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Top 10 Cycling Doping Excuses...according to CN?

Dec 7, 2010
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Ummm...am I the only one that noticed a very bizarre feature on the CN Homepage this morning around 10:00am EST? :confused:

It had all the markings of a badly timed and redundant thread for The Clinic that the mods certainly would've (and rightly so) closed immediately due to its somewhat trolling nature. When I checked back in today, I expected to see a long discussion unfolding...but nothing. Back on the CN hompage...nothing. When I found the link that I had saved, it directed me to...
logo.png
404 - Page not found

No article! Did I imagine all this? Well, the interwebs are funny like that, because I found it. ;)

So what's the deal? Mods, was the site hacked this morning? I'm serious. Because this article is horribly written and ill-timed. It was the main feature on the homepage, with a pic of Tyler...from his Phonak days.

I was going start a thread at the time but I had no interest is a long, useless discussion about these very old, tired and worn-out issues. I was more curious about why the article was posted in the first place...and why so prominently? It came across as a lame attempt at appearing relevant in the "doping discussion" except that it was, for the most part, terribly behind the times—and poorly written.

So what's the story?

Oh, speaking of which, see the post below. ;)
(But please, let's not turn this into a discussion about the point-by-point details of the excuses themselves.)
 
Dec 7, 2010
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The original article as it appeared...

Top 10 doping excuses
by Jane Aubrey
Feature date: February 22, 05:05
13_220.jpg


From sick puppies to missing twins

It was said to be a questionable piece of Spanish filet mignon that left a bitter aftertaste for Alberto Contador after he returned a positive test to the banned fat metabolizer clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France. Spanish beef producers were livid about the contamination theory but it was enough for Contador to receive a not-guilty verdict on appeal.

This wasn't the first time a surreal excuse had been offered in response to a positive drug test. Cyclingnews takes a look at the top 10.

1. Opium cakes - Alexi Grewal, 1992
The 1984 US Olympic road race gold medallist said he tested positive for opiates after gorging on poppyseed muffins before the prologue at the Tour of West Virginia. While opiates have no performance-enhancing qualities, they are banned to prevent their use in helping athletes compete while injured.

"I obviously won't be eating poppy-seed muffins in the near future," Grewal said.

The U.S. Professional Racing Organisation issued a three-month suspended sentence and a $500 fine. Grewal later admitted to doping several more times during his career.

2. My sick doggy - Frank Vandenbroucke, 2002
When Belgian state highway patrol intercepted Bernard Sainz or 'Doctor Mabuse' for travelling in excess of the speed limit and found a large cache of amphetamines and syringes in his car, Sainz said he was leaving Frank Vandenbroucke's home. Police then searched the cyclist's residence, where they found EPO, morphine and clenbuterol. Vandenbroucke claimed the EPO was for his anemic dog.

On 21 March, 2002 Vandenbroucke was handed a six month ban and a 10,000 Swiss francs fine by the Belgian federation. He died in 2009 aged 34 from a pulmonary embolism in Segegal.

3. Twin's blood - Tyler Hamilton, 2004
Tyler Hamilton tested positive for a homologous blood transfusion at the Vuelta a España on September 11, 2004. Hamilton also returned an A sample positive on August 25, 2004, after winning the Olympic time trial, but was not sanctioned for that as his B sample was effectively destroyed by the Athens lab that did the testing, and no result could be determined from the sample.

Hamilton's Vuelta samples showed signs of a mixed red blood cell (RBC) population. The American's defence rested on claims that he had a 'vanishing twin', that transferred some of its RBCs to Hamilton while he was in the womb, but disappeared in the first trimester of pregnancy; or that he is a human chimera, with a natural mixed RBC population.

Hamilton was banned until September 22, 2006 and then returned to racing before failing an out of competition drug test for an anti-depressant. He announced his retirement soon after.

4. Drinking is manly - Floyd Landis, 2006
Floyd Landis had a bad day on July 19, 2006. While riding the Tour's 16th stage from Bourg d'Oisans to La Toussuire he lost the yellow jersey and lost eight minutes. He then went back to his hotel and downed two draft beers and "at least four shots" of Jack Daniel's whiskey.

The ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in his urine sample taken the next day when Landis made a miraculous recovery was said to be 11:1, above the acceptable threshold of 4:1. Some studies showed that alcohol can raise testosterone levels up to 200 per cent.

Landis lost his case and subsequent appeals before eventually admitting his drug use in May 2010.

5. They're my mother-in-law's - Raimondas Rumšas, 2002
The day that the Lithuanian finished third in the 2002 Tour de France, French customs officials discovered EPO, testosterone, growth hormone and anabolic and cortico steroids in his wife, Edita Rumsiene's car.

When questioned about the drugs, Rumšas claimed that "I have not had a chance to speak with my wife. But the products were intended to be taken to Lithuania for my mother-in-law, Yakstenia".

Rumšas was later banned for testing positive to EPO at the 2003 Giro d'Italia and together with his wife, received a four month suspended sentence for importing prohibited drugs into France.

6. Throes of passion - Björn Leukemans, 2007
At first when the Belgian returned a positive test for testosterone in an out-of-competition control, he claimed to have naturally high levels of the hormone before moving to the explanation that he was having sex when the testers arrived to take his urine.

The hole in Leukemans' argument was not testosterone levels could be elevated during a good romp but that there was no explanation for the levels of synthetic testosterone which gave him levels of 5:7:1.

"I am nevertheless innocent!" Leukemans said on his personal website. "These values are natural," he told Sporza. "It is not possible that I am positive.”

He was suspended before returning to the sport in 2009.

7. Candy - Gilberto Simoni, 2002
First there was the explanation from the dentist: "The patient Gilberto Simoni today underwent urgent orthodontic [sic] treatment with the local anaesthetic containing Carbocaine two percent with adrenaline." Problem was that his urine test showed trace amounts of cocaine and its metabolites benzoilecgonine and metalicgonine.

Next the cocaine must have been in some tea prepared for him but his aunt, Giacinta Moser. When that didn't stand up, eventual blame was pointed at imported Peruvian candies that were given to him by Moser, which he took to fight off a throat infection.

8. Pigeon pie - Adrie van der Poel, 1983
Your father-in-law races pigeons and they need performance enhancers along the way. It's a Sunday evening and van der Poel looks hungry so father-in-law makes him some pigeon pie from said pigeons. A positive test for Strychnine ensued.

9. Java high - Gianni Bugno, 1992
Two-time world champion was suspended for two years in 1994 following a positive test for caffeine in Italy after a minor race. Bugno denied he had taken drugs and that instead the positive test came down to the cup of coffee he enjoyed before the race.

Caffeine is considered to be performance enhancing above prescribed levels and the Italian returned a sample 30 times above the limit. We'd say, Bugno had drunk several coffees...

10. Haemorrhoids - Jesús Rosendo, 2010
A blood test taken on April 20, 2009, which showed haemoglobin and haematocrit levels were very low, suggesting anaemia as a result of bleeding that the rider had suffered on April 8, 2009, due to a severe case of haemorrhoids. Ouch.

He was eventually given a two year ban in 2010.

 
A

Anonymous

Guest
the same lance crazy jane aubrey who until she changed her profile picture had a livestrong band.

Ms Aubrey, I do hope you are as critical of Lance if and when its proved he doped as you are of other riders ;)

(i would have said that on twitter but im not totally sure what the rule is over cn editors and twitter)
 
Granville57 said:
Ummm...am I the only one that noticed a very bizarre feature on the CN Homepage this morning around 10:00am EST? :confused:

It had all the markings of a badly timed and redundant thread for The Clinic that the mods certainly would've (and rightly so) closed immediately due to its somewhat trolling nature. When I checked back in today, I expected to see a long discussion unfolding...but nothing. Back on the CN hompage...nothing. When I found the link that I had saved, it directed me to...
logo.png
404 - Page not found

No article! Did I imagine all this? Well, the interwebs are funny like that, because I found it. ;-)

So what's the deal? Mods, was the site hacked this morning? I'm serious. Because this article is horribly written and ill-timed. It was the main feature on the homepage, with a pic of Tyler...from his Phonak days.

I was going start a thread at the time but I had no interest is a long, useless discussion about these very old, tired and worn-out issues. I was more curious about why the article was posted in the first place...and why so prominently? It came across as a lame attempt at appearing relevant in the "doping discussion" except that it was, for the most part, terribly behind the times—and poorly written.

So what was the story?

Oh, speaking of which, see the post below. ;)
(But please, let's not turn this into a discussion about the point-by-point details of the excuses themselves.)

I saw that, but was in a hurry and figured I'd read it later. So I don't know, how bad was it? Bad enough that they yanked it down, I guess.;)

Edit: I wrote that befor I saw you had put up the article, you are right, pretty ***.
 
Firstly, right at the end there's a massive factual inaccuracy; Rosendo was cleared almost straight away and is riding right now. He was 13th in the Vuelta a San Luís. He was taken off the road in May 2010 but was back on it soon enough to race in the Spanish nationals.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
So so far Ms Aubrey has brought us the doping excuses article, and the much vaunted and highly rated, Team Kits rated article.

Next news editor job that comes up on CN, im applying.

gonna shurrup now before I get an infraction, although last I heard cn were not beyond critisism.
 
Apr 28, 2009
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Well, the good news is that someone quickly came to their senses and yanked the article. The bad news is that Ms Aubrey seems to have access to post her articles live on the site with no editor review step.

Dim for CN editor!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
this_is_edie said:
Dim for CN editor!

I already have my, ten best victory salutes, ten races run in bad weather, and ten famous climbs articles ready.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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Now, before anyone jumps on me for saying the article was "poorly written"...

My stance is based on my opinion that the style is very "cheeky" without being all that funny or entertaining. It's written as if to an audience that is both unfamiliar with, and not particularly interested in, the details of these cases. It is simplified, especially the Tyler and Floyd entries, in a way that does a disservice in terms of educating the reader while at the same time insulting the intelligence of the more informed reader—which I would hope that CN fancies themselves to have (not to mention the outright inaccuracies that my fellow Clinician's will gleefully point out...for free! ;)).

It certainly does no good for the teams or current sponsors, and I can only imagine the exasperated reactions from more than just JV himself—especially seeing that it doesn't tie into any late-breaking news and it's far too late for a year-end style wrap-up piece.

That's where I stand.
 
Mar 8, 2010
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She forgot Ivonne Kraft.
Ok, she is MTB, but a cyclist.
How can a woman forget to place a woman ? This is discrimination.

Ivonne Kraft's mother was using an asthma-sprayer that exploded and then Ivonne inhaled the prohibited substance.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Susan Westemeyer said:
I am moving this to the appropriate subforum, as it is more about the website than about doping.

Susan

Its more about how crap the article is than the website to be honest.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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Susan Westemeyer said:
I am moving this to the appropriate subforum, as it is more about the website than about doping.

Susan

Fair enough, and a good decision, Susan.

I would've posted it here originally but I wanted to get the attention of the right crowd. As I said in my OP, it was never my intent to discuss the "doping" nature of the article, but rather the odd appearance-disappearance that took place, and why it ever went online to begin with.
 
Oct 25, 2010
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TeamSkyFans said:
So so far Ms Aubrey has brought us the doping excuses article, and the much vaunted and highly rated, Team Kits rated article.

Next news editor job that comes up on CN, im applying.

gonna shurrup now before I get an infraction, although last I heard cn were not beyond critisism.

I think they had an ad up for a production editor last week with submission deadline being yesterday or today, FYI.
 

Barrus

BANNED
Apr 28, 2010
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TeamSkyFans said:
(i would have said that on twitter but im not totally sure what the rule is over cn editors and twitter)

Don't bother them with stuff on the forum, especially if you are banned, and if you do and are requested to take it to private or told that that person has no idea, nor any involvement with something that happens on the forum, drop it and don't continue to harass someone in public
 
Susan Westemeyer said:
But the article is on the website, yes?

Susan

Well if it was an article on another website it would be in The Clinic (or whatever the relevant forum is). CN articles are often thread starters and they stay in that specific forum.

But I guess the OP sounds more like an inquiry (which seems to be what this forum is used most for) rather than a discussion prompter, so maybe this is the right place.

Discussion would probably be most suited in the Unbelievable doping excuses thread anyway.
 
May 3, 2010
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Granville57 said:
Ummm...am I the only one that noticed a very bizarre feature on the CN Homepage this morning around 10:00am EST? :confused:

It had all the markings of a badly timed and redundant thread for The Clinic that the mods certainly would've (and rightly so) closed immediately due to its somewhat trolling nature. When I checked back in today, I expected to see a long discussion unfolding...but nothing. Back on the CN hompage...nothing. When I found the link that I had saved, it directed me to...
logo.png
404 - Page not found

No article! Did I imagine all this? Well, the interwebs are funny like that, because I found it. ;)

So what's the deal? Mods, was the site hacked this morning? I'm serious. Because this article is horribly written and ill-timed. It was the main feature on the homepage, with a pic of Tyler...from his Phonak days.

I was going start a thread at the time but I had no interest is a long, useless discussion about these very old, tired and worn-out issues. I was more curious about why the article was posted in the first place...and why so prominently? It came across as a lame attempt at appearing relevant in the "doping discussion" except that it was, for the most part, terribly behind the times—and poorly written.

So what's the story?

Oh, speaking of which, see the post below. ;)
(But please, let's not turn this into a discussion about the point-by-point details of the excuses themselves.)

More top quality journalism from CN. Really showing the kind of cutting edge questions that need to be asked when it comes to doping.
 
Apr 20, 2009
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Why has there been no comment here from the CN pooh-bahs about why the article was taken down? It seems to me that the forum is the perfect place for the editors to do this sort of thing. Are they doing it elsewhere? Twitter?

Also, on the same topic; I have noticed once or twice that an article was put up and later corrected without any notation about the correction. In my opinion, this is just poor journalistic practice. The reason being that journalism is about open dissemination of information. Unexplained corrections give the appearance of something to hide. Most major news sites have taken to placing an asterisk next to corrected text and adding an italicized explanation at the bottom of the article.

My personal preference for corrections is to use strikethough which unfortunately isn't available here in the forum.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
gregod said:
My personal preference for corrections is to use strikethough which unfortunately isn't available here in the forum.

mine too. i find it endlessly frustrating that it isnt available on the forum.

<s>If i correct my posts i like to leave the original comment there.</s>
 

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