The Return of Omerta

[Jarvis]

It's just sad that a year on from a Tour that had riders publicly ridiculing Ricco, I doubt we'll hear any riders speaking out this year, or until Armstong retires again

 

[JavierOtxoa]

That is the $64K question. Why would the UCI take $500K under the table from Armstrong? Why did they allow Armstrong to backdate a TUE to explain a positive for corticosteroids? Why did McQuaid guarantee Contador was clean even though he had come out of a teamwide doping program and Werner Franke said the OP documents show that Contador was involved? Why did McQuaid refuse to test the 2008 Giro samples for CERA? Why did McQuaid call Floyd Landis and tell him that he knew he was not doing anything that all the others were doing? Why has the UCI targeted some teams for dope testing (Astana and Phonak) and other teams appear to be left alone? It goes on and on.

I don't know the answer but it smells like corruption.

Does a month go by that is free of McQuaid doing or saying something that makes you think, "WTF!"? I don't think it does. This guy sticks his foot in his mouth at every opportunity.

All these question I ask myself too. Also how strange was LeBlanc attitude before the LA rumours of doping and after! How surprised and horified he was after . I think there is a lot of hypocrisy in cycling, from ridrers and managers, from authorities to media.
How comes, LA was so clean when around him all these years there was a lot of doping cases, plus the death of Pantani? How comes several LA team mates was caught with/on drugs only after they quit US Postal/Disc ??? Omerta? There is a omerta in cycling.
By the way of Pantani's death...Every riders questionated said , they knew nothing about Pantani drugs/depresion problems. They don't know my a...! The riders are spending a lot ,a lot of time together and they know who's good and who's not, who's on drug and who isn't, but nobody talks.
Why the Police are not taking charge in this issue. In the end the bigest catch was made by the police not by UCI vamps.
LA legend wasn't created only by LA himself... There are a lots of 'dopers' outside the peloton too! Dopers who are doping us the fans...Personal I don't buy it.

 

[ingsve]

This reminds me of another situation. During the Salt Lake City Olympics when Johann Mühlegg got caught using 2nd gen EPO the situation was rather similar. Competitors like Per Elofsson has said that he and others basically knew that Johann was cheating. He recently stated that he just wanted to scream "Take that cheater away from here" but of course thinking something and saying it are two completely diffrent things.

In that case at least the problem for the riders was lack of evidence. It's very hard to say something without proof eventhough you know in your heart that it's true. Fortunately that story ended with Mühlegg getting caught so there was no real longevity in the speculations and silence. That's the big diffrence I guess...

 

[cody251]

How comes several LA team mates was caught with/on drugs only after they quit US Postal/Disc ???

One would argue that several riders that left, left to be leaders of a team and no longer domestiques. That pressure to perform or assume a team-leadership role may have driven them to dope just to obtain the success they wanted so badly or that was expected of them. Just one idea, I've put the flame suit on for the "haters"

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Good post Ingsve, however, if you look back at that race Elofsson burnt himself out trying to keep up with a doped up Mühlegg. Try has he may, Per couldn't keep up with Johann V2ing his way through 90% of the course, and due to exhaustion, Per eventually dropped to I believe 6th, and out of medal contention, even after Johann was stripped. Really bad news. Per had the most beautiful style for a skier.

I don't know how much the Omerta is back, but while I do think we're seeing a cleaner peloton than we were 5-10 years ago, it's not completely clean. We're going to see some questionable performances this year, and some surprise positives.

It's hard to say, but it seems obvious that some form of Repoxygen, and other forms of gene doping are here. Repoxygen doping dates at least to the Torino Olympics, as some XC skiers were highly suspect of doping there, with some very questionable hemoglobin results. And there were rampant rumors during the Beijing Olympics of stem-cell gene doping, including I believe a BBC reporter going undercover in an attempt to purchase such products.

You'd think someone would be out of their mind to dope with stem-cell genes, as God only knows the consequences (long term immune system failure is but one suspect), and this type of medicinal therapy has barely been tested in human trials with ill people at all, let alone healthy subjects, but I wouldn't put it past some people to do anything to win, including this. I mean, take a look at how doped up Tyler Hamilton was in his zeal to win. He doped something like 120 days out of the 2003 racing season. EPO, steroids, HGH, insulin, even female hormones. Crazy.

Tyler Hamilton...is my LEAST favorite rider of all time.

If you and I ever meet Angliru, allow me to shake your hand my friend.

 

[BroDeal]

I don't know how much the Omerta is back, but while I do think we're seeing a cleaner peloton than we were 5-10 years ago, it's not completely clean. We're going to see some questionable performances this year, and some surprise positives.

We will certainly see some questionable performances. We already have. But the only way we will see some surprise positives is if they come from the AFLD.

 

[Mellow Velo]

One would argue that several riders that left, left to be leaders of a team and no longer domestiques. That pressure to perform or assume a team-leadership role may have driven them to dope just to obtain the success they wanted so badly or that was expected of them. Just one idea, I've put the flame suit on for the "haters"

I doubt it. They'll have heard this lame excuse so many times before.

 

[Advancedone]

The "Return of Omerta" would imply that it somehow had gone away.
I think not. I think we just got our hopes up.

 

[antoine]

Omerta

Does anyone know if there are pictures out there of lance giving simeoni the "zip it" message after chasing him down? I want to get some Team Omerta jerseys made with that image on it.

 

[Anonymous]

We will certainly see some questionable performances. We already have. But the only way we will see some surprise positives is if they come from the AFLD.

I hope the French police go ape **** this July. I hope they come in with billy clubs and riot gear. I hope French junkies have to go to Germany to get their needles because of the dearth brought about by the riders and AFLD drug testers both.

 

[BroDeal]

Does anyone know if there are pictures out there of lance giving simeoni the "zip it" message after chasing him down? I want to get some Team Omerta jerseys made with that image on it.

Okay, that would be hiliarious. You coud sell a lot of them on the web.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I want to get some Team Omerta jerseys made with that image on it.

LOL! I'd buy one of those, that is hilarious!

I don't know about a zippit photos, I'll have to look, but there's always the one about LA chasing down you know who, who was over an hour back on GC.

 

[Mr.DNA]

LOL! I'd buy one of those, that is hilarious!

I don't know about a zippit photos, I'll have to look, but there's always the one about LA chasing down you know who, who was over an hour back on GC.

According to the M-SR start list, they are finally racing together again.

 

[Anonymous]

According to the M-SR start list, they are finally racing together again.

I wish they carried frame pumps so that Simeoni could go all Cinzano on him.