Drugs! Is it all just getting stupid?

Just read an article about Jorg Jaksche which equated cycling to soccer - saying that if equal rules were applied then anyone deemed to have faked a foul would be suspended from the team pending an enquiry.

Quite true I say!

It's got to the point where if you want your competition removed you drop a hypodermic needle in the trash then pull Pat McQuaid aside and say "listen Pat, I saw so-and-so drop something suspicious in that dustbin" (if of course some paparazzi scumbag didn't photograph you dropping the needle and rats you out in the first place). So-and-so will then be fired from his team and off the bike for at least 6 months while various labs, political organisations, sporting bodies and the media have a good moan.

I would love to have a fair Tour de France with no drugs but I would have preferred to watch a 2006 Tour de France where Basso/Ullrich/Sevilla took part. Isn't hindsight a b!tch?

Knee jerk reactions like the Operation Puerto only make the problem worse - innocent riders are without teams and income, sponsors are without star riders, team managers put year long plans in place only to have them smashed by rumours and heresay, the world thinks all cyclists are druggies etc.

There has to be a better way.

The fallout to OP was a kneejerk reaction I agree.

But the UCI has failed in it's duty of care to this sport since Festina 1998 (and arguably before that as well).

OP was designed to show that the UCI were "strong on anti-doping".
What they didn't factor in was the Tour de France winner being caught three weeks later and that OP "evidence" was no existent.

It's a lesson in total and utter incompetence.

And you're right - we're all being shortchanged by this sport.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

I'm not sure the UCI can beat doping. The teams have more money & doctors than the UCI/WADA/national sporting bodies will ever have.

It's a bit like crime in South Africa - the police have 9mm pistols and the hardline criminals have AK47's... Guess who wins most of the time?

Ah if only human integrity beat human greed.

A lot of us were bitching about that when we first heard they got kicked.


I can't imagine a worse scenario to have happened to pro cycling's credibility: first they lose several of their star players on the eve of the Big Dance for suspicion of doping, then the winner of the same gets the boot for the same reason.

The only thing worse might be if LA came out and admitted he doped during his years.

On second thought, that might actually be helpful at this point.

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"Bush is the first President to admit to an impeachable offense."

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