Houanard provisionally suspended for EPO

[JRanton]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/houanard-provisionally-suspended-for-epo

 

[RHRH19861986]

Maybe we could use a classification for doping positives: we compare riders who tested positive to cases from the past. Relevant are age, status, substance, public image of the rider, and things like these.

I think Houanard is same category as Thomas Frei or Denis Galimzyanov.

Just read on CN´s article it comes to a time where Ag2R is searching new spot on WorldTour for 2013, so this makes this case clearly a political one. Two possible things, IMHO:
1. another contenting team for this spot is behind it, to get Ag2R from this possible place
2. UCI is behind it, to get a reason to give Ag2R´s spot to a team they prefer

They just ban the small one´s, to celebrate their "strong fight on doping". Houanard, the evil of cycling, so clear. What a piece of ****.
Might be Lavenu´s first real positive since a long time, Mancebo was Fuentes case, can´t remember the last real positive; now that Vino has left, no more protection for Lavenu, maybe??
Just speculating.
Leave Houanard alone, he´ll get his 50.000 a year, and just does his job in this rotten sport. Bad day for cycling, no doubt about that.

 

[gthx_gthx_]

Somehow i feel sorry for him. Looks as though he may have done it to survive in this sport. He hasn't stolen any win.
And there must be much much much worse than him in the peloton.

But those are the rules. They almost apply to everybody.

 

[WildspokeJoe]

Maybe we could use a classification for doping positives: we compare riders who tested positive to cases from the past. Relevant are age, status, substance, public image of the rider, and things like these.

I think Houanard is same category as Thomas Frei or Denis Galimzyanov.

Just read on CN´s article it comes to a time where Ag2R is searching new spot on WorldTour for 2013, so this makes this case clearly a political one. Two possible things, IMHO:
1. another contenting team for this spot is behind it, to get Ag2R from this possible place
2. UCI is behind it, to get a reason to give Ag2R´s spot to a team they prefer

They just ban the small one´s, to celebrate their "strong fight on doping". Houanard, the evil of cycling, so clear. What a piece of ****.
Might be Lavenu´s first real positive since a long time, Mancebo was Fuentes case, can´t remember the last real positive; now that Vino has left, no more protection for Lavenu, maybe??
Just speculating.
Leave Houanard alone, he´ll get his 50.000 a year, and just does his job in this rotten sport. Bad day for cycling, no doubt about that.

How is it a bad day?
He cheated and got caught.

Your theory that the UCI caused the positive is ridiculous.
For the French teams, their main concern is an invite to the Tour
Just like Eurocar, if AG2R went to continental status they would get a wild card invite too.

If he's guilty, it's a great day for cycling.

 

[sniper]

Cycling is definitely cleaning up.
Except for a few rotten apples, such as the 133rd overall of the Vuelta 2011.

 

[thehog]

Cycling is definitely cleaning up.
Except for a few rotten apples, such as the 133rd overall of the Vuelta 2011.

The UCI snariing the big guns again.

Poor guy. Didn’t know how to shoot straight and missed the vain. Schoolboy error.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

Somehow i feel sorry for him. Looks as though he may have done it to survive in this sport. He hasn't stolen any win.
And there must be much much much worse than him in the peloton.

But those are the rules. They almost apply to everybody.

While I agree that it appears to be a guy doping to retain a contract it still is doping, no excuse for it and he deserves any sanction he gets.

 

[JRanton]

He was without a contract for 2013 and presumably was hoping some decent late season results would stir some interest in his services. You can see how these things happen and he was most probably caught because he was doping unsupervised and without the right level of knowledge/expertise to evade the controls.

 

[RHRH19861986]

How is it a bad day?
He cheated and got caught.

Your theory that the UCI caused the positive is ridiculous.
For the French teams, their main concern is an invite to the Tour
Just like Eurocar, if AG2R went to continental status they would get a wild card invite too.

If he's guilty, it's a great day for cycling.

I suppose 95 per cent of about 500 World Tour riders either at least dope occasionally, or permanently. Every about three or six months, they pull someone out due to a positive test. That´s OK.
The evil thing about this is that this positive guy is regarded as black sheep, someone who destroys this sport. There are people like Armstrong or Valverde, and there are people like Houanard. It´s obvious that there´s a difference between those two. The big ones get protected, they lie and only get banned if public pressure gets too big. The small ones have no one behind them, they are easy victims, just alibis for the statistics.
That´s what I don´t like about this system.
Riis and Bruyneel have won everything with their riders for about 10 yrs. No one (except Fuji Li with Clen) was caught. I suppose this teams, among others, are protected by UCI, but this is only what I suppose, I might be wrong.

 

[RHRH19861986]

Poor guy. Didn’t know how to shoot straight and missed the vain. Schoolboy error.

Wouldn´t have been necessary... EPO also (and mostly) is used subcutane.

 

[hrotha]

When small riders without the money or the contacts to do it right dope, you don't need a UCI conspiracy to imagine why they got caught.

 

[WildspokeJoe]

I suppose 95 per cent of about 500 World Tour riders either at least dope occasionally, or permanently. Every about three or six months, they pull someone out due to a positive test. That´s OK.
The evil thing about this is that this positive guy is regarded as black sheep, someone who destroys this sport. There are people like Armstrong or Valverde, and there are people like Houanard. It´s obvious that there´s a difference between those two. The big ones get protected, they lie and only get banned if public pressure gets too big. The small ones have no one behind them, they are easy victims, just alibis for the statistics.
That´s what I don´t like about this system.
Riis and Bruyneel have won everything with their riders for about 10 yrs. No one (except Fuji Li with Clen) was caught. I suppose this teams, among others, are protected by UCI, but this is only what I suppose, I might be wrong.

Well I would disagree with you. They all destroy the sport. Big or Small

It should be an absolute. You get caught you have to pay the consequences.

 

[RHRH19861986]

I can´t imagine he doped for the first time, and directly got caught. He has been pro since 2009. Certainly he used standard EPO, and this time, had bad luck because it was still in his system when tested surprisingly.
-> Conspirancy: If a test is positive, it´s far from sure that it´s made public. I think only a small percentage of positve tests is made public.

 

[Le breton]

.............
Leave Houanard alone, he´ll get his 50.000 a year, and just does his job in this rotten sport. Bad day for cycling, no doubt about that.

If HOUANARD needs to resort to EPO to obtain his meager results, what is he doing in a pro team? There are 100 other more talented amateur racers waiting backstage.

 

[Arnout]

I don't believe in a grand scheme behind something when a rider is caught for EPO. Assuming it is regular EPO, using that is more desperate than calculated.

 

[TomasC]

Wouldn´t have been necessary... EPO also (and mostly) is used subcutane.

...that is, if you don't mind testing positive.

 

[RHRH19861986]

...that is, if you don't mind testing positive.

OK, it works faster and disappears faster intravenous. But if someone knows the half-value time, he can control also subcutane mode. But right, might not help if you get testsed surprisingly next day.
The problem also might be, this bio passport might force them to avoid large blood cell fluctuations. So if the reference values are high, maybe due to EPO, you have to keep this levels to stay unsuspicious. If you ride as pro for 15 years, this is not an easy task, and the chance to be positive one day is really high.
New EPO or blood bags would have helped him, he likely didn´t have the money and people for that.

 

[BroDeal]

I think it is interesting that French doping seems to be more common than it used to be. I suspect that when the ASO decided it would not fight doping anymore, there was a similar shift in the attitudes of French riders. Having few results is bad for business and threatens the long term health of a country's cycling.

It is hard to explain Voeckler's 2011 Tour performance.

 

[Lexman]

I think it is interesting that French doping seems to be more common than it used to be. I suspect that when the ASO decided it would not fight doping anymore, there was a similar shift in the attitudes of French riders. Having few results is bad for business and threatens the long term health of a country's cycling.

It is hard to explain Voeckler's 2011 Tour performance.

Don't tell this in France ;-)

 

[hrotha]

I think it is interesting that French doping seems to be more common than it used to be. I suspect that when the ASO decided it would not fight doping anymore, there was a similar shift in the attitudes of French riders. Having few results is bad for business and threatens the long term health of a country's cycling.

It is hard to explain Voeckler's 2011 Tour performance.

That's my take on it too. It's not just Europcar, there's been several doping busts in the amateur ranks, and I vaguely remember reading about weird physiological values in the French peloton going up recently.

 

[sniper]

my hope might be idle, but I am hoping/expecting the french reaction to houanard's positive to be different from the spanish reaction to aldirto's positive.

 

[Maillot Vert]

Makes one wonder what the rest of the riders at AG2R La Mondiale might be up to. Steve Houanard is the latest in a line of scapegoats. I would be willing to bet a fair few dollars that the percentage of riders in the peloton who are doping and not getting caught is on the high side.

 

[The Hitch]

my hope might be idle, but I am hoping/expecting the french reaction to houanard's positive to be different from the spanish reaction to aldirto's positive.

hounard is a nobody. Few French people are even going to know about this.

Besides its far easier to defend someone when they test + for nandrolone than epo.
Its like catching 1 mafia member on murder and the other for parking violations.

I think even Lemond said in that interview that when catches are made he wants them to be straight smoking guns for oxygen vector doping, and not the little side drugs everyone scrabbles to wikipedia to find out what they even are.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

Cycling is definitely cleaning up.
Except for a few rotten apples, such as the 133rd overall of the Vuelta 2011.

I asked JV to publish the values of one of his domestiques.

Noone's interested in #123, he said.

I am, I replied. I want to know if #123 can finish the Giro (GT of choice) clean.

This doping coup by our esteemable UCI provides a single data point that no, it probably isn't.

 

[snackattack]

Besides its far easier to defend someone when they test + for nandrolone than eop.

The cryptic on that one around Christmas mi hombre amado.