USADA out of Tour of California testing

[lurveleven]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usada-out-of-tour-of-california-testing

nothing about uci surprises me anymore, but this is getting bizzare. another move to control who can get busted or to prove that cycling is getting cleaner?

 

[TERMINATOR]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usada-out-of-tour-of-california-testing

nothing about uci surprises me anymore, but this is getting bizzare. another move to control who can get busted or to prove that cycling is getting cleaner?

That's exactly what this is about. The UCI knows that if it let USADA do the doping controls, they'd catch a boatload of punks, just like AFLD did a few years ago. The UCI also likes to give teams notice of when they are testing, as was reported in the independent report.

Notice how the UCI 'investigated' the fact that Lance doped for all his Tour wins... their investigation consisted of calling Landis a liar and never lifting a finger. Wait until we wake up one day and see the headline: Lance Armstrong Indicted....and then let's see what Patty Cake McQuaid says.

 

[flicker]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usada-out-of-tour-of-california-testing

nothing about uci surprises me anymore, but this is getting bizzare. another move to control who can get busted or to prove that cycling is getting cleaner?

So what tells you the UCI is cleaner or dirtier than the UaSDA?

 

[ricara]

Please don't feed the troll. Thanks!

 

[MarkvW]

A proposed system.

The UCI develops a biopassport system for targeting suspected dopers, then it refuses to target the suspect dopers for testing. The sponsors don't care whether cycling is filthy or not. They only care if cycling appears to be filthy or not. The UCI obliges them.

A solution. Don't buy sponsored crap unless you're buying from the only supplier. Buy used if you can. When a sponsored rider is caught doping, do everything you can to publicly link doping to the sponsored product. Make cycling utterly toxic to the sponsors of dopers. Link the sponsor's trademark to the doping riders they employ.

Here is a system that I think would work. It is built upon three independent tiers.

(a) An independent targeting tier composed of a jury that is medically advised and not financially linked to any cycling entity. This jury would be INDEPENDENT from everybody. You could have former bike racers and scientists. Better still, you could let current riders vote. There is a limited number of samples that can be taken at any given time and a limited number of tests that can be performed on those samples. You need to pick so that you focus on the cheaters--the jury would help with that.

The pool of jurors could be enormous, but only a small portion of those jurors would vote for any one target/test battery combination. Whose votes count for any one target/test battery combination and whose do not would be determined partly by randomness and partly by the juror's past success rate. This would make payoffs very difficult to effect. A biased juror who catches dopers would be a good juror!

The jury members are graded on the effectiveness of their picks (i.e., what is their batting average for predicting cheaters). The best predictors' picks are vote-counted more often than predictors that are not as good. Other bias tests could be employed. Riders would not be entitled to challenge targeting.

A certain percentage of tests would be random, meaning both (1) random rider/test combinations; and (2) adopting the picks of a random juror. This would help identify the jurors who do the best at picking dopers. WADA would develop the voting algorithms/rules, but otherwise would not alter jury targeting decisions.

(b) A sampling tier. These people go out and get the samples. If anybody messes with them, they get sanctioned. Strict rules. WADA would administer.

(c) A testing tier (they get a sample with a number and they do the requested tests, that's all); WADA would administer.

(d) A reporting tier.

(e) The UCI. Keep them as far away from the targeting, the sampling, the testing, and the recording as possible.

 

[flicker]

Why isn't Mick Rogers, defending champion riding the Tour of California this year? Is he tired of being tired?

 

[ergmonkey]

Why isn't Mick Rogers, defending champion riding the Tour of California this year? Is he tired of being tired?

Thank you. That was very funny to me.

 

[brianf7]

Why isn't Mick Rogers, defending champion riding the Tour of California this year? Is he tired of being tired?

Must remember mick was very sick with over training glandular fever whatever caused it he needs to watch his workload so to get best out of the season.
If he dont feel up to it why bother he has nothing to prove.
Nothing wrong with missing a race.

 

[flicker]

Must remember mick was very sick with over training glandular fever whatever caused it he needs to watch his workload so to get best out of the season.
If he dont feel up to it why bother he has nothing to prove.
Nothing wrong with missing a race.

sorry to her that. Mono is always an issue with these guys, the exertion is tough.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usada-out-of-tour-of-california-testing

nothing about uci surprises me anymore, but this is getting bizzare. another move to control who can get busted or to prove that cycling is getting cleaner?

This is scandalous but unsurprising. It certainly appears as though the UCI wants ultimate control over who gets popped and who doesn't. It is such a conflict it's hard to imagine anything other than corruption.

 

[MarkvW]

This is scandalous but unsurprising. It certainly appears as though the UCI wants ultimate control over who gets popped and who doesn't. It is such a conflict it's hard to imagine anything other than corruption.

Agree. They're telling the world that their biopassport system is a sham.

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

Great time to wind back the clock and see how efusive USADA was about doing the testing for ToC:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usada-to-run-amgen-tour-of-california-anti-doping-controls

 

[Granville57]

The overwhelming arrogance of the UCI is unceasing.
In light of everything that's going on recently, do they really expect to be taken seriously by...anybody?

My question is, What happens if USADA simply shows up to test some riders?
What are the legal ramifications? On U.S. soil, what can the UCI do to stop it?

I hope to god that the Feds crash the party. This is beyond stupid.

 

[jmax22]

Let me get this straight. The UCI, which is the oganization that governs the sport, has now taken over its drug testing protocol too? How is that not a conflict of interest? And they refuse to let an independent organization, like USADA, which was created with the sole intent of having an unbaised agency conduct testing, handle the anti-doping. Wow, this sport never ceases to be such a complete joke thanks to the idiots that run it...

So the organization that has a tremendous PR problem because of doping, is now in charge of testing for dopers. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there won't be any positive tests this year.

 

[D-Queued]

Let me get this straight. The UCI, which is the oganization that governs the sport, has now taken over its drug testing protocol too? How is that not a conflict of interest? And they refuse to let an independent organization, like USADA, which was created with the sole intent of having an unbaised agency conduct testing, handle the anti-doping. Wow, this sport never ceases to be such a complete joke thanks to the idiots that run it...

So the organization that has a tremendous PR problem because of doping, is now in charge of testing for dopers. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there won't be any positive tests this year.

This should probably go in the other thread as well, but are you referring to this:

McQuaid praises Tour's lack of positive tests

I haven't heard of any positive tests at this year's Tour de France or that we're checking samples to confirm positives... I think we're coming out of it and going into a good period"

Yup. When the UCI is in charge of the testing, they conquer doping.

Well, maybe not everybody agrees with that.

"That's ridiculous," (Festina) judge Delegove said.

Some things never change.

Dave.

 

[MarkvW]

sorry to her that. Mono is always an issue with these guys, the exertion is tough.

Yeah. Something about bike racing really diminishes the white blood cell count, making them more vulnerable to illness.

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

Let me get this straight. The UCI, which is the oganization that governs the sport, has now taken over its drug testing protocol too? How is that not a conflict of interest? And they refuse to let an independent organization, like USADA, which was created with the sole intent of having an unbaised agency conduct testing, handle the anti-doping. Wow, this sport never ceases to be such a complete joke thanks to the idiots that run it...

So the organization that has a tremendous PR problem because of doping, is now in charge of testing for dopers. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there won't be any positive tests this year.

Yeah, it's been like that for a while... Hate to see your cherry popped...

Nice post. I like your passion.