goggalor said:
Against better judgment is right. Whitey will be back in cycling before July. He's a natural at toeing the party line.
We do know that he wasn't clean, actually. He was using "leftover EPO" from his USPS days and was chatting to Lance about Aranesp as late as 2001.
Even though I'm unimpressed by their strength of character, it's not so much them making the decision to dope I object to. It's the fact that the ones who made that choice are the ones running pro cycling today, and what's more, they're the ones preaching to the world about antidoping. Vaughters even claims to have dedicated his life to it, it's a ****ing joke.
Maybe, maybe not. You and plenty others seem to believe that people are incapable of change. As a real world example, I would like to point to Northern Ireland politics, a lot of the guys in positions of power now were members of terrorist organisation's responsible for some horrible crimes and killings in the bad old days, some of them even helped plan some of those horrible acts. If you had said 20 years ago these guys would be helping to run the country and sitting opposite their biggest enemies in power sharing government, you would have been laughed out of the place but it is happening. They did what they felt was necessary at the time but have now taken a different path. It's not perfect but its better than what went before.
Secondly, there is a misguided idea that everyone who enter's pro cycling was already using PEDs or prepared to use them once offered when in reality most probably would not have wanted to get involved in such activities but when faced with the reality of the situation, didn't see an alternative other than quit. I am sure most of those guys entering the sport would have preferred a situation where they were not faced with making such a decision. Henceforth is it really that hard to believe that some of them might like to work toward a situation where new-pros are not faced with those decisions regardless of what path they themselves chose.
Paul Kimmage is held up as some sort of saint but he also faced those same choices and he also gave in even if he wasn't in the same league(in doping terms) as JV or Matt White. It is never the black and white case that so many here try to paint it as. That's why I don't get all the bitterness towards dopers, especially those who entered the sport in the 90s/early 00s. I think there was a poll once held in the forum which asked what each poster would have done if faced with the same situation as the guys in the 90s, everyone on EPO and no test. I think most admitted they would likely have gone on the EPO but I would need to find the poll to be sure on this.
I am sure there are guys who doped, benefited from it but still feel regret and likewise there are undoubtedly guys who did the same but couldn't give a rat's *** about what they done and will continue to do so. I am sure there is a spectrum of guys involved in pro cycling with differing attitudes to doping but all I ever see here is certain posters trying to paint ever single doper as being the exact same with the exact same mentality which is silly really.
Like in life, things are neither just black or white.
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