State of the Peloton 2024

[Tim Cahill]

Nairoman just can't catch a break

Soupçons de dopage : le médecin de Nairo Quintna sera jugé en septembre

Le médecin de Nairo Quintana sera jugé en septembre prochain à Marseille. Fredy Alexander Gonzales Torres est soupçonné d’avoir dopé Nairo et Dayer Quintana, alors membres de l’équipe Arkéa-Samsic, lors du Tour de France 2020.

www.letelegramme.fr

The Arkéa-Samsic/Nairo Quintana affair? “An old story,” said, until recently, a figure in the peloton. Many players in French cycling thought that this investigation, opened after a search during the 2020 Tour de France, had yielded nothing. On the contrary. According to our information, Nairo Quintana's doctor, Fredy Alexander Gonzales Torres, will be tried on September 2, 2024, in Marseille.

 

[samhocking]

Should have accepted using Arkea's own Dr rather than bring his own in from Colombia to treat the team. Always seemed a strange thing for Arkea to allow, even though Nibali always used to bring Pantani's Dr with him to each new team iirc, those days should be over.

 

[zlev11]

Franck Bonnamour AGDecathlon provsionnaly suspended because of an Adverse Analytical Finding

Franck Bonnamour (AG2R) voorlopig geschorst na afwijkingen in biologisch paspoort

De internationale wielerunie UCI heeft Franck Bonnamour voorlopig geschorst. Bij de Franse wielrenner van Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale zijn afwijkingen (Adverse Analytical Finding) geconstateerd in zijn biologische paspoort. De UCI wil op dit moment niet uitweiden over verdere details met...

www.wielerflits.nl

first WT biopassport violation in a long time. i have a feeling a lot more of these are coming.

 

[Tim Cahill]

first WT biopassport violation in a long time. i have a feeling a lot more of these are coming.

It's apparently based on an analysis of his 2021 readings, *** knows what the UCI have been doing but they appear to be a bit behind on some paperwork given this and the Rob Stannard case.

His strength was a little sus I suppose but he doesn't even register on the radar of suspicion in comparison with what's going on in cycling at the moment. It's like they've popped someone randomly to make it look legit and keep people on their toes, I doubt anyone is trawling through the data thinking **** come over here and check this Franck Bonnamour character tearing it up for B&B Hotels in a 2021 French vineyard race.

 

[Cookster15]

I am sure he is elite but as I don’t follow decathlon I’ve never heard of Franck Bonnamour. Meanwhile the Tour de France has been won the last two years by a 60 kilogram skeleton with a time trial claimed by his fans to be better than 78 kilogram Miguel Indurain?

 

[Rob5091]

https://www.uci.org/pressrelease/uci-statement-on-franck-bonnamour/5F1MpTZl7GnW90zY9MK9v9
Bonnamour & Baudin are not exactly "Padun" style abnomalies so is someone pointing the finger?
Edit- after reading Mr Ring's excellent description of the process, I'll say we are looking at desperate fools
https://inrng.com/2024/02/frank-bonnamour-provisionally-suspended/

 

[samhocking]

It's apparently based on an analysis of his 2021 readings, *** knows what the UCI have been doing but they appear to be a bit behind on some paperwork given this and the Rob Stannard case.

His strength was a little sus I suppose but he doesn't even register on the radar of suspicion in comparison with what's going on in cycling at the moment. It's like they've popped someone randomly to make it look legit and keep people on their toes, I doubt anyone is trawling through the data thinking **** come over here and check this Franck Bonnamour character tearing it up for B&B Hotels in a 2021 French vineyard race.

Bio passport is being improved all the time and continually retrospectively looking back in time. It might find enough evidence as soon as the rider enters the testing pool turning pro, or in 1 year, or 10 years. It might have a case open on a rider for several years until enough evidence gained to prove a violation.
Some misunderstanding how WADA Results Management works too. No positive riders name is known by UCI, Bio Passport or WADA Labs, it's all nameless until WADA release the notification of a positive / abp violation. UCI have no control other than they map the code to a name to find out who it is for notification. UCI cannot hide a result, because they have to adhere to WADA results management and that means no result can be hidden otherwise UCI would no longer be a WADA signatory and so most-definitely lose Olympic status which is really all UCI have in cycling.

 

[Rob5091]

Interesting that it was 2021 when a certain Dane became a Tour contender.

Talking of Visma, I wonder if Danny Townsend and the Saudi money men will have some clause on people getting busted in their proposed Onecycling circus? As Saudi Arabia executes drug offenders, it would be interesting to read a statement from SRJ on this. (Yeah, I know, I expect a "we will follow all the WADA and UCI norms blah blah blah, but behind the scenes I would expect a "no more money for you!" if a major scandal breaks out)

 

[proffate]

Interesting that it was 2021 when a certain Dane became a Tour contender.

Talking of Visma, I wonder if Danny Townsend and the Saudi money men will have some clause on people getting busted in their proposed Onecycling circus? As Saudi Arabia executes drug offenders, it would be interesting to read a statement from SRJ on this. (Yeah, I know, I expect a "we will follow all the WADA and UCI norms blah blah blah, but behind the scenes I would expect a "no more money for you!" if a major scandal breaks out)

What difference does the Saudi connection make? More money, more incentive to dope. More money, more incentive to cover up doping. This is true across all sports and all sources of money.

And that's starting with the baseline that people will cheat even when there's no monetary incentive whatsoever (masters racing, zwift racing, etc).

 

[Krzysztof_O]

I am sure he is elite but as I don’t follow decathlon I’ve never heard of Franck Bonnamour. Meanwhile the Tour de France has been won the last two years by a 60 kilogram skeleton with a time trial claimed by his fans to be better than 78 kilogram Miguel Indurain?

Rides in strong winds back in Denmark toughened Skeletor up.

Spoiler

 

[hrotha]

Bio passport is being improved all the time and continually retrospectively looking back in time.

[Citation needed]

 

[Ripper]

I am sure he is elite but as I don’t follow decathlon I’ve never heard of Franck Bonnamour. Meanwhile the Tour de France has been won the last two years by a 60 kilogram skeleton with a time trial claimed by his fans to be better than 78 kilogram Miguel Indurain?

Big Mig was torqued up on EPO. Voldimort-fish man believes and is more aero

 

[theyoungest]

I am sure he is elite but as I don’t follow decathlon I’ve never heard of Franck Bonnamour. Meanwhile the Tour de France has been won the last two years by a 60 kilogram skeleton with a time trial claimed by his fans to be better than 78 kilogram Miguel Indurain?

Interesting that it was 2021 when a certain Dane became a Tour contender.

How can I make this about Vingegaard?

 

[Tim Cahill]

They found Quintana brothers DNA on blood transfusion equipment, poor old Dayer has been going to all this trouble and he's still ****ing useless.

 

[search]

Antwan Tolhoek tested positive for anabolic steroids

UCI statement concerning Antwan Tolhoek

www.uci.org

edit: the test took place on November 27th, one day later it was announced that he'd sign for Sabgal / Anicolor

Antwan Tolhoek hoopt in Portugal carrière te herlanceren

Antwan Tolhoek heeft een nieuwe ploeg gevonden. De 29-jarige klimmer kon na anderhalf jaar blessureleed niet rekenen op een langer verblijf bij Lidl-Trek. De Zeeuw slaagde er niet in een contract in de wacht te slepen bij een profploeg en staat op het punt om een contract te tekenen bij een...

www.wielerflits.nl

 

[Tim Cahill]

Phew, the good standing of Team Glassdrive hasn't been sullied on this occasion, long live the Volta!

 

[Bolder]

What difference does the Saudi connection make? More money, more incentive to dope. More money, more incentive to cover up doping. This is true across all sports and all sources of money.

And that's starting with the baseline that people will cheat even when there's no monetary incentive whatsoever (masters racing, zwift racing, etc).

Exactly. Although a general lack of money vis a vis other sports hasn't been a deterrent in the past...

 

[Rackham]

Is it just me or is there a sudden increase in the percentage of riders getting popped? In last few days we've had Franck Bonnamour & now Tolhoek.

It must all be food contaminations. Has to be.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

When was the last time someone was popped for something outside the regular season?

 

[theyoungest]

Is it just me or is there a sudden increase in the percentage of riders getting popped? In last few days we've had Franck Bonnamour & now Tolhoek.

It must all be food contaminations. Has to be.

Given how different these two cases are, it's probably just a coincidence.

Tolhoek has been caught doping before, btw. Well, not exactly doping, but he was suspended by Jumbo because he violated their internal rules. He used a sleeping aid.

 

[samhocking]

[Citation needed]

The obvious one is the addition of the steroidal side to the passport in 2014. Or a couple of years ago all labs were upgraded with machines capable of detecting much smaller levels in blood and so where a null entry would have been made into your passport, it now actually has a reading. While a reading itself might not be above a WADA threshold triggering a provisional suspension, it can be a good indication that doping has happened and so trigger more anti-doping controls on that athlete, more random OOC visits, see patterns in time of day/week/month etc and so build enough evidence for a case that will stand up if it went to CAS.

 

[Escarabajo]

Lopez proof.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms_EzxUlvhQ

Very bad for him!

 

[zlev11]

Lopez proof.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms_EzxUlvhQ

Very bad for him!

can someone translate the gist of what is said in the video?

 

[Rob5091]

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/op...s-are-still-gaming-the-system-a-la-armstrong/

And the case of Ibai Salas has thrown a wrench in the UCI's biological passport system.

Salas was suspended for bio passport abnormalities but had his ban overturned when a judge ruled UCI's biological passport is not a valid method to determine a doping offence.

That gives the UCI a big headache, but now it'll be full gas racing all the time!

 

[proffate]

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/op...s-are-still-gaming-the-system-a-la-armstrong/

That gives the UCI a big headache, but now it'll be full gas racing all the time!

How does a Spanish judge have jurisdiction over the UCI?

Maybe he can't be fired by a Spanish team because of labor laws or something, but I can't see how they could force race promoters or sanctioning bodies in other countries to accept his participation.