway, I doubt many shed a tear for Contador getting busted, I sure don't. But I can't see it as a big positive for the sport, i.e. just another doper taken down.

Instead I see the negatives: more UCI shenanigans - they were apparently not going to announce Contadoper's positive at all untill Alberto came forward with it. Then that disgusting fat pig McQuaid states publicly "looks like food contamination to me!" As a contrast Garzelli didn't get the same backing when he went + for Probenicid back in '01 I think it was and that was a similar case (questionable benefit to PED, trace amount, claimed food contamination).

Next, where was the BioPassport on this? Why was he not busted at the Tour? Etc. etc. etc. endless BS.

Frickin' UCI needs to go YESTERDAY. So sick of their garbage.

What would it take to force McQuaid out? How does the UCI membership select its fearless leader? Does he have a term - an election coming up soon? Or a position for life as long as Hein V. backs his buddy?

 

[ultimobici]

What would it take to force McQuaid out? How does the UCI membership select its fearless leader? Does he have a term - an election coming up soon? Or a position for life as long as Hein V. backs his buddy?

I think the UCI President is "elected" by a small committee having been, in McQuaid's case, nominated by Verbruggen.

Come to think of it it's a little like Kim Jong Il nominating his son as his successor to the NK Communist Party. They elect him, job done!

As with many sports the UCI is a prime example of Nepotism at work.

 

[L'arriviste]

I was generally happy with the content of Walsh's comments. I think there's still too much spotlight on riders and not enough on the Alvaro Pinos of this world. The doctors, the bent soigneurs, the cross-border couriers and all the well-organised institutional ugliness of it. Glimpses of which we only see during criminal investigations.

Personally, as a pre-teen, I bought into Liggett's thing about PDM having eaten bad fish or whatever he said in 1991, because I knew nothing about life or people or the one-column stories about Theunisse and Draaijer. Then when Festina broke, I was one of those who did turn my back on cycling.

Now I'm watching it again, I don't see all these positive tests and flabby alibis and sanctions as evidence of the sport stumbling from one disaster to the next. I just think it's that it's a [slightly] more realistic picture of this shades-of-grey world we live in. A many-sided paradox. A wheel of fortune that everyone must spin.

Pro cycling is unfair, corrupt and a dreamkiller. But it will always be beautiful, colourful, nuanced and accessible. And the bearers of all those Flemish flags at every race in every country clearly agree with that.

 

[movingtarget]

David Walsh thinks it's a shame because the honest, younger, up and coming riders will be getting more and more disillusioned. If he thinks they are disillusioned how would the honest 35 year olds be feeling ? Riders that have never tested positive and may not win that often but are nevertheless, giving the sport their all, season after season. I devote a lot of spare time to the sport with reading and viewing races etc...........and I have to admit that if Contador is suspended, a three time winner of the biggest bike race in the world, then I think I will not bother with it anymore. The fact that it is winners of the most prestigious races makes it even worse. Heras, Di Luca, Landis, possibly Contador, Basso, Valverde and so on. It's true, other sports are just as bad. Some are much worse. Might be time to turn the computer and TV off for longer periods and do other things. Such is life and sport.

 

[euphrades]

David Walsh thinks it's a shame because the honest, younger, up and coming riders will be getting more and more disillusioned. If he thinks they are disillusioned how would the honest 35 year olds be feeling ? Riders that have never tested positive and may not win that often but are nevertheless, giving the sport their all, season after season. I devote a lot of spare time to the sport with reading and viewing races etc...........and I have to admit that if Contador is suspended, a three time winner of the biggest bike race in the world, then I think I will not bother with it anymore. The fact that it is winners of the most prestigious races makes it even worse. Heras, Di Luca, Landis, possibly Contador, Basso, Valverde and so on. It's true, other sports are just as bad. Some are much worse. Might be time to turn the computer and TV off for longer periods and do other things. Such is life and sport.

I think the article was very good. When David Walsh first came out I was a bit disallushioned about Armstrong and others but i have been riding for 20 years and know the reality of today's riders.

As for Contador's positive or the Armstrong/Postal investigation they have no bearing on my love for the sport or for riding. Now these may make me stop reading about cycling results for a bit but i love riding and i got into cycling because of that not because of racing and racing results. I think you need to re-assess your motives for riding.

 

[L'arriviste]

Where did this beef come from? What's the name of the shop? That's important because we want to go back to the shop and ask who supplies the beef and does it have Clenbuterol in

Well, I guess somebody knows now:

We have the bill from the shop in Irun where L&#243]

A quick Google search suggests there are only three or four delis in Irun, one of which has the wonderful name [url=http://www.mugabe.net/]Mugabe. You can imagine the headlines...

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Well done, CN. Truly a frank and honest view of cycling and of the business interests in it.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/david-walsh-weighs-in-on-contador-case

I am not one to relish all the talk going on about doping in cycling, but this was one of the better reports I have seen. The one thing in the report that cought my attention was the timing of things in the Contador case. Specifically, Walsh said "I thought the whole idea of a guy coming from Spain and bringing meat to the Tour de France, it just didn't convince me. Who supplied the meat? Well Contador didn't know that even though he had a month to find out. He was told about this on the 24th of August, we're now talking six weeks later.

"Where did this beef come from? What's the name of the shop? That's important because we want to go back to the shop and ask who supplies the beef and does it have Clenbuterol in."

What he is talking about here is not just whether Contador is hiding something, but he's also talking about the safety of the general public related to Clen poisonings, as this has had serious consequences in the past. That may not be what Walsh was thinking, but that is what I felt.

 

[Anonymous]

i thought WOW

Walsh brings it all together, and I thought, "That's me." I'm always surprised when they're caught, but not that they are doping. I know all the problems of doping and corruption, but I love cycling so I keep on watching, etc, etc.'

It is me, I am the problem because I don't turn it off. I stay engaged, I watch, I read, I even ride my bike 2-4k miles a year, and sometimes I click on the ads you see to the right. So the sponsors know I'm still here, and they keep on paying so the riders keep riding and if they want to win and keep their jobs they damn well better.....

Read the Ettore Torri article too. Walsh is on the outside looking in, Torri is on the front line of the battle.

 

[Benotti69]

The UCI is doing all it can to clean the sport, and the levels of testing are unprecedented in sport.

hahahahahahahhahahhahahahhahhahahahhhaahhahahahhhaha!!!!!

well that made me laugh.

 

[Nick C.]

hahahahahahahhahahhahahahhahhahahahhhaahhahahahhhaha!!!!!

well that made me laugh.

if you want a laugh check out major league baseball

 

[Race Radio]

"Where did this beef come from? What's the name of the shop? That's important because we want to go back to the shop and ask who supplies the beef and does it have Clenbuterol in."

As I understand it Contador has already supplied this information.

 

[Wallace]

As I understand it Contador has already supplied this information.

From Cyclingnews today:

Vidarte told L’Èquipe. “We have the bill from the shop in Irun where López-Cerrón bought the meat.”

 

[Boeing]

outstanding. Great read

I posted this in a quote thread but it is worth repeating. Referring to the clean riders in today's peloton

"The one thing that really should bother right minding thinking people is that no one cares for honest men getting screwed. The journalists don't care, the race officials don't care, the sponsors don't care, and sadly you have to say that the public don't care. That's always been the issue for me."

I think I will try to pick up the Lance to Landis book

 

[Oldman]

"The one thing that really should bother right minding thinking people is that no one cares for honest men getting screwed. The journalists don't care, the race officials don't care, the sponsors don't care, and sadly you have to say that the public don't care. That's always been the issue for me."

Right on.

At this point I'm directing my anger at the idiot fans from now on. Guys like Polish, SpartacusRox, and the d-bag on my group ride who thinks doping makes the sport more fun to watch. You guys are a bunch of selfish *** who think other people should have to stick a needle in their arm for your enjoyment. Go watch the WWF where you belong.

+1. This sums up my interest in seeing the USADA prosecution through to the end. Hopefully the clean guys will take heart in the changing tide of PED activity and take control of their sport. It's clear with DS like Pino, Bruyneel, Riis....the riders have to take a stand.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

"The one thing that really should bother right minding thinking people is that no one cares for honest men getting screwed. The journalists don't care, the race officials don't care, the sponsors don't care, and sadly you have to say that the public don't care. That's always been the issue for me."

I think I will try to pick up the Lance to Landis book

Definitely pick it up. It's very well written, he does an excellent job of covering all bases.

As to that comment above, that's what's most sad. We have a few dozen of us here on the web, a few ex-dopers who have become staunchly against doping (Kohl, Papp, Floyd, etc.), a few purists like LeMond. Beyond that, it seems thousands of ambivalent people.

This also shows why it's so important to break the omerta and find a way to implement some sort of honor code. If the omerta had no weight, then the clean riders would have no trouble speaking out against dopers without hesitation, rightfully calling them cheaters and demand harsh punishment for them, and they'd get backing from others. But right now, if you wish to speak out you are an island, and most all of the riders and teams and support tell you to keep your mouth shut.

 

[Benotti69]

I think fans should be tweeting or emailing cyclists to make comments about Contador, Mosquera and crew as they happen, make them feel under pressure from the fans that we want to hear them denounce the dopers.

i emailed Gerrans after his Landis comments through his website and lo and behold no reply. Screams out loud his feelings on it.

 

[Benotti69]

if you want a laugh check out major league baseball

not into the american only sports, but i wouldn't be surprised.

FIFA world football is in my opinion a cesspit of doping and the amount of players returning quickly from serious injury is amazing compared to 10 - 15 years ago.

 

[Chuffy]

i emailed Gerrans after his Landis comments through his website and lo and behold no reply. Screams out loud his feelings on it.

Wow. Well known pro fails to answer e-mail from fan. That screams out precisely nothing.

Has Kimmage popped up yet? I'm looking forward to hearing his take on this!