Paul Sherwen exposed as doper

[gillan1969]

Re: Re:

This diary, if authentic, is the proof that Sherwen was on a team-sponsored doping programme for his national championship victories and other races.

It doesn't read like that to me. It looks like they paid solicitors fees in relation to his first positive test, but the team manager is saying he doesn't think they should be coughing up for the second infringement. That doesn't sound like team sponsored doping, more like Sherwen was doing his own thing and the manager was annoyed he got caught twice and expected the team to help him sort it out.

All depends on how one defines sponsored. I'd call this case more team condoned than sponsored - Paul was expected to test negative, not be clean. The troubling part was that immediately after the positives he became manager, most likely then transmitting the same expectations to those then racing.

Basically a part of the corrupt cycling system, and now doing play by play on it - knowing exactly what is underneath the surface.

Paul, since you are probably reading this, perhaps you might answer what exactly you tested positive for, why you got cleared and how in heavens name you failed the IQ test twice in such short a time.

Sherwen had just come back fro the continent..back in the day there was a bit of 'us and them' with the continentals expected to be a level up..I would imagine Sherwen would have his own continental program which he needed to do his job over there....but which might allow him a moment or two of glory in UK. Certainly th idea of a Brit team having a program which a continental pro would drop into seems fanciful....besides back then it was slap on the wrist...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

The Northamptonshire race was almost certainly a town-centre criterium in Northampton itself. Back then British pros rode little else. (The Northampton round was sponsored by Michelin in 1985, there is even a clip on YouTube!)...
I think the 'Gala RR' was another criterium, held in Southport. The Southport Gala races were a long standing fixture on the calendar, held at the end of the season...
Porth is actually Porthcawl, Bridgend in south Wales, near Cardiff. The same event was won by Phil Thomas in 1986, then riding for ANC Halfords.

Bravo!
So within a matter of hours, four of the five races have already been identified, and no one can deny the authenticity of the diary. Let it never be said that I lack faith in the prescience and acuity of the Clinicians. Okay, so here we have :

1986 British National championships (Sherwen busted for doping)
1987 Porthcawl crit
1987 Northampton crit, 19/06/1987 (Sherwen busted again for the second time in less than a year)
1987 Southport Gala Road Race

But how about "Westminster", do you agree that was Stage Five of the 1987 Tour of Britain, or ... did Paul Sherwen not ride the Tour of Britain that year? In the video, Phil Liggett said explicitly that the leaders were sprinting for prize money, but I don't see Sherwen among them

And then, Sherwen was caught positive for which drugs?
Erythropoetin was not on the scene, there were no tests for transfusions, of course not blood doping.
Steven Rooks said a lot of guys in those years (including himself) were on both testosterone and amphetamine ...

- Luigi

In 1987 there's also the Eastbourne-London one day race (won by Shane Sutton) but I can't find anything on where that finished or who else was riding, as most of what I know about British cycling in that era is related to the Open races with the Poles and Soviets competing, such as the Milk Race and the Sealink Race. There's also the Archer GP in April - finding out about whether Paul and his team were involved at that might be a little easier as Darryl Webster was on the podium there so might be able to shed some light on it for us.

However, bearing in mind the other races, it seems most likely (by far) that we're talking about this race - don't have the date, but it's a 1987 criterium in Westminster won by Steve Jones for ANC-Halfords, which looks to be part of the series Robert21 referenced.

 

[Robert21]

Re: Re:

However, bearing in mind the other races, it seems most likely (by far) that we're talking about this race - don't have the date, but it's a 1987 criterium in Westminster won by Steve Jones for ANC-Halfords, which looks to be part of the series Robert21 referenced.

I think you are right. Impressive sleuthing!

 

[sniper]

Echoes from the past, lol!
There are more such echoes in the pez interview I linked in the OP.

 

[BYOP88]

Re: Re:

...........had sherwen...not already been replaced?

Both Liggett and Sherwen were replaced for ITV coverage of this summer's Tour de France
They will still do commentary for other networks.

How about a list of current commentators, who are former confirmed doper cyclists?
Millar, Vande Velde, Jalabert .. Sherwen ....
I'm sure there are others which are not coming to mind right now

Andreu springs to mind.

 

[Benotti69]

Re: Re:

...........had sherwen...not already been replaced?

Both Liggett and Sherwen were replaced for ITV coverage of this summer's Tour de France
They will still do commentary for other networks.

How about a list of current commentators, who are former confirmed doper cyclists?
Millar, Vande Velde, Jalabert .. Sherwen ....
I'm sure there are others which are not coming to mind right now

Andreu springs to mind.

Kelly on Eurosport.

Doesn't Stephen Roche commentate for French Eurosport.

It is why i dont think there are clean WT riders nowadays. No one in the sport wants them. They make these guys look bad never mind current riders.

 

[sniper]

Boogerd. Ducrot.

 

[Puckfiend]

Bob Rolle

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Kelly on Eurosport. Doesn't Stephen Roche commentate for French Eurosport.

Kelly for amphetamine in 1984 and codeine in 1988. I don't find his explanations for those believable.
Roche for erythropoetin in 1993. He apparently has never admitted to this

Nine formerly doped riders now involved in current cycling commentary in 2016 =

Andreu
Boogerd
Ducrot
Jalabert
Kelly
Millar
Roche
Sherwen
Vande Velde

Umm, this looks like a sport in which athletes can win by doping, then get paid for it some more after they retire from racing. Pension plan

That list of nine is skewed towards English-language and French-language commentators. There must be more on TV stations broadcasting in other European languages, which I don't watch
Maybe this subject should have its own thread

Who cares except for 5 posters in The Clinic - Some must have little excitement in their life if this is an issue.

 

[sniper]

Re: Re:

Excitement issues pertain to those who come, read and post on topics they're not interested in.

 

[HarryTheHedgehog]

Re:

Cool, so Paul went from doping in 1987 to managing the same team he doped on in 1988. Nice way to pass along the knowledge. And grew up in Kenya.

And, here is a Wiki jem on Cookson and Mark Bell, part of the same Raleigh team as Paul:

Brian Cookson, later president of the Union Cycliste Internationale, said: "I remember, as a commissaire, following Mark throughout his successful breakaway to win the national pro road race title in 1986, when he simply rode away from some of the greatest names in the sport."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Bell_(cyclist)

The potential narratives are starting to string together for me. Sherwin meets Cookson the commissionaire in the late 80s, forms a connection, perhaps over failed drug tests resolved over pint in a pub, then 25 years later along comes a Kenyan born cyclist who gets a chance with sky. Rather than tossing him away with other failed domestiques, is it possible Paul and Brian saw a story they could sell and tell, then had experiments done with different juices and voila, alien was born. Of course this is complete conjecture, but given this is cycling, lord knows.

RIP Mark, havent thought of him for a while

 

[L'arriviste]

Re: Re:

Cool, so Paul went from doping in 1987 to managing the same team he doped on in 1988.

indeed.
it's funny how the most vigorous dopers tend to stick around and have long careers in cycling.

underwhelming?
paul is underwhelming.
failed the IQ test twice. Double facepalm.

Time for Dopeology.org to update the Raleigh files.

I also saw the scanned document on the FB group that someone else mentioned but it would require some published sources to attach to the name. The provenance of the document was pretty solid, as has been noted, but it has since been withdrawn by the originator and the media hasn't taken an interest in it.

FWIW, people do write in from time to time with he-said-she-said stuff and I can't act on it for lack of published sources. Conversely, I get occasional emails from individuals named in media reports who can show that they were dropped from official enquiries before the ink had even dried on the story. The correlation between such emails and the outcomes of the transfer season does tend to suggest that nowadays, unlike say in 2011, some teams do a bit of Googling before hiring people.

 

[sniper]

Cheers, l'arriviste.
I see the problems of including it.

btw, didn't know it was your website. Big props for that. I love it. It's user friendly, and really close to being exhaustive as far as I can tell, with some excellent links to smaller hard-to-find press releases, etc. Stellar work.