Vacansoleil's doctor quits, riders not allowed to speak.

[ak-zaaf]

http://www.telegraaf.nl/telesport/wielersport/4908164/__Onrust_bij_Vacansoleil__.html

Peter Janssen (former team doctor of Skil and PDM(!) and author of a book about doping) has quit his job at vacansoleil in the second week of the vuelta. He didn't agree with where the team was going.

Now this is the guy who wrote in his book that EPO-use is healthier for a pro-cyclist than not taking it, as long as it's controlled and supervised by a doctor.


From a completely unreliable source:
"Janssen wanted to leave the team at the beginning of the season. He thought some of the riders (like L'Hotellerie) we're pushing the limits and seeking medical help somewhere else. Agreements were made, but in the second week of the vuelta something changed"

What changed?
Now this has some good speculation ground.
Did Vacansoleil push Hoogerland (or someone else) to go 'over the border' in order to keep his high place in the Vuelta and did Janssen want nothing to do with this?
The other way around?

What do we think?

 

[fatandfast]

I find the sequence of these things funny and curious. The doctor makes and writes statement that say that banned substances can be used safely under the proper medical oversight and a pro team still wants him on the payroll? Is there so few cycling specific doctors that one with this type of philosophy needed to be kept around? I constantly laugh off the micro bag theory that lots of people speculate about but not because I think they are wrong, I just want them to be. I hope the Dr left because Skil was a winding down to...gone.

 

[Bala Verde]

I find the sequence of these things funny and curious. The doctor makes and writes statement that say that banned substances can be used safely under the proper medical oversight and a pro team still wants him on the payroll? Is there so few cycling specific doctors that one with this type of philosophy needed to be kept around? I constantly laugh off the micro bag theory that lots of people speculate about but not because I think they are wrong, I just want them to be. I hope the Dr left because Skil was a winding down to...gone.

the book was only published in July 2009...

 

[usedtobefast]

it might be that a doctor will feel he is doing a good thing by doing a supervised
rebalancing of an athletes values. forget everything else, and consider what is the best thing for the athlete. a trained medical person can do a lot of things better than i can. and i would suspect that there are differing opinions about
rebalancing blood values. some folks will push the envelope, and others will be
much more controlled. pick your doc, and go from there. not so hit and miss.

am i just overstating the obvious?

 

[Mongol_Waaijer]

having raced against Hoogerland last year I am concerned and intrigued by his rapid development....

i mean, it was obvious the guy was really good - but from lapping students in criteriums to 12th in the Vuelta and 14th in the worlds....in less than a year?

 

[samb01]

Here's 20-year-old swedish Team Capinordic rider Andreas Lindén's thoughts
on Hoogerland (as translated by google, original here):

"Cadel Evans won the World Cup. Strongest in the race was Jonny Hoogerland. His stupidity outperformed competitors' strength. In short, I shun the man.

2008 was my 8th in the Ringerike GP in Norway. Jonny Hoogerland was with and came third. After 3 km Harbor next to me in his pack and he begin Rant that I was an amateur when I missed a gear change to the Norwegian team's amateur mechanic screwed in the wrong direction. Jonny was really disappointed when he could not manage set of 18-year-old amateur in the mountains.

In the peloton, he called for Jonny Testosterony. A nickname I probably do not need to explain the background to. I can tell you an incident about Jonny: In the third stage, which was brutally long and damn boring pick Jonny up a small medicine bottle, drove up in front of the pack and turned upside down. What a healthy person do such a thing in a contest? Jonny did. He is not healthy.

My advice to you is that you do not fall in love in this fossil evidence that doping controls do not work. He will not stay very long..."

 

[workingclasshero]

Here's 20-year-old swedish Team Capinordic rider Andreas Lindén's thoughts
on Hoogerland (as translated by google, original here):

"Cadel Evans won the World Cup. Strongest in the race was Jonny Hoogerland. His stupidity outperformed competitors' strength. In short, I shun the man.

2008 was my 8th in the Ringerike GP in Norway. Jonny Hoogerland was with and came third. After 3 km Harbor next to me in his pack and he begin Rant that I was an amateur when I missed a gear change to the Norwegian team's amateur mechanic screwed in the wrong direction. Jonny was really disappointed when he could not manage set of 18-year-old amateur in the mountains.

In the peloton, he called for Jonny Testosterony. A nickname I probably do not need to explain the background to. I can tell you an incident about Jonny: In the third stage, which was brutally long and damn boring pick Jonny up a small medicine bottle, drove up in front of the pack and turned upside down. What a healthy person do such a thing in a contest? Jonny did. He is not healthy.

My advice to you is that you do not fall in love in this fossil evidence that doping controls do not work. He will not stay very long..."

a horrible translation which made it nearly impossible to read but being fluent in swedish i've read the original piece and i'd like to say well said andreas!

 

[Highlander]

To be honest, I don't know if we can just attribute this to a question about doping programs. People leave their jobs all the time as they have differences with their employers and there could be a whole host of issues that the team may not want the riders to discuss in public. However, since it is cycling, we immediately assume that it has to be a doping related issue.

 

[Bala Verde]

The translation was pretty bad, so if someone feels compelled to summarize it in proper British, be my guest.

I definitely struggled with the 'medicine flask' he downed at the front of the peloton? What medicine, and why would someone show the whole peloton that he's charging...

Also the last part got a little lost in translation 'someone who is in love with a fossil etc'

On the other hand, Johnny Testosteron(n)y says more than enough...

>>>EDIT: I did some digging in the archives and came up with this article in a dutch newspaper, published 2001 and which likely explains his nickname:

Rabo-junior Hoogerland vrijgesproken van doping / Rabo-junior Hoogerland cleared from doping accusation.

His Testosterone/Epitestosterone levels were too high, but after a contra-expertise at an IOC accredited lab in Cologne, he was found innocent. It was assumed that his body is the natural cause of the produced levels of test.

It wouldn't surprise me if he now has a medical attest for his 'naturally irregular' testosteron values. It is also rumoured that he is known as somebody who is, apothecary speaking, quite up to date with the latest developments. <<<<<<EDIT

The fact that VAC and the doctor split is probably caused by a number of reasons, amongst them money.

But if I had to make an informed guess, I'd say that no team would want to use a Dr. who just wrote a book 'for cyclists - who sooner or later will be confronted with EPO -, soigneurs, trainers and Drs. in the world of cycling, to educate them on working of amongst others, EPO, transfusions, boosters etc'.

Bad publicity...

 

[dolophonic]

His performance was a bit "extraterrestrial" !

 

[HostingDirect24]

Peter Janssen (former team doctor of Skil and PDM(!) and author of a book about doping) has quit his job at vacansoleil in the second week of the vuelta. He didn't agree with where the team was going.

Now this is the guy who wrote in his book that EPO-use is healthier for a pro-cyclist than not taking it, as long as it's controlled and supervised by a doctor.

That's exactly what Fuentes claimed as he insisted to have acted in the interest of athletes' health. And yes, not only cyclists. The cover-up by Spanish officials is probably more a blow to ethics in sports than the endemic doping revealed by these and other practices.