ianfra said:
Guilt by association? You'd only get condemned for that in a fascist state! There is no evidence that he associated with GL for two years. GL was employed on a freelance basis and is said to have only worked for 80 days (I think). So cut that 2 years down to 80 days. Which days? Where was Wiggins? In his bedroom? The brief thesis advanced by Bexon is very weak!
80 days was what his contract was for per year. He worked 67 days in 2011, and 44 of his allotted days in 2012 before he was placed under investigation in July.
My source?
David Walsh.
Here's an interesting section.
David Walsh said:
Peters understood track racing and its world but on that October day in 2010, he knew little aboutprofessional road cycling. He didn’t know about Rabobank, the cycling team Leinders had been withfrom 1996 to 2009, and didn’t ask Leinders what he knew about the team’s Michael Rasmussen being withdrawn while leading the Tour de France on suspicion of doping. Neither did he ask what breachof “internal rules” had led to Thomas Dekker being kicked off the team.“I could have grilled him and grilled him but when someone assures you that he has not beeninvolved in doping, that doesn’t seem appropriate,” says Peters. After Peters’ interview, Leinders was then interviewed by Freeman, who quizzed him on his medicalskills and was impressed. Peters and Freeman recommended Leinders be hired and Brailsford offereda contract that meant he could be asked to work for up to 80 days in 2011. He worked 67 days forTeam Sky that year and was liked by the riders for his ability and admired by the management for hisprofessionalism.Peters insists he was scrupulously ethical in his time with Sky. “We agreed as a team that if a rider,suffering from asthma, got into trouble with pollen we would pull him out of the race rather thanapply for a therapeutic use exemption on his behalf. Once, one of our riders was in this situation andthe doctor got in touch with me and asked if we could get an exemption because the guy was in a bad way but was very keen to finish the race.“Using my discretion, I said ‘OK’. It was Geert who rang me afterwards to tell me I was wrong.‘We’ve got to have consistency,’ he said.” Leinders had worked 44 of his 80-day contract in 2012 whenTheo de Rooy, former directeur sportif at Rabobank, did an interview with journalist Mark Miserusfor the Dutch newspaper de Volksrant. De Rooy said there had been a doping programme atRabobank and that Leinders had been part of it.Brailsford asked for an explanation and Leinders claimed de Rooy’s words had been misinterpretedand insisted he, Leinders, had not been part of any doping programme. Sky’s boss judged that to keephim on while this allegation was being investigated would damage the reputation of the team.Leinders’ contract was paid up for 2012 and he was told the team would not use him again.
So actually, Leinders worked for 111 days for Team Sky over a period of 22 months. And do you remember that when Cyclingnews asked Brailsford about how the investigation into Leinders' past was going at the World Championships - that's two and a half months after the Tour de France - Brailsford
ran away? So this hardly fits with the below:
ianfra said:
And once he had been exposed to Sky they got rid of him. Sadly it seems that he didn't reveal his dubious history when recruited ........ People mislead others quite often when they want a job! So I see nothing at all sinister in this, unless off course, you are trying to scratch around and make a case .....
Naturally he misled, but it does therefore make the case that something is amiss here, because attention to detail is one of Dave Brailsford's mantras, and when recruiting a doctor for a Pro Cycling team that's been in the pro péloton for a year, you'd think having somebody present at the interview who had heard of one of the biggest road cycling teams in the world might have been a prerequisite, just from the common sense point of view: if you want somebody who's good at fulfilling a role based on road cycling based on his 20 years of experience in the sport, you wouldn't leave the interview process to a guy whose knowledge of pro cycling didn't extend to knowing who Rabobank were. That ain't good attention to detail, folks. Brailsford himself admitted recruitment vetting wasn't rigorous enough - which might explain how guys like Mick Rogers got in.
It then makes attention to detail completely redundant as a mantra, as it's evident that it is not exercised.
mikehammer67 said:
he didn't live up to his hype
so he got sidelined and was only used for 40 days in the end
See above.
hrotha said:
I'm DYING to speak of Santambrogio, Evans's former trusty domestique for those times when he couldn't make it with the top 40 guys on a climb, but there's no thread for him. We need a general Giro thread or something.
Taken off the road by BMC in 2010, too, part of the reason Evans' team at that Giro was so embarrassingly weak.
Dalakhani said:
Looks like Wiggins will continue his streak of having never won a stage race without the help of Leinders.
2009 Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Sure, it was decided almost entirely by the time trial, and Garmin were by far the strongest team in the race, but as far as I can tell Geert Leinders didn't work for Garmin-Slipstream.