Ezequiel Mosquera

[The Hitch]

Also, let us bear in mind that Mosquera is a Galician. Galicia is very close to Portugal, and until the creation of Karpin, it had no regional cycling team to speak of. Going to Portugal was more or less going to local teams for Mosquera, more so than going to one of the Spanish teams based in Navarre or Andalucía or Comunidad Valenciana. And if you dig back through his career, and where he's done well, there's not too much to say that it's a huge surprise:

2000 - 3rd, mountain stage of Volta a Portugal (to Gouveia).
2001 - 22nd, Volta a Portugal
2002 - 17th, Volta a Portugal
2003 - 6th, Trofeu Joaquim Agostinho (thanks to a mountain performance, behind Jeker, Valverde and Horrach), 3rd, mountain stage of Volta a Portugal
2004 - 7th, Volta a Portugal, with top 10s in all mountain stages
2005 - 8th Ruta del Sol, 5th Vuelta a Murcía, 15th, Vuelta a La Rioja (with a stage win and a 2nd in mountain stages), 10th, Volta a Catalunya (with 4th in the Arcalis ITT), 10th, Vuelta a Burgos (with a 4th to Lagunas de Neila).
2006 - 7th, Vuelta a Castilla y León stage to Navacerrada, 9th, Giro del Trentino, 8th, Clasico Alcobendas stage to Navacerrada, 9th, Vuelta a Burgos (with a 4th to Lagunas de Neila). Riding for Comunidad Valenciana impeded invites after Puerto, thus fewer race days than 2005 (with Kaiku) impedes development.
2007 - 11th, Vuelta a Comunidad Valenciana, 11th, Vuelta a Castilla y León, 5th, Vuelta a España (9th to Lagos de Covadonga, 9th to Arcalis, 3rd to Cerler, 9th to Abantos - so not mountain performances out of sync with his career to that point).
2008 - 10th, Vuelta a Murcía, 9th, Vuelta a Castilla y León, 9th, Vuelta al País Vasco (with a 2nd in one stage), 1st, Clasica Alcobendas (won stage to Navacerrada), 5th, Vuelta a Burgos, 4th Vuelta a España (2nd to La Rabassa, 11th to Pla de Beret, 7th to Angliru, 3rd to San Isidro, 6th to Navacerrada)
2009 - 6th Vuelta a Murcía, 8th Vuelta a Castilla y León, 4th Vuelta a Burgos (1st to Lagunas de Neila), 5th Vuelta a España (9th to Aitana, 13th to Xorret del Catí, 4th to Velefique, 2nd to Sierra Nevada, 4th to La Pandera, 6th to La Granja)
2010 - 3rd Vuelta a Castilla y León, 4th Vuelta a Asturias, 5th Vuelta a Madrid, 2nd Vuelta a Burgos (2nd to Lagunas de Neila), then this Vuelta.

If you look at it, he didn't really come from nowhere in 2007 - he had solid results in climbs in the major Spanish stage races before then, and had been pretty good in 2005 with Kaiku. He regressed a bit with Comunidad Valenciana in 2006 but they also had problems with invitations late in the season because of Puerto, which may have caused his previous good showings to fall from memory. And as he'd never done GTs before - but had placed well in the Volta a Portugal back when it was 14 stages - then if he had good recovery he was going to be well suited for them. If anything the 2009 calendar was his breakout year, with his placements in mountain stages being the best they'd ever been - but part of this was due to his strength and part of it due to other riders being less willing to attack. If you look at his results in 2010, they include races not previously mentioned or attempted seriously, so it could be that a change in his calendar has prepared him better for the Vuelta.

thats some top quality research to show that Mosquera had talent from early age right there.

 

[galaxy1]

no idea if Mosquera is clean or not, but if you were planning on being the "least tested athlete on the planet", you might do the following:

* base yourself in Spain
* ride on a small team without bio passport obligations
* do few races, mostly obscure races, always in Spain.
* never win any races or stages (c.f. the MTF last week where he was miles ahead but ended up 2nd... interesting)
* try to wear the leader's jersey as little as possible - ideally aiming to ride into it on the last day only.

this might be a little unfair on him though - and he is certainly one of the most exciting riders to watch in a GT.

 

[hrotha]

Xacobeo have no biopassport obligations? They're pro-conti, I'm pretty sure they do. Remember Andalucía-Cajasur's Jesús Rosendo?

 

[craig1985]

No, pleeeeeeease not.
This forum here is hard - but has quality and quality posters. Und that is auch good so.
But you can't deny that here are many similarities to the Ullrichwars.
We Germans have a lead and much experience in this kind of superstarwars.
Anyway, interesting how the Americans handle this.

Gute Nacht. Man sieht sich

Mate, do you offer anything to the forums?

 

[saganftw]

mosqueras results in last 4 seasons are sign of him being clean rider rather than doper

pre-2007 cycling field infested with doped riders = no results
post-2007 cleaner field = showing his climbing talent

...or after years of no success he was like wth i try doping too and here comes the results

i think we need a poll

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

i think we need a poll

Yes a poll would be interesting. There is some good pros and cons in here. I especially like the work done by Libertine Seguros. Didn´t know that. But galaxy also has some points (outside of the biopassport, because i think hrotha is right, the conti teams are in the program).

But the Q is: How do i make a poll? And is it possible to connect it with this thread?

 

[The Hitch]

Yes a poll would be interesting. There is some good pros and cons in here. I especially like the work done by Libertine Seguros. Didn´t know that. But galaxy also has some points (outside of the biopassport, because i think hrotha is right, the conti teams are in the program).

But the Q is: How do i make a poll? And is it possible to connect it with this thread?

What do you want the poll to be.

Does Mosquera dope
Yes
No
Dont know

I think the dont knows will win by landslide. There is absoultely no evidence either way. None. Zilch.

Alternatively you can have a poll of do the following dope
Mosquera
Nibali
Peter Velits
and make the poll so that anyone can vote for up to 3 options.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

I´d more in mind like this:

a.) Does he dope heavyly
b.) Does he micro-dope, to not have a suspicious passport
c.) not doping; he´s a pure climber and has a chance nowadays because of a more leveled field

 

[galaxy1]

apologies for making up that errant factoid about the passport, i must have been thinking of the level below.

what's the point of a poll that is such pure speculation? people can't even make their minds up about riders with clear smoking guns. i was being partly facetious with my list - there are of course perfectly valid reasons for a Spaniard wanting to live and race in Spain, winning few races and not getting onto a big team.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

of course it´s speculation, since it´s the same with every rider not (yet) tested positive. My original doubt was/still is: May big teams didn´t want to sign him because of a suspect passport. It reminds me of the UCI saying they have some doubtfult riders, but can´t penalize them because they are just within the rules. Unlucky they don´t give the names of those riders.

On the other hand some good points were made in the defence of Mosquera.

 

[ttrider]

no doubt what so ever he definitely dopes
Sorry but as someone mentioned he has the perfect set in terms of teams races etc to dope and not be caught
developing late, portugese team yeh where he lives isnt his fault but come on he is really bad

Nibali and pellizotti training with Ferrari......
Velits suddenly smashing a tt!
top 3 for sure is dirty the variable is the extent

id bet on mosquera being by far the worst

 

[Señor_Contador]

I suspect Mosquera does take PEDs... though I can't confirm it.

What's really "odd" in an odd way is seeing comments confirming Mosquera is absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst doper out there.

I guess once the witchhunt is started everyone's a witch.

 

[Winterfold]

An interesting thread - but I find it very plausible that he is not doping or doping no more than anyone else more likely.

I think many factors have worked in his favour, rather than this being a sudden leap in performance at a late point in his career.

The course, and the number of significant super steep bonkers sections, and the sequence of the stages definitely seems to suit climbers for the GT IMO.

That and Anton stacking, if Anton was still in the race would we even be having this conversation?

Then other factors; we think everyone is doping less, he was better than people gave him credit for (kudos to the poster who researched his early palmares), the field is not super competitive and any big names who are in it look completely knackered.

I can give him the benefit of the doubt IE he is not doping or just the same as everyone else, and not doing Ricco or Kohl style super-doping.

I haven't seen any stupid accelerations that make me immediately suspicious, its been a really good race all told.

That said, this is cycling, so if the dude did get popped, it would come as no surprise...

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

I like those graphs that "roundabout" gave so much, here´s the one for Mosquera:

Since joining spain teams his performance is up up up, while he´s getting older older older.

The funny thing is: the same thing happened to Garcia Dapena since joining Xacobeo. He just finished 11th at the Vuelta at age of 33:

To be in spain must be cyclings heaven

 

[luckyboy]

Pretty surprising that they got more points when they joined teams that got invited to big races, isn't it?

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Pretty surprising that they got more points when they joined teams that got invited to big races, isn't it?

You're a real smart-aleck! To post 2.000 times doesn´t qualify you as the super clever.

To have the best results of a GT at age of 35/33 is absolutley normal. And finishing ITT´s around 90th place and all of a sudden being in the Top-15 at the vueltas is pretty normal.

And most other riders coming from small teams don´t have such high "jumps" at the mid 30´s, etc. etc.

All pretty normal

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

So for example Degenkolb should move to world´s No. 1 next year (if given the same "explosion" as Mosquera and Garcia Dapena). Because he goes from TET to HTC.

LMAO

 

[Hugh Januss]

What I notice is that the usual pack of idiots that insist upon "innocent until proven guilty" and "guilt by association" is not fair and so on, that are all over the LA and Ben King etc threads are nowhere to be found when it comes to Mosquera.
Is he not equally "innocent until proven guilty?"

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

You may mistake me with somebody else. I always was skeptical when somebody came out of nowhere. Especially someone "old" (in sports terms). And if it´s two at the same time, the same team, the same infamous country, well then am almost convinced...

 

[Polish]

What I notice is that the usual pack of idiots that insist upon "innocent until proven guilty" and "guilt by association" is not fair and so on, that are all over the LA and Ben King etc threads are nowhere to be found when it comes to Mosquera.
Is he not equally "innocent until proven guilty?"

And how come the usual pack of haters are not on this thread calling the 34 year old Ezequiel a blatant doper?

Also, they are most likely NOT equally innocent.

One is a probably a bit more or less innocent than the other..

Most likely a whole LOT more or less innocent.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Polish,

in defence of Mosquera: There are no 6 postive Epo-Tests, no skeptical Blood-profiles on the internet, no affidavits against him, etc. etc...

Indeed, Mosquera´s doping is pur speculation. But he is highly suspicious.

 

[flicker]

A Spaniard, name sounds like mosquito, related to blood therefore doper

 

[Polish]

Polish,

in defence of Mosquera: There are no 6 postive Epo-Tests, no skeptical Blood-profiles on the internet, no affidavits against him, etc. etc...

Indeed, Mosquera´s doping is pur speculation. But he is highly suspicious.

So young Ben King is a doper because of his association with Lance.

And old Mosquera is clean even though his team directeur directed Kelme from1992-1999 before moving to Phonak and then Xacobeo-Galicia.

The Clinic Super Sleuths strike again. Hard to fool you guys.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

So young Ben King is a doper because of his association with Lance.

And old Mosquera is clean even though his team directeur directed Kelme from1992-1999 before moving to Phonak and then Xacobeo-Galicia.

The Clinic Super Sleuths strike again. Hard to fool you guys.

Hehh???

Never talked ´bout King, never said Mosquera is clean...

Are you kidding. Or just reading the exact opposite of what has been written by me, so it fits into you own world. That´s pretty sick. Sorry.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Hehh???

Never talked ´bout King, never said Mosquera is clean...

Are you kidding. Or just reading the exact opposite of what has been written by me, so it fits into you own world. That´s pretty sick. Sorry.

Probably my fault for bringing up King. I was just trying to make the observation that our "lunatic fringe" was strangely silent as long as we were not parsing out the guilt or innocence of Armstrong or anyone connected with him, thus there was a relatively intelligent exchange of ideas on the subject. Of course as soon as I mentioned Armstrong or Livestrong in they flooded as if eager to prove my point.