Tenerife

[Vino attacks everyone]

Hot chics and banking?

hot chicks? Well, they can't vote yet can they?

 

[ToreBear]

Hot chics and banking?

I was more thinking of the second. There are hot chicks everywhere. Banks that are experts in helping you avoid paying tax, in a country very supportive of such practices is not that common.

 

[Netserk]

Is Lugano the new Tenerife?

Source?

 

[del1962]

Its where all the gold is hidden.

 

[thehog]

I was more thinking of the second. There are hot chicks everywhere. Banks that are experts in helping you avoid paying tax, in a country very supportive of such practices is not that common.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05...-banks-to-sidestep-secrecy-laws/?ref=business

Next stop Qatar.

 

[ToreBear]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05...-banks-to-sidestep-secrecy-laws/?ref=business

Next stop Qatar.

Interesting, thanks! As for Qatar, doubt it. Anyway the deal mentioned in this article is just one small step. Compare it to Pat and Hein fighting doping. They do as little as possible, and only after all other options have been exhausted. The big crush on Switzerland will come when this deal comes through and the EU demands the same thing and measures against tax avoidance.

As for Conti and co. I would think It's not really about tax evasion, it's more about avoidance. But that is also likely to become more difficult in the future.

 

[Ferminal]

How will he survive altitude training at St Moritz or Stelvio?

 

[whittashau]

I read this a few months back in Cameron Wurf's blog about training in Tenerife and thought it might interest some in here:
First he mentions who he saw training there, "Other teams including sky with froome and wiggo, blanco with gesink, katusha with rodriques, and astana with nibali are also here"

Further into the blog he mentioned this:

"Last night the anti doping inspectors arrived to test 3 athletes, Ivan Basso, vincenso nibali and myself. Ok being drug tested is far from a glamorous exercise but I was excited to be being tested along side 2 of the worlds best cyclists and two men a look up to so was in a stupid way an honour to even be in the same room as them all be it for a drug test. Also another great reminder of how sport is an amazing leveller as for that hour or so we were simply 3 athletes being drug tested, fame and greatness of the other 2 asside, we were being treated equally in the process and this equality that sport brings to society, to me is the greatest thing about partaking in it."

No tests for Wiggo and Froome! Conspiracy

 

[Dear Wiggo]

5 teams, at least 2 teams in the same hotel if Wurf is in the same area as Nibali pre-test, but only 3 riders being tested.

I understand the premise of the BP, with its Bayesian + targeted testing protocols, but think this small number of samples being collected seems inefficient.

The large costs for BP are collection and analysis. If you've gone all the way to Tenerife, why not collect samples from everyone? Economies of scale and all that?

I want to coin a new phrase, piggy backing off the concept of "security theatre".

"Anti-doping theatre".

Act & talk like you're anti-doping, but not actually do anything about it.

 

[thehog]

I read this a few months back in Cameron Wurf's blog about training in Tenerife and thought it might interest some in here:
First he mentions who he saw training there, "Other teams including sky with froome and wiggo, blanco with gesink, katusha with rodriques, and astana with nibali are also here"

No tests for Wiggo and Froome! Conspiracy

The regular testers can't test Froome. They don't carry radioactive clothing.

They have to send in the UN inspectors for the Dawg,

 

[42x16ss]

Or this guy

 

[ToreBear]

5 teams, at least 2 teams in the same hotel if Wurf is in the same area as Nibali pre-test, but only 3 riders being tested.

I understand the premise of the BP, with its Bayesian + targeted testing protocols, but think this small number of samples being collected seems inefficient.

The large costs for BP are collection and analysis. If you've gone all the way to Tenerife, why not collect samples from everyone? Economies of scale and all that?

I want to coin a new phrase, piggy backing off the concept of "security theatre".

"Anti-doping theatre".

Act & talk like you're anti-doping, but not actually do anything about it.

We don't know who else was tested. We only know who was tested with Wurf.

Also the point of targeting is that some are tested more than others. One probably has some sort of priority system regarding risk factors which is used.

 

[whittashau]

We don't know who else was tested. We only know who was tested with Wurf.

Also the point of targeting is that some are tested more than others. One probably has some sort of priority system regarding risk factors which is used.

Well, there were three other Cannondale riders there as well. I'm sure Nibbles wasn't the only Astana rider there either. It does seem rather impractical to only test the three.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Test the whole team at once ? Couple of points

It becomes harder to justify the expense of coming back in a few days for a follow-up. Coming back to test just after a prior one is a good way of trying to 'catch someone out', they mentally relax a little after a test. if you watch athletes twitter etc, occasionally you get a comment about being tested again 1-2 days after.

There was also no indication if it was blood, urine or both. And if blood was taken if it was for BP or for other testing. So we for sure have an incomplete picture from that one paragraph.


Secondly, WADA labs tested roughly 250 000 samples in 2010 and 2011 (a little lower in 2011, and these are for all sports). (latest published and audited figures 2012 will be higher due to the Olympic lab running 24 hours during the event analyzing a large number of samples)

The current lab infrastructure simply cannot cope with testing a whole team, every time a team member gets tested.

Now it would be interesting to cost out how much investment would be needed to do this. Some equipment, some increase in personnel (these labs are not staffed 24 hours/day, but for sure some equipment is likely running overnight through automation)

 

[Dear Wiggo]

From articles I have read, it's usually a selection from the team, training for a specific race, not the whole team. Typically 4-5 riders.

Never seen a twitter about being tested again - OOC - 1-2 days later. Ever. Got a link?

You don't have to test the sample. You can grab it and store it.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Never seen a twitter about being tested again - OOC - 1-2 days later. Ever. Got a link?

It was one of the British Swimmers last time I noticed. One of the Sky guys as well. I'll have to go digging, may take a while.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Keri Anne Payne

Feb 28th
https://twitter.com/KeriannePayne/status/307248589304905729
Wow @uk_sport really want my blood! 2 drugs tests in 9 days - I don't mind though, I'm happy to be tested!! #100%me

Feb 19th
https://twitter.com/KeriannePayne/status/303801378936090624
Nothing like a drugs test at 8pm last night to welcome me back home. #100%me


I realie that's not the 1-2 days, but she was the first one I pulled up.

Other searching will have to wait.

(by the way any tips of searching twitter, durn its hard to find an individual tweet from some of these prolific guys and gals)

 

[Dear Wiggo]

(by the way any tips of searching twitter, durn its hard to find an individual tweet from some of these prolific guys and gals)

Twitter sucks. Hard. 140 characters, no useful search that I have ever seen and conversations always displayed in reverse chronological order. Effing *** medium.

 

[DirtyWorks]

I understand the premise of the BP, with its Bayesian + targeted testing protocols, but think this small number of samples being collected seems inefficient.

Two things.

1. For aggregate testing, beyond a certain, pretty low, number of samples, regardless of analysis method, the likelihood there is more useful information declines rapidly. This is well established statistics used for things like meat safety. For individual analysis, you are right. Some more is better.

2. The use of bayesian statistics doesn't get better with infinitely more samples. Bayesian stats needs a population of good and bad samples, but not an enormous one.

The large costs for BP are collection and analysis. If you've gone all the way to Tenerife, why not collect samples from everyone? Economies of scale and all that?

I want to coin a new phrase, piggy backing off the concept of "security theatre".

"Anti-doping theatre".

Act & talk like you're anti-doping, but not actually do anything about it.

Economies of scale don't really apply. Based on my reading, it still needs humans with *very* special training to interpret results. I'm assuming a sports federation would actually pass on positives for expert analysis. We know the UCI doesn't do that with every positive.

Finally, it is anti-doping theater. No doubts.

 

[Galic Ho]

Twitter sucks. Hard. 140 characters, no useful search that I have ever seen and conversations always displayed in reverse chronological order. Effing *** medium.

Facebook and Instagram are so SUPERIOR.

Twitter truly is for twits. Most of that I lay with cyclists and some of the fans.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Tenerifey again

So why are they training in Tenerife ? its not like its cold in Europe !! not like there aren't any mountains there either.

Astana trio injured in training crash on Tenerife

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/astana-trio-injured-in-training-crash-on-tenerife

 

[ToreBear]

So why are they training in Tenerife ? its not like its cold in Europe !! not like there aren't any mountains there either.

Astana trio injured in training crash on Tenerife

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/astana-trio-injured-in-training-crash-on-tenerife

Stable temperature, cheap flights, plenty of hotels, good climbs, nice roads etc. I'm sure you could find some or all of these factors other places in Europe, except for the stable temperature. See this thread for other reasons already mentioned.

 

[Coolair2970]

So why are they training in Tenerife ? its not like its cold in Europe !! not like there aren't any mountains there either.

Astana trio injured in training crash on Tenerife

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/astana-trio-injured-in-training-crash-on-tenerife

I comes down to one word. Altitude

 

[JimmyFingers]

Journal Velo ‏@JournalVelo 15h

Astana are currently training in Tenerife... I must have missed the Tenerife training klaxon or does it only sound for some teams?

 

[maltiv]

So why are they training in Tenerife ? its not like its cold in Europe !! not like there aren't any mountains there either.

Astana trio injured in training crash on Tenerife

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/astana-trio-injured-in-training-crash-on-tenerife

Because Fuglsang is Ferrari's famous "outside bet" for the TDF