The most pro doping article since the 1990s?

[Danskebjerge]

The Danish newspaper B.T. just published a story about Mattias Skjelmose.

The article in brief:
Lance Armstrong praises Mattias Skjelmose
Mattias Skjelmose praises Lance Armstrong
Bjarne Riis praises Mattias Skjelmose
Mattias Skjelmose praises his manager Kim Andersen.

All four men have a doping past - some more than others. What is perhaps even more remarkable is that B.T. has hired Armstrong and Riis as this year's Tour de France experts.

Apparently, everything is reset when it comes to doping - we're back in the 1990s.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Are you sure you are not exaggerating? This sounds quite unbelievable. I couldn‘t find the article but my two minutes of research indicate that B.T. is quite the sensationalist piece of media. Hiring Armstrong as a commentator for no particular reason is a very strange choice to me.

 

[Nick2413]

The Danish newspaper B.T. just published a story about Mattias Skjelmose.

The article in brief:
Lance Armstrong praises Mattias Skjelmose
Mattias Skjelmose praises Lance Armstrong
Bjarne Riis praises Mattias Skjelmose
Mattias Skjelmose praises his manager Kim Andersen.

All four men have a doping past - some more than others. What is perhaps even more remarkable is that B.T. has hired Armstrong and Riis as this year's Tour de France experts.

Apparently, everything is reset when it comes to doping - we're back in the 1990s.

What is Skjelmose’s doping past?

 

[Martinstranger]

He failed a test when he was 17.

They presumed it was through nutritional supplements and he was not aware of it. Therefore only a light sentence as i remember it.

 

[Danskebjerge]

He failed a test when he was 17.

They presumed it was through nutritional supplements and he was not aware of it. Therefore only a light sentence as i remember it.

True. And his big idol is Lance Armstrong (biggest doper of all time), while his mentor is Kim Andersen (several doping cases in his active career).

 

[Danskebjerge]

Are you sure you are not exaggerating? This sounds quite unbelievable. I couldn‘t find the article but my two minutes of research indicate that B.T. is quite the sensationalist piece of media. Hiring Armstrong as a commentator for no particular reason is a very strange choice to me.

B.T. wrote some good investigative articles about doping some ten years ago. It's not "sensationalist" in the sense that it is an uncritical news site. But I guess they might think that it generates traffic to have famous people in their articles, and Armstrong is probably relatively cheap as he has a bad image to repair.

Their editor has explained it this way:

"Of course, we are well aware that there is a shadow over his Tour history. But that doesn't change the fact that Lance Armstrong knows the race and the sport better than most.
And when it comes to that era in cycling, he was one of many who broke the rules - and many other doping culprits are today respected experts in various media.
So we see nothing to prevent him from sharing his expertise with B.T.'s readers."

One of the mentioned culprits might be Michael Rasmussen who is commentating the Tour for B.T.'s rival Ekstra Bladet every year.

(Btw, I'm personally not impressed by Armstrong's analyses of the races, but that's a different matter.)