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sherer said:never heard Hincapie linked to drugs before. Any links to anything to back that up ?
With the amount of people on the T-Mobile team I can't see one more rider making them pull out seems only Evans with the non drug user they ever had
thehog said:T-Mobile had gone clean and was moving forward with a new regime. Hincapie was then hired and that was enough for T-Mobile. They walked away leaving 13m euros on the table and said "how can we claim to be clean now when you've gone and hired the second biggest drug user in the peleton?"
thehog said:Can someone link the MP3 of LeMond talking to Lance's chic from Oakley? I'll dig out from my files.
T-Mobile had gone clean and was moving forward with a new regime. Hincapie was then hired and that was enough for T-Mobile. They walked away leaving 13m euros on the table and said "how can we claim to be clean now when you've gone and hired the second biggest drug user in the peleton?"
Back in 07 it was a very difficult year for German cycling. German sport in general.
Hincapie to his credit gave away the gear when Puerto busted open.
He's not a bad guy but he knew he had to use to ride like he did.
How the heck so you think he rode on the front of the peleton for an entire Tour de France?
Check out the LeMond-Stephanie McIlvain conversation. It's also in Lance to Landis, though I don't recall where or in what context.sherer said:never heard Hincapie linked to drugs before. Any links to anything to back that up ?
If you believe Evans was/is clean.With the amount of people on the T-Mobile team I can't see one more rider making them pull out seems only Evans with the non drug user they ever had.
Susan Westemeyer said:I would be very interested in knowing your sources for this, if you have any.
Susan
thehog said:Pat McQuaid will tell you. He knows. He let T-Mobile walk away. They spoke to him and told him they would pay for independent drug testing of all teams. He didn't want it. In cycling it's well known about Hincapie & T-Mobile.
thehog said:Pat McQuaid will tell you. He knows. He let T-Mobile walk away. They spoke to him and told him they would pay for independent drug testing of all teams. He didn't want it. In cycling it's well known about Hincapie & T-Mobile.
An extract for you;
In keeping with this philosophy, Stapleton had no qualms about signing fellow American George Hincapie for the coming season. Hincapie, 34, was Lance Armstrong's trusted lieutenant during his series of Tour victories. In 2005, the tall American won the most difficult mountain stage of the Tour, even though he had never excelled as a mountain specialist before. For Telekom, Hincapie was just another image problem, a time bomb because he probably knows a great deal about Armstrong's miraculous trail of victories. But for Stapleton he was a solid rider with a clean record who was willing to conform to the team's anti-doping policies. Despite the company's attempts to convince him to change his mind, Stapleton insisted on hiring Hincapie.
The rift between Stapleton and Telekom had become so wide that the separation had to be painstakingly negotiated. On Nov. 6, the company's board of directors decided to examine ways to get rid of Stapleton immediately. The simplest approach was not an option. Although Stapleton's contract with Telekom included an exit clause, it only applied to a current doping case, of which there were none in November. Stapleton apparently insisted on being paid the full salary to which he would have been entitled until his contract expired: €45 million.
His attorneys hired detectives to interview former riders and company employees in an attempt to obtain incriminating material against Telekom. Their goal was to find out whether Telekom had secretly known about -- and covered up -- widespread doping in the 1990s. But they turned up empty-handed.
Stapleton took his time -- a full three weeks -- before finally signing an agreement with Telekom to dissolve his contract. In the end, the former partners were practically at each other's throats. Officials at Telekom refused to comment on the cost of the separation, but it is likely to have been in the neighborhood of €20-25 million -- a hefty sum to avoid bad publicity.
Kingsley A said:Unfortunately TheHog, you fail to give a source yet again. Much of the info you provide does prove to be true but you can't blame posters for continually referring to 5th Sept. if you don't give your source.
If the material is available on-line then a hyper-link is ideal but if it's in printed media only please state the publication, author, ISBN if appropriate and if possible the edition and page number.
E.g. if your source is De Spiegel, 7th Dec 2007, please state this in your post even if the original article is no longer available on-line or even cached by Google. It will allow those with access to a reference library to verify it.
I would appeal to all posters, on all internet fora, who are posting facts rather than personal opinions to apply at least minimum academic standard with regard to their sources. It makes it easier for the curious to double check and gives more credibility to both the post and poster.
Alpe d'Huez said:Me too. Though I've learned The Hog can be a pretty accurate source for info.
Check out the LeMond-Stephanie McIlvain conversation. It's also in Lance to Landis, though I don't recall where or in what context.
You don't really think George was able to go from a classics like racer, to making huge pulls day after day in the mountains for Lance dropping riders like Gilberto Simoni (2003), to winning a big mountain stage in the Tour (2005) clean, do you?
If you believe Evans was/is clean.
T-Mobile wasn't always that dirty. If you read the full IM between JV and FA, you'll know they at least went through a clean-ish phase during the early 00's. It's likely several of their riders were doped at the time, but privately, and not the fully implemented system they later were believed to have.
It does however seem that George has been riding clean the last couple of years, judging by his riding on the road.
craig1985 said:Like Contador was meant to be joining Garmin and Wiggins joining SKY? Unless he meant for the 2011 season...
Race Radio said:The Hog is only partially correct. Yes, there were certain key executives who were dismayed at the hiring of Hincapie but it was far from the only, or the final reason, that Telekom pulled out. There are actually some key executives who are big fans of George, and yes even Armstrong.
From the summer of 2006 until summer 2007 there was a steady stream of news that Telekom felt was hurting their brand. Putting Heinrich and Schmid, the same doctors who ran the in house doping program, in charge of the inhouse ANTI doping program was a major mistake by Stapleton. The team, once a source of pride, became a daily source of embarrassment. Add to this chaos the fact that after Telekom overpaid for Voicestream and this resulted in Bob earning more then a few enemies within the company.
Race Radio said:The Hog is only partially correct. Yes, there were certain key executives who were dismayed at the hiring of Hincapie but it was far from the only, or the final reason, that Telekom pulled out. There are actually some key executives who are big fans of George, and yes even Armstrong.
From the summer of 2006 until summer 2007 there was a steady stream of news that Telekom felt was hurting their brand. Putting Heinrich and Schmid, the same doctors who ran the in house doping program, in charge of the inhouse ANTI doping program was a major mistake by Stapleton. The team, once a source of pride, became a daily source of embarrassment. Add to this chaos the fact that after Telekom overpaid for Voicestream and this resulted in Bob earning more then a few enemies within the company.
thehog said:I didn't say Hincapie was the sole reason but it was the final straw that broke the camel's back. His doping was well known to the cycling insiders.
T-Mobile wanted Jaschke and Sinkewitz back at T-Mobile after their respective 1 year bans and to trumpet the "all German clean team". Stapleton wanted to become the "all American clean team" and that didn't gel with the suits.
T-Mobile went to McQuaid and told him that they were going to make the super clean team and he wished them luck. They also said they would set up a fund for ProTour wide dope tests. To be fair to the Irishman its a conflict having a sponser funding dope testing and McQuaid knocked it on the head.
However when McQuaid heard that T-Mobile wanted to rehire Jaschke so he cut them loose. He had already met with Jaschke and had told him that if spoke to media who would never ride again. Which he made sure of - ref: Tinkoff.
Jorg is happy now ripping the legs of the USA U23 team in Italy. He looks after them and trains them well.