Riis autobiography...

[Benotti69]

anyone bothered to buy it and read his details of his years of PED use?

Amazing that someone can be so open about their PED use and still be in the sport and in charge of a team too without any sanction whatsoever.

I am sure there is going to more written on this, but his quote on CN here that;

"As riders, we didn’t look on it as doping. We didn’t see it as something forbidden, but rather as preparation, and if you wanted to be in the running for the top positions and contracts, there was no way around it. ‘Everybody’ felt like there was no choice, so I had to do it too. So, I had no real guilt.”

seems the way riders react today to positives that not much has changed.

 

[Finbouy]

I'll read it so long as it tells us about the races he entered and how he trained. If it's full of "he said, she said" and PED, then no.

 

[Kodiak]

Ssdd.........

 

[scribe]

anyone bothered to buy it and read his details of his years of PED use?

Amazing that someone can be so open about their PED use and still be in the sport and in charge of a team too without any sanction whatsoever.

I am sure there is going to more written on this, but his quote on CN here that;

"As riders, we didn’t look on it as doping. We didn’t see it as something forbidden, but rather as preparation, and if you wanted to be in the running for the top positions and contracts, there was no way around it. ‘Everybody’ felt like there was no choice, so I had to do it too. So, I had no real guilt.”

seems the way riders react today to positives that not much has changed.

In a sport full of people who have used substances for competition, it makes no sense to not promote a dialog about what happened/is happening. To punish them continues the pattern of denial and suspicion.

 

[Berzin]

Riis is probably going to be honest about what the realities of the pro peloton were when he rode in his biography. Finally we get to hear exactly what happened back in those days.

And the fact that he holds such a high status in today's peloton is indicative of the rot that has enveloped pro cycling. Nothing new under the sun here.

But I find him to be a very complex and intelligent person, doping history aside. I found him to be a very engaging figure when I watched the cycling documentary "Overcoming".

 

[Christian]

“I’m not aiming to make others responsible for my actions or place guilt on others. Nobody forced me, there were no requirements, I was not put under any pressure. It was my own choice.

“As riders, we didn’t look on it as doping. We didn’t see it as something forbidden, but rather as preparation, and if you wanted to be in the running for the top positions and contracts, there was no way around it. ‘Everybody’ felt like there was no choice, so I had to do it too. So, I had no real guilt.”

No one pressured me, except I had to do it cause everyone did it. It was my own choice, but there was no choice. Therefore, I was never guilty.

wtf?! Bjarne is making less and less sense these days.

 

[Berzin]

No one pressured me, except I had to do it cause everyone did it. It was my own choice, but there was no choice. Therefore, I was never guilty.

wtf?! Bjarne is making less and less sense these days.

Let the man say his piece. The judgment call on his character/morals is really beside the point at this stage. Besides, like it or not he is stating the collective mindset of riders back then.

Now we know what the mentality was that made PED use such a casual and matter-of-fact endeavor. As far as I'm concerned he is giving us a spotlight into a world many conjecture about but very few know of.

I for one applaud his efforts.

 

[Magnus]

No one pressured me, except I had to do it cause everyone did it. It was my own choice, but there was no choice. Therefore, I was never guilty.

wtf?! Bjarne is making less and less sense these days.

I think it makes perfect sense.

When he was a rider he had to dope if he wanted to stay in the sport and at that point in time he didn't feel guilty because everybody was doing it. There was no choice IF he wanted to stay in the sport at the highest level.

Now he acknowledge that he is responsible for his actions and that it was his own choice to dope and stay in the sport as opposed to not doping and leaving.

 

[JPM London]

anyone bothered to buy it and read his details of his years of PED use?

Can't quite figure if you're writing in the past tense or the current here, but I think the book is only just coming out next week, so the only poeple able to have read it would prob be journos. Anyway, I'd love to read it - not much of this stuff around; riders detailing what went on back then. It's mainly people telling stories about what other people did and how horrible everybody else is. Nice with someone saying "this is what and how I did it, it's nobody else's fault".

I'll read it so long as it tells us about the races he entered and how he trained. If it's full of "he said, she said" and PED, then no.

There shouldn't be any he said/she said. Since his admission in 07 Riis has been adamant only detailing his own actions. For the same reason I don't think we'll get to know where he got his juice from - only thing I'm fairly certain of is that it wasn't Cecchini although a lot people claims this.

I'd expect the book to detail a lot of his races, training and all the other stuff from his pro life and after - it wouldn't be a book just about doping. I think he only brings in the doping to give a full picture.

No one pressured me, except I had to do it cause everyone did it. It was my own choice, but there was no choice. Therefore, I was never guilty.

wtf?! Bjarne is making less and less sense these days.

Uhm, that's pretty much what he has been saying all along. And it does make sense. He wanted to win, there was only one way of doing that and it was his choice to do it. I think it's refreshing for one of the 90's riders to not play the victim card, but own up to how the game was played. I think it's also refreshing that he doesn't feel the need to point fingers at any one else, but merely note what is common knowledge - that almost all riders were on EPO, cortisone and so on.

 

[Trek1000]

What I cannot understand is all of Riis career involved unbelievable doping. Racing and training all surronded by doping.

Training and racing without all that doping is totally different at this level. He couldn't possibly understand what it would be like to recover without epo.

His sport was totally different. I mean he would never have had problems with recovery.

His sport was a different beast.

 

[Magnus]

What I cannot understand is all of Riis career involved unbelievable doping. Racing and training all surronded by doping.

Training and racing without all that doping is totally different at this level. He couldn't possibly understand what it would be like to recover without epo.

His sport was totally different. I mean he would never have had problems with recovery.

His sport was a different beast.

According to his own confessions he didn't start doing EPO until 1993. I see no reason to believe that he used unbelievable doping until that time point.

 

[JPM London]

What I cannot understand is all of Riis career involved unbelievable doping. Racing and training all surronded by doping.

Training and racing without all that doping is totally different at this level. He couldn't possibly understand what it would be like to recover without epo.

His sport was totally different. I mean he would never have had problems with recovery.

His sport was a different beast.

Huh? He started dope in 93 - at that time he had been a pro for years. He stopped doping in 98, prob when he flushed his epo during the Tour, but he continued racing until 2000 - or was it 2001?

 

[Magnus]

Huh? He started dope in 93 - at that time he had been a pro for years. He stopped doping in 98, prob when he flushed his epo during the Tour, but he continued racing until 2000 - or was it 2001?

I think he stopped his career after his crash in the 99 TdS.

 

[webvan]

Since he apparently transitioned from "old school doping" (never turned a donkey into a champ to quote Hinault) to "full package doping" (that turned donkeys into champs according to Fignon) in the 90s, something Fignon says he didn't do (although people in the know didn't believe him and being one of the best paid cyclists he had access to all he wanted, he was just worn out) it could be interesting...if he doesn't sugarcoat is that is.

 

[JPM London]

Since he apparently transitioned from "old school doping" (never turned a donkey into a champ to quote Hinault) to "full package doping" (that turned donkeys into champs according to Fignon) in the 90s, something Fignon says he didn't do (although people in the know didn't believe him and being one of the best paid cyclists he had access to all he wanted, he was just worn out) it could be interesting...if he doesn't sugarcoat is that is.

I don't think he would sugar coat it - rather just say nothing. He's sort of the quiet type, wouldn't you say?

 

[webvan]

Err...he may be shy but he wrote a book, my point was that it would be interesting to read his thoughts on the old and the new programs, like with the old one I was an average joe and with the new one I won the TDF!

 

[Christian]

he is giving us a spotlight into a world many conjecture about but very few know of.

You mean this comes as an epiphany to you: everyone doped in the '90s? I think most people didn't need Bjarne Riis to tell them that.

I think it's refreshing for one of the 90's riders to not play the victim card

He may not play the victim card but I feel like he does play the peer pressure card. He also doesn't assume full personal responsibility for his actions when he says "I was not guilty". Who else was guilty then?

Almost everyone speeds on the highway from time to time but when you do, you know it's against the law, and when you get caught, you know you're guilty.

 

[Magnus]

He may not play the victim card but I feel like he does play the peer pressure card. He also doesn't assume full personal responsibility for his actions when he says "I was not guilty". Who else was guilty then?

I think it's a "Das Ding an sich/das Ding für mich" kind of question.

He assumes full responsibility for his actions but to him it didn't feel as if he was doing something wrong.

 

[buckwheat]

Where are the profits going?

 

[sniper]

Almost everyone speeds on the highway from time to time but when you do, you know it's against the law, and when you get caught, you know you're guilty.

..indeed...

Plus, the fact that Riis was allowed back into the peloton allows him to play whatever card he wants, except the "all cards on the table"-card. Wonder what he would have written if he'd been excluded from the peloton (which, for crying out loud, he should have been).
The way things are now, he has too much to loose, and his "it was my choice" card is too comfortable... pleases all those who pretend to be interested in a clean sport but aren't really.

 

[Bilirubin]

I like what Riis says here:

“The book will tell my story, my truth,” he said. “I’m not aiming to make others responsible for my actions or place guilt on others. Nobody forced me, there were no requirements, I was not put under any pressure. It was my own choice.

“There are certainly some people who will argue that the book lacks some information about ‘all the others.’ But that is quite deliberate. It’s not a gossip book.”

Compare this to Landis. Landis admits that he first approached Bruyneel with the idea of doping. He was a doping volunteer. But instead of manning up and taking responsibility for his actions, he tries to bring down as many other people as he can to discract from his own decision, knowing full well the outside world won't understand the culture of the sport at the time.

Riis shows the right way on how to come clean.

 

[sniper]

I like what Riis says here:



Compare this to Landis. Landis admits that he first approached Bruyneel with the idea of doping. He was a doping volunteer. But instead of manning up and taking responsibility for his actions, he tries to bring down as many other people as he can to discract from his own decision, knowing full well the outside world won't understand the culture of the sport at the time.

Riis shows the right way on how to come clean.

makes quite a difference whether you're allowed back into the peloton with open arms (Riis) or not (Landis). Why would Riis be poo-ing where he eats?

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

I like what Riis says here:



Compare this to Landis. Landis admits that he first approached Bruyneel with the idea of doping. He was a doping volunteer. But instead of manning up and taking responsibility for his actions, he tries to bring down as many other people as he can to discract from his own decision, knowing full well the outside world won't understand the culture of the sport at the time.

Riis shows the right way on how to come clean.

Of course ignoring the fact who the UCI let hang onto their career...

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

Beat me to it, Sniper...

 

[roundabout]

Riis would have probably kept on denying to this very day had D'hont published a book without mentioning names.

While it might save Riis from potential legal problems, it's the same thing as it was during his days as a rider and certainly not the right way.