The twilight zone called Portugal.

[Parrulo]

http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/cinco-casos-de-dopaje-en-portugal-24-11-2015?loc=

According to Jornal "A'Bola" there are 6 bio passport related doping cases in Portugal. All 5 guys will be called later this month to testify.

If we look earlier in this thread, it shouldn't be hard to find some of those names. . .

 

[GuyIncognito]

The fun part is that this has already buried the Volta in a hole it won't recover from.

Have you noticed the big teams stopped going to the Volta in the last few years? Usually when they're asked why, the DSs say that it's bad for their young riders to ride in such a hard race. Well, it wasn't before. What changed? The doping's gone nuclear is what changed. Like Jakob Rathe said a few years back, 'these guys have jet engines on their bikes'.

It's ridiculous. They do 6,7 w/kg and then they move to worldtour or pro continental where the controls are stricter and they get dropped by sprinters. They're the iranians of europe.

 

[ABRider]

@jens - thanks so much for that! Made me laugh. As much as LS hates him! Well done @Hitch, please say it ain't so. LS can't be Canadian, we love us some Peter up here.

 

[PeterB]

This belongs here - looking forward to comments from locals

Bump

http://www.biciciclismo.com/es/positivo-de-alberto-gallego-caja-rural-rga-26-01-2016

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Absolutely no surprise whatsoever.

A couple of decent showings at 20-21, average amateur for a couple of years, mid-season pickup pre-Volta at 24, rides as a domestique, then the following year top 10 of nearly every stage race he enters and in the break nearly every day in the Volta. He also had to move on because he wasn't popular with Radio Popular because of not wanting to expend his energy being a domestique for Portuguese Chris Horner, and going to a Pro-Conti team that has to be biopass compliant, we may well have seen a Tiernan-Locke situation develop had he not been busted so quickly anyway.

 

[carolina]

Lol.. started the new contract on January 1st and is caught 2 days later...

I was hopping that he was one of the 6 that had irregularities in the bio-passport, but it seems I was wrong. Now that Sporting and Porto have cycling teams, we'll probabily never know who they were.

 

[jens_attacks]

Sweet revenge for rui sousa fans
God made justice.

 

[KyoGrey]

My opinion is that Caja Rural should have never tarnished its good name with the portuguese sensations.

And the worst thing is that they didn't need this riders. They allready had good riders and nice promising Spanish talents with a coherent progression.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

This will do serious damage - along with the rumoured biopassport cases - to the chances of anyone else getting out of the Portuguese scene in the next few years.

 

[StryderHells]

My opinion is that Caja Rural should have never tarnished its good name with the portuguese sensations.

And the worst thing is that they didn't need this riders. They allready had good riders and nice promising Spanish talents with a coherent progression.

You aren't talking about the guy who just got popped are you? Because he his not Portuguese

 

[May0maniac]

If you do well at the Volta there's still the option of signing a contract will Team Vorarlberg.
Someone who does well in the Volta ao Algarve should have the option to get a decent contract outside of Portugal, the race seems to have decent testing, otherwise the big names from the WT teams wouldn't show up.

 

[KyoGrey]

My opinion is that Caja Rural should have never tarnished its good name with the portuguese sensations.

And the worst thing is that they didn't need this riders. They allready had good riders and nice promising Spanish talents with a coherent progression.

You aren't talking about the guy who just got popped are you? Because he his not Portuguese

Yeah, I know. When I talk about the "portuguese sensation" I obviously mean riders that shine in the portuguese circuit and races. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Lol.. started the new contract on January 1st and is caught 2 days later...

I was hopping that he was one of the 6 that had irregularities in the bio-passport, but it seems I was wrong. Now that Sporting and Porto have cycling teams, we'll probabily never know who they were.

Bingo. Tavira was probably the cleanest of the teams, but W52 was glowing and now, if any progress was being made to capitalize on that, it's all gone down the drain. One of the reasons I was always against football clubs taking over cycling teams, besides the sad prospect of having to deal with hooligans on the roads.

Even Sporting considered W52 a dodgy team, backing off from the deal.

 

[ren_rm]

Re: Re:

Lol.. started the new contract on January 1st and is caught 2 days later...

I was hopping that he was one of the 6 that had irregularities in the bio-passport, but it seems I was wrong. Now that Sporting and Porto have cycling teams, we'll probabily never know who they were.

Bingo. Tavira was probably the cleanest of the teams, but W52 was glowing and now, if any progress was being made to capitalize on that, it's all gone down the drain. One of the reasons I was always against football clubs taking over cycling teams, besides the sad prospect of having to deal with hooligans on the roads.

Even Sporting considered W52 a dodgy team, backing off from the deal.

Yes, sure...

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Lol.. started the new contract on January 1st and is caught 2 days later...

I was hopping that he was one of the 6 that had irregularities in the bio-passport, but it seems I was wrong. Now that Sporting and Porto have cycling teams, we'll probabily never know who they were.

Bingo. Tavira was probably the cleanest of the teams, but W52 was glowing and now, if any progress was being made to capitalize on that, it's all gone down the drain. One of the reasons I was always against football clubs taking over cycling teams, besides the sad prospect of having to deal with hooligans on the roads.

Even Sporting considered W52 a dodgy team, backing off from the deal.

Yes, sure...

Their words, not mine.

 

[carolina]

you can't believe everything bruno de carvalho says...

however, after seeing what W52 did during the Volta, he was probabily telling the truth lol

 

[BigMac]

Re:

you can't believe everything bruno de carvalho says...

however, after seeing what W52 did during the Volta, he was probabily telling the truth lol

This is what I mean, regardless what their prime (de)motivation was, they were right.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It may be more that he saw them as being "too risky" a deal, that they weren't subtle enough perhaps.

 

[jens_attacks]

Nuno ribeiro is a boss!

Deal with it.

 

[euroking]

Portugal=Dopers Haven

What's makes Portugal a place where doping is still really heavy like it was back in the day?

 

[Maxiton]

Re: Portugal=Dopers Haven

What's makes Portugal a place where doping is still really heavy like it was back in the day?

Could be explained by

• a singular respect for tradition specific to Portugal
• a small, relatively poor country trying to punch beyond its weight in sport
• excessive corruption in its national oversight body
• Ginjinha (strong cherry liqueur drunk in the morning)

 

[pmcg76]

Will Routley finished 2nd overall and won a stage in a race in Portugal recently. People may recall he was one of the guys who was very vocal on the Garmin bans. Had a very strong anti-doping mentality. Great admiration for Routley as he is still an active cyclist who choose to speak out. Not sure what that says about the state of play in Portugal, maybe not as bad at this time of year.

 

[BigMac]

Will Routley finished 2nd overall and won a stage in a race in Portugal recently. People may recall he was one of the guys who was very vocal on the Garmin bans. Had a very strong anti-doping mentality. Great admiration for Routley as he is still an active cyclist who choose to speak out. Not sure what that says about the state of play in Portugal, maybe not as bad at this time of year.

Only the Volta can make doping profitable for the Portuguese teams. Plus Portuguese teams have a history of sucking at their own races outside August. Not that there are many, mind.

What's makes Portugal a place where doping is still really heavy like it was back in the day?

Could be explained by

• a singular respect for tradition specific to Portugal
• a small, relatively poor country trying to punch beyond its weight in sport
• excessive corruption in its national oversight body
• Ginjinha (strong cherry liqueur drunk in the morning)

The answer is quite obvious to be frank. It's in our gene to try and circumvent rules, do things the easy, half-arsed way. The stereotype applies to the Portuguese more often than not, sadly.

PS: Nobody in Portugal actually drinks Ginjinha in the morning. Maybe a few cases in the Oeste region, but it's really not a thing.

 

[carolina]

There was a report about doping a few months ago where they interviewed several people from the portuguese anti-doping agency and the director was very worried about the differences in control between soccer and cyclig/athletics.

I don't see how portugal is any different from other countries. The only difference I see is the entire portuguese peloton follows a lance armstrong inspired plan, where you only care about 1 single race during the season.

Also, don't forget to drink the ginginha in a little chocolate cup. It's much better.

 

[Maxiton]

What's makes Portugal a place where doping is still really heavy like it was back in the day?

Could be explained by

• a singular respect for tradition specific to Portugal
• a small, relatively poor country trying to punch beyond its weight in sport
• excessive corruption in its national oversight body
• Ginjinha (strong cherry liqueur drunk in the morning)

The answer is quite obvious to be frank. It's in our gene to try and circumvent rules, do things the easy, half-arsed way. The stereotype applies to the Portuguese more often than not, sadly.

PS: Nobody in Portugal actually drinks Ginjinha in the morning. Maybe a few cases in the Oeste region, but it's really not a thing.

Drat! You're bursting my bubble.