elapid said:
The UCI are handling it in the best possible way ... from a PR perspective. They are still the gutless bunch of no-hopers that ever had the misfortune to administer a sport. Forget Boonen, the UCI has done more to damage the image of cycling than any other individual or group. Why release these names immediately prior to the TdF, especially when the biological passport was meant to be completed six months ago? Why get the teams to do the dirty work? What happens if the teams do not comply? What happens if they do comply - when can the riders return to riding if they are not going to be formally suspended? Kohl was correct - the biological passport will be used to tailor your results and then "hey presto, I'm clean". The UCI are going to use the list to target riders, but what if the riders are not racing? What are they going to target? As BigBoat and Alpe continually point out, blood volume and power profiles are probably the way of the future, but the UCI are very unlikely to implement these in the near future. It took them 10 years after knowing that EPO was a problem to introduce the EPO test. The AFLD were responsible for targeting CERA, not the UCI. The UCI have done next to nothing in improving testing for drugs or doping practices in the past, what makes anyone think that this will be any different?
As others have said, it will be no surprise if there are no big names in this list of 50 riders. Or they will use the list to get rid of pesky riders like Valverde. This will just be a token effort so the UCI cronies can pat themselves on the back and delude themselves about what a good job they're doing, when they're really doing nothing serious to tackle the problem. I hope I am wrong, but the UCI has the track record of being completely useless thanks to the shoddy and corrupt leadership of Verbruggen and his right-hand man McQuaid.
No one harming the sport more than those who make mindless allegations based on googled articles and numbers which they do not even know the meaning of.
Everyone knows that setting a deadline for something as delicate as the biological passport is futile, especially when considering how many riders it cover. It becomes even more convoluted when having to include jura with all its loopholes.
As I said the reason to release the names now is to avoid hurting the Tour's image by allowing known dopers to participate. These riders aren't left out due to questionable evidence but due to the UCI not wanting to take chances with technicalities, no open doors for unborn twins.
And it's not like the names are made public.
No one is forcing the teams to do the dirty work either, they are simply asked to help saving the integrity of the sport's biggest event and the integrity of the teams themselves.
Even if the UCI had gone straight to court we are talking about 50 cases which will have to be handled individually against a new type of evidence.
Meaning the accused riders still would be in limbo, a public limbo.
Before blindly bashing the UCI, ASO and AFLD(they are doing this together) people should at least come with a better way to handle these biological passport based cases.
BLOOPERS:
The AFLD were responsible for targeting CERA, not the UCI. The UCI have done next to nothing in improving testing for drugs or doping practices in the past
Yes the AFLD did amazing work taking everyone by surprise including WADA(though they didn't hesitate to steal some of the glory) which is why the UCI has hired them to conduct the tests.
Kohl was correct - the biological passport will be used to tailor your results and then "hey presto, I'm clean".
If you tailor your results then you won't be recovering faster killing the advantage of doping leaving it up to the placebo effect.
And don't listen too much to Kohl and his newly found followers, they aren't thinking things through. Had Kohl been tapping and injecting blood under the passport then it would show up on as a jump in the traced values.
Or they will use the list to get rid of pesky riders like Valverde.
Valverde, what kind of example is that? Just because he was involved in OP doesn't mean he has been doping during the time the UCI has been collecting data for the passport.
The UCI wouldn't be able to place him among the 50 "excluded" riders unless there's enough evidence to get him nailed in court as they want to win all the cases.
This will just be a token effort so the UCI cronies can pat themselves on the back and delude themselves about what a good job they're doing
What about the ASO and AFLD?
And can the passport really really be considering as them patting themselves on the back when they clearly aren't using it as a pillow to rest on but also increase the war against doping inn other areas like TdF?