Benotti69 said:
Yeah if she was innocent why did she stop racing? Why didn't she keep training and say it was nothing and keep with her program and race the world championships?
Like Lance, hey, never tested positive but run to the lawyers as soon as it looks like the game is up.
I do not mean this to be insulting. I wonder if you have thought through the exact chain of events. She was training for the worlds, not a routine race. The accusation true or false immediately ruined her mental preparation for an event as big as the worlds. She was a long shot anyway but the legal proceeding added 50 pounds to her head that would be impossible to carry up even the smallest hill.
Longo is the closest thing that women's racing has to a professional. Her results are second to none by a huge margin. The fact that as cycling has become more global and the UCI is still using methods that even a mailman would think are old school are pretty clear.
The best bike racer ever to be a member of the French fed should have been given not only the benefit of the doubt, but modern procedures should be in place that don't allow anybody not even the grande dame of women's racing to come up w BS like I don't have email or a phone. Complete BS from the person saying it and to the person accepting it from a top pro athlete .
There are men and women racers, who are suspended w some pending. The excuse that you can't be reached is stupid . Longo had to ride past 20 places that have interweb access even in the smallest town in Colorado. The feds and teams need to start acting like a professional sport rather than let the press and everybody involved act like it's 1980 and that a French champion is training out in the Bordeaux countryside. Cell and smartphones are the norm, in the US you can get a prepaid phone w 500 minutes for 35 bucks.
Instead of an extra jersey or helmet maybe the federation can give each elite rider a loaner phone to be used to check in everyday before worlds or the Olympics. I am sure there is a cell phone company that would comp 30 or 40 phones w an 8 week shelf life for sponsorship acknowledgement .Or the couple of 1000 dollars it would cost for every member of every team to get a phone would pay for itself.
The shame and stupidity that this incident has brought on the athletes and the federation are worth that much in my opinion . Her 59 French championships and 13 World Championship titles would make the 40 or 50 euros to get her a phone while traveling appear a small cost to avoid the testing no show/contact problem.
If every federation doesn't have a check in 2 or 3 times a week policy for all national team members via email or phone nothing is learned from this fiasco. The UCI drops the ball at every opportunity.
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