Logic Al said:Been reading for a while, but first post so please be gentle!
Reading this thread and others it seems to be taken as gospel that Froome is doping. Looking at what’s happened in the past and how dominant Froome has been it’s an obvious conclusion to make
1. Clearly some riders lost their edge. Some of them (Contador) is still in his prime. This is an indication things got better. But Froome now operates at the level a doped Contador was. Saying Froome is clean as good as a doped Contador is quite shocking. If we rank AC as one of the all time greats (Check his Palmares), it says Froome is a much greater cyclist (if he's clean).
That's a rather tough sell... not only was he pretty much second tier in his earlier career, we are talking here about the best clean performance ever recorded by a long, long shot.
2. There is no evidence. Just as Wiggins there is a history of being in dirty teams and dirty team doctors. That's not his choice, so it's unfair to judge him (everyone needs to start somewhere to fullfill his dreams).
But the problem is that good performance and the presence of these doctors invariably have been proven to be the basis for doping. Biggest Exceptions (in being caught at least): Evans, Sastre, Wiggins. And now Froome.
3. Basically and sadly, yes. I'd say that if DB is involved it would put all those wonderful performances at stake.
DB himself is irrefutably either an idiot or a liar. His lies about the duration of Leinders on the team, his truly unbelievable story that the management team wasn't involved in hiring a doctor*, the clear scent of doping around several staffmembers**. But this could be as much of damage control than covering up doping. He needs to be kicked out of the sport together with other managers, but that's my opinion. Proof of him facilitating doping? Nope.
That said, when was the last time sport was dominated like this and there was no doping involved? That's the cynic in me, but that opinion is sadly backed up by facts. It's so far always a component of it all.
And take this one a step further. Cycling is still plagued by doping, so how is it possible clean Brittain absolutely dominates a field which is not yet clean? How many Merckx's are there in Brittish Cycling?
* Considering Dave's history with Millar it's absolutely unbelievable he hires a doctor on a whim without a background check. And yes, Leinders, as part of the Rabo Manageent team, was by that time publicly judged by court to be involved with MR. Also, leinders is an insider who has been many years in the sport. He must have known Leinders worked with Rasmussen, Dekker and Mencov.
** Again, he was an insider, his ignorance or naivety is of the scale if he really didn't know. His "zero-tolerance" clearly was a sham until he got no choice and had to act on it.