Former BigMat Doctor arrested

[L'arriviste]

At present there is still some confusion as to what Dr. Bedoucha's role with BigMat was. They appear to say he stopped with them in 2010, although he is named on their website.

It also has been reported he was only working with 'amateurs - I will update if there is more or better info.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

When a team introduces its doctor, we cannot be sure that he/she is actually a team employee. Sports doctors in French and Belgian cycling typically operate as consultants - they may serve bigger teams directly during longer races but in general they operate independently and can take their clients from a wider range of sources and at all levels of the sport.

It is not at all uncommon to find such a doctor to be closely connected to a cycling stronghold, such as we see here in the Parisian satellite of Aubervilliers, and that he/she has treated patients from time to time since they were juniors newly moving into the area to try to "make it". Bedoucha is in fact registered as a General Practitioner in Créteil.

In addition to being more lucrative for doctors and thriftier for teams, this consultancy situation is mutually convenient for both parties if it becomes necessary for either one to dissociate itself from the other. This is, in my opinion, what happened here: he's 'the BigMat doctor' and then suddenly he isn't. He's probably not 'the FDJ doctor' either, in the strictest sense of the phrase.

 

[Benotti69]

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

When a team introduces its doctor, we cannot be sure that he/she is actually a team employee. Sports doctors in French and Belgian cycling typically operate as consultants - they may serve bigger teams directly during longer races but in general they operate independently and can take their clients from a wider range of sources and at all levels of the sport.

It is not at all uncommon to find such a doctor to be closely connected to a cycling stronghold, such as we see here in the Parisian satellite of Aubervilliers, and that he/she has treated patients from time to time since they were juniors newly moving into the area to try to "make it". Bedoucha is in fact registered as a General Practitioner in Créteil.

In addition to being more lucrative for doctors and thriftier for teams, this consultancy situation is mutually convenient for both parties if it becomes necessary for either one to dissociate itself from the other. This is, in my opinion, what happened here: he's 'the BigMat doctor' and then suddenly he isn't. He's probably not 'the FDJ doctor' either, in the strictest sense of the phrase.

I cant imagine many Doctors throwing their hat into a team and not having a General Practice somewhere to go back (or continuing with) to after the team.

 

[Suedehead]

No team need a full time (40-45 h/week) doctor, unless a full program (not the racing kind).

 

[Benotti69]

No team need a full time (40-45 h/week) doctor, unless a full program (not the racing kind).

It depends on the Doctors duties. If the doctor is implementing and overseeing a full doping program then that i imagine is pretty much a full time job for a team of 25+ riders.

 

[Walkman]

Or, indeed, Cadel was better prepared this year.
That would explain why his own team (soigneurs, mechanics, teammates) were all so confident about Cadel's chances in this year's TdF, prior to the start. Prior to the start, as I remember, a couple of guys within his team explicitly stated that Cadel was gonna be a major candidate this year, and a better candidate than in previous years.

Though this isn't such a mystery. Come think of it Evans -09 Tour was pretty crappy for some reason and his -10 was spoiled by doing the Giro hence it's pretty clear he would preform better this year unless he was done as a GC-rider.

I not saying he wasn't "prepared", just that, that the statement from his team isn't so strange. I mean, even if they thought he was done as a GC-cyclist, what were they going to say?

 

[Poursuivant]

True. The man on the staff of his current team who was caught importing a boatload of EPO had no intention of giving any to the team's riders. The man on staff of his previous team who was caught importing experimental drugs from Australia also had no intention of giving any to the team's rirders. And his current team's owner, who personally paid for Landis' drug program, decided not to give Evans the same deal; he figured that it was a better bet to count on all the other Tour contenders crashing out of the race or showing up not in form.

Give the doc the benefit of doubt. He probably thought he was hired to dope Big Mig instead of Big Mat. By the time he realized everyone spoke French instead of Spanish, it was too late to stop.

Anything actually happen to that feller?

 

[Escarabajo]

It depends on the Doctors duties. If the doctor is implementing and overseeing a full doping program then that i imagine is pretty much a full time job for a team of 25+ riders.

That was his point. That unless the doctor is giving dope to the riders, there is no need for one full time. Trainers yes, Doctors why? Only part time will suffice IMHO.

 

[L'arriviste]

Anything actually happen to that feller?

Sven Schoutteten? No news that I'm aware of, though it appears that he did delete his Facebook profile at some point. Legal processes can take many years in Belgium and I daresay this, and that of Vansevenant, will take a while, especially if the authorities are acting on whatever these guys may know.

 

[Poursuivant]

Sven Schoutteten? No news that I'm aware of, though it appears that he did delete his Facebook profile at some point. Legal processes can take many years in Belgium and I daresay this, and that of Vansevenant, will take a while, especially if the authorities are acting on whatever these guys may know.

Oh right, thanks.

 

[L'arriviste]

Looks like Bedoucha may be talking. L'Equipe initially said he had admitted to supplying EPO during the time he served BigMat, but this has now been changed to a headline stating that Bedoucha has been indicted this afternoon.

 

[Benotti69]

Looks like Bedoucha may be talking. L'Equipe initially said he had admitted to supplying EPO during the time he served BigMat, but this has now been changed to a headline stating that Bedoucha has been indicted this afternoon.

Wonder will he give up any current pros? Jeremy Hunt for example.

 

[roundabout]

Probably not Hunt.

2007-2010 is the period authorities are looking at.