Page 2 - Poor misguided Lister Farrar

07-03.-2008, 05:24 AM

#16

Lister Farrar

Registered User

Join Date: Jun 2005

Posts: 7

Re: Poor misguided Lister Farrar

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fausto Coppied

Lister, cycling has been going after performance enhancing substances for at least a few years now. That's more that other sports have done.

Athletics has had better dope testing for years. And they marshall athletes to testing. In euro pro cycling they radio the whole caravan, put up signs, and riders get hours notice, with no supervision. XC ski has had testing with marshals, and the political courage to take away medals from the Russians that finished ahead of Scott in 2002, even when the IOC didn't want to. One of the Russions didn't even test positive until after Scott's race (ie a false negative).

On the other hand cycling was the second last sport to sign the WADA code, is only now trying out marshals as required by the WADA code since 1999, has notice for hematocrit testing that allows dilution, then topping up before races (as Dr. Stephen Prentice testified before LA silenced him), and did nothing for more than 10 years when young men were dying from clogged hearts in the 90's.

Quote:

Furthermore, pro cycling was targeted by WADA because it was an easy mark, without riders'(players') union and ownership groups. Even Steve Bauer commented on that, remember?

Steve asked why WADA didn't test the NHL, apparently not aware that WADA had no jurisdiction over the Nor-am pro sports because they are not affiliated to the Olympic movement, other than when they go to Olympics, and they are tested. I don't think he was fully informed. I think WADA has influenced the US government, and we saw doping mentioned in Bush's state of the union address, and now with congressional hearings. Pound pointed out the feeble efforts of the pro leagues which enabled the enquiries that are now happening.

Cycling was an easy mark because doping was rife in it. There has been no Festina in any other sport. No Fuentes. No Manzano. We have to stop pointing fingers and realize in the past (McQuaid is much better than his predeccessor, but he had a long way to go) we have been really bad at controlling this. Maybe the worst sport other than pro wrestling. I had a tour of the Spanish doping lab in 90 or 91, and the director said the worst sports then were bodybuilding and cycling. 17 years ago.

Quote:

My criticism of your remark was that Pierre Blanchard should be home in Canada trying to set up our own Tours (selling the sport) rather than working them in foreign countries. He is the President of the CCA now, not a mere Commissaire.

Pierre has been a commissaire for many years, he's not going to drop that completely. We should be happy he'll take on the presidency, and criticism, as well as officiate and maintain his career. It's a great way for him to know what is going on around the world; those other countries and races pay his expenses, besides the advantages of confronting doping.

Anyway, lets leave Pierre because you're going to accuse me of sucking up to him. Let's talk about something else.

Like how about that national calendar? What kind of freeze is on CCA staff and committees, when they are reluctant to call up organizers and ask them to do a certain level of race and build a series? The original Canada Cup (not the Canadian Tire crit series) was nothing more than poltical will and staff time to ask organizers to meet some standards and be part of a series. I got lots of criticism for that (favouring provinces, cancelled races, races that missed meeting some standards.) But we had a series of races that either had happened only on the provincial calendars, or not at all. MTB has a good Cup series. What is the political climate that is preventing that happening again? And please, let's not make it personal. Staff have changed several times; it's political will, not personality.

L

07-03.-2008, 07:00 AM	#17
Fausto Coppied Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 604	Re: Poor misguided Lister Farrar Geezus, Lister, it is amazing you get anything done the way you get bogged down in minutiae. You are worried about doping marshals?? You think doping marshals are holding the sport back. Get a grip, man!!! Furthermore, we’ve had marshals at our race for years. We had them at the Women’s World Road Cup in Montreal in 1999 we had them in Hamilton in 2003. We even had them on bikes so they could follow the riders if they rode away Give it a break. As for the freeze or whatever you want to call it on the CCA. I’m sure what you are referring to. I don’t think the small staff at the CCA now has any idea to how to organize a simple race, never mind a national series. Those people are having trouble to keep their heads above water even in the off season. THEY ARE INCOMPTENT!!!! Look at the due diligence e and financial, look at the annual reports. Nothing has been posted or made public or available to the general public since 2005 or 2006! When will you stop apologizing for mediocrity and mismanagement? Why not name names. Kinash was utterly incompetent. Steve Lacelle and Kim Sebrango had no business being hired by the CCA in the first place and it is a good thing they resigned or were fired. Lorraine Lafrenière should do the same.

07-03.-2008, 02:29 PM	#18
holli Registered User Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada Posts: 148	Re: Poor misguided Lister Farrar As a rider with european background I must say that Listers claims match very well with pre-Festina time (as far as I know since I was last year junior in -98). WADA doesn't care about doping problem, WADA cares about their own funding and they try to be as visible as possible. Beating the only pro sport that can't really hit back is very good tactic for gaining visibility. If WADA would really care about doping problem in sport, they would do much more with amateurs. No other sport than cycling needs to deal with odd hour tests, police pressure, random border controls just because you happen to have racing bikes on the roof of your car or travel with a bike bag. In fact...in France customs random checks even teams travelling domestically. Sure UCI didn't react to cyclist deaths in 90's, but then again, orienteering, soccer, athletics, ice hockey, nordic skiing etc. sports still don't react to athletes dying on the field and suffering from various health problems. Some of these are too small and some too powerful for WADA to pick a fight with. And there is Fuentes in other sports, in fact it's the same Fuentes who was in cycling. For some weird reason only cyclists were picked from Fuentes' list and others were forgotten. It's all about the money. Ed -> If a marketing person from business world couldn't do good job in cycling it's not because he/she wouldn't know the sport, it would be just because he/she would be incompetent in marketing and should look for some alternative career anyway. Cycling isn't rocket science and if you are good in marketing in other businesses you can do good job in cycling as well. Cycling isn't some weird science comparable to alchemy. If someone who claims to be marketing professional can't figure out how to market cycling, they won't have much to offer in marketing field in other businesses either. Manitoba has lots of potential and more kids interested in entering the sport than we can take in. Only problem is that people responsible of kids programs are very seldom interested in keeping the kids in the sport and rather let them go to other sports than work together with other cycling programs. Crazy isn't it? __________________ Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

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