"On the Juice" to "On the Wagon" to "Back to the Juice"

[Gung Ho Gun]

Andy was already awful in the early part of 2012 before Frank got caught and before the injury
Could be that he just lost motivation, he seemed to have mental issues and also didn't seem to enjoy racing that much
Apart from 1 Lombardia, his results were abysmal in the few races he did after a GT in a season
Maybe he even lost the motivation to dope

 

[vedrafjord]

Yeah I think Andy's fall goes a lot further than dope/no dope - even when he was at his best he seemed brittle and flaky, like in the 2011 Tour stage into Gap when he gave up a minute without a fight. He had a teammate killed in a crash, he lost his big bro to a ban, he was full of resentment after chaingate, there was the alleged heavy drinking. There was an odd comment from him during the spring about a year before he retired, something like "if the weather is nice this Sunday I'll go out and start training for the Tour" which suggested he was skipping training big time and making excuses. You can have all the juice in the world, you still have to train.

 

[blackcat]

Interested in the Schlek comment. What actually happened with his comeback and why didn't he get back to previous form ? Its not as if others had stopped performing. Comments at the time from GLM and Kelly et al on Eurosport called out without spelling it out that his previous performances were suspect- but why didnt he revert ?
Was he scared after Frank ? Was it down to not wanting to get caught because he was in a team where surely the correct programme was offered just not accepted. hence not performing at all.
I suppose what I did find strange at the time was how he was shot at for performing as he did. It could have actually been how a clean rider should perform and could have been the benchmark for how much others were doping- but rather than take that approach people decided to take pot shots (not all unjustified) instead of looking at who he was finishing with etc if of course he finished.

premise is cycling is an easy game.

this starts from the flawed premise.

you need to be working at 100%. Even 99% is not enough.

just p'raps, Andy likes the alcohol self-medication tonic. P'raps that was no coincidence he is partying with Stuey Mate. Is Stuey Mate capitalised. Or just "Stuey mate"? How about an in-between Stuey m8.

And Andy needs a full rocket fuel mental hospital full-ret@rd doping program. Just sayin', someone may have the backchannel insight. Who availed me.

 

[Maxiton]

Interested in the Schlek comment. What actually happened with his comeback and why didn't he get back to previous form ? Its not as if others had stopped performing. Comments at the time from GLM and Kelly et al on Eurosport called out without spelling it out that his previous performances were suspect- but why didnt he revert ?
Was he scared after Frank ? Was it down to not wanting to get caught because he was in a team where surely the correct programme was offered just not accepted. hence not performing at all.
I suppose what I did find strange at the time was how he was shot at for performing as he did. It could have actually been how a clean rider should perform and could have been the benchmark for how much others were doping- but rather than take that approach people decided to take pot shots (not all unjustified) instead of looking at who he was finishing with etc if of course he finished.

premise is cycling is an easy game.

this starts from the flawed premise.

you need to be working at 100%. Even 99% is not enough.

just p'raps, Andy likes the alcohol self-medication tonic. P'raps that was no coincidence he is partying with Stuey Mate. Is Stuey Mate capitalised. Or just "Stuey mate"? How about an in-between Stuey m8.

And Andy needs a full rocket fuel mental hospital full-ret@rd doping program. Just sayin', someone may have the backchannel insight. Who availed me.

Bingo. Bingo. Could be right about the alcohol bit, too.

 

[blackcat]

Interested in the Schlek comment. What actually happened with his comeback and why didn't he get back to previous form ? Its not as if others had stopped performing. Comments at the time from GLM and Kelly et al on Eurosport called out without spelling it out that his previous performances were suspect- but why didnt he revert ?
Was he scared after Frank ? Was it down to not wanting to get caught because he was in a team where surely the correct programme was offered just not accepted. hence not performing at all.
I suppose what I did find strange at the time was how he was shot at for performing as he did. It could have actually been how a clean rider should perform and could have been the benchmark for how much others were doping- but rather than take that approach people decided to take pot shots (not all unjustified) instead of looking at who he was finishing with etc if of course he finished.

premise is cycling is an easy game.

this starts from the flawed premise.

you need to be working at 100%. Even 99% is not enough.

just p'raps, Andy likes the alcohol self-medication tonic. P'raps that was no coincidence he is partying with Stuey Mate. Is Stuey Mate capitalised. Or just "Stuey mate"? How about an in-between Stuey m8.

And Andy needs a full rocket fuel mental hospital full-ret@rd doping program. Just sayin', someone may have the backchannel insight. Who availed me.

Bingo. Bingo. Could be right about the alcohol bit, too.

 

[Maxiton]

Interested in the Schlek comment. What actually happened with his comeback and why didn't he get back to previous form ? Its not as if others had stopped performing. Comments at the time from GLM and Kelly et al on Eurosport called out without spelling it out that his previous performances were suspect- but why didnt he revert ?
Was he scared after Frank ? Was it down to not wanting to get caught because he was in a team where surely the correct programme was offered just not accepted. hence not performing at all.
I suppose what I did find strange at the time was how he was shot at for performing as he did. It could have actually been how a clean rider should perform and could have been the benchmark for how much others were doping- but rather than take that approach people decided to take pot shots (not all unjustified) instead of looking at who he was finishing with etc if of course he finished.

premise is cycling is an easy game.

this starts from the flawed premise.

you need to be working at 100%. Even 99% is not enough.

just p'raps, Andy likes the alcohol self-medication tonic. P'raps that was no coincidence he is partying with Stuey Mate. Is Stuey Mate capitalised. Or just "Stuey mate"? How about an in-between Stuey m8.

And Andy needs a full rocket fuel mental hospital full-ret@rd doping program. Just sayin', someone may have the backchannel insight. Who availed me.

Bingo. Bingo. Could be right about the alcohol bit, too.

The hand sanitizer and jug of wine are especially nice touches.