Nathan12 said:
Not really. Wiggins was happy to criticise dopers pre-2009. It wouldn't be career suicide- Wiggins is at the end of his road racing career, he's never going to ride for Tinkoff-Saxo. Again- he was happy to make these poor career choices in 2007. But something changed.
In fact, it was when his road career was at its most precarious that he was happy to speak out. Now he's a member of the elite, he's omerta. Ironic, that. And unsurprising.
To be fair, pre 2009 he had a damn sight less to lose. It's a bit easier to risk your road career when you barely have one and the welcoming track program is sitting waiting for you. After 2009 he's won Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket. rather harder to give up.
But let's be clear here. I think he is an absolute a***, period; he was certainly an absolute a*** to say what he said, despite my own strong contempt for Landis-lauding; it may or may not have been intended to reinforce omerta, but that was the effect, and he must have known it would be the effect - indeed, in his later 'mea culpa', he more or less admitted omerta with the whole "p!ssing out, p!ssing in, being in the gang" comments.
Along time ago now, God it seems a long time anyway, I made the point that the 2007 comments were never IMHO the anti-doping manifesto that Kimmage for example saw them to be or wanted them to be. It was just typical Wiggins, lashing out at whoever or whatever was ****ing him off that day - in that instance, his own Cofidis teammate f***ing things up for the team. Or later the 'bone idle w^nkers' or 'disloyal Froome' or the "[Armstrong] can **** off" from his last book.
Wiggins clearly became very chummy with Armstrong in 2009, having previously, by his own admition, been a fan. I doubt LA complemented JV much. I would be interested to know what Armstrong said to him. Did doping ever get discussed? Did Armstrong spin him an "they all did it then, but it's a cleaner peloton now" line? Or did he suggest some good dope? How much did JV and the boys tell Wiggins? Specifics? Generalities? did they confess their own wrongdoing to? And what did those same guys tell him about Landis?
I'm much less concerned with whether he SOUNDS anti-doping as to whether he's a doper. The answer to that question is not found in the Landis Armstrong debacle IMHO, no more than in protestations of innocence in pressers. They might, just might be found in further investigations of Leinders, Yates, Sutton and De Jongh.
I note this morning Contador praising the De Jongh-Sky method to the heavens. It co-incides with a huge Contador return to form. That's not an accident. De Jongh, who suggested and vouched for Leinders to Sky. And yet nobody, NOBODY, seems to be talking to De Jongh since his 'confession'.
Now, there's two possibilities I see with that -
1. De Jongh was one way or another at the heart of the Sky doping program, learnt the new tricks and has taken them to Tinkoff-Saxo, when Berti has proved to be responder.
2. De Jongh learnt the new clean methods that have helped to give Sky superiority in stage racing, and has taken them to an appreciative Contador, who is now driven to get back his old glory.
And the truth, of course, is I don't have a baldy notion which of these is true. Indeed, there may be a third or forth less obvious option that turns out to be the truth, I don't know. But I have yet to hear of anybody colloring De Jongh about Leinders.