ODH_Bikes said:I think it's great. I doubt he is accusing the Jr's of doping, just
making a statement. The more juniors know about the problem, and
embrace the problem, the better. The fight against doping needs to be
seen as...for lack of a better words, "cool." Dirty coaches will have
a harder time approaching these kids if the kids have already mad up
their mind that doping is gay.
Otherwise, a high profile coach can easily take a Jr under his wing,
and steer him in the wrong direction. For example, Decanios old write
up on the "Class of 95" These were the top juniors in the country, and
I am sure they had heard so much about doping in Europe, and how
everyone was on something, it makes the decision to cheat that much
easier. "It's no big deal, everyone dose it"....or "this is what your
going to need to do if you want to be a pro." That's all a junior needs
to hear, from someone they admire...a teammate, a coach. Everyone loves
the idea of being able to ride faster and win races, so convincing
someone of doping can be a real easy sell.
It blows my mind people are not more outspoken about the issue, I cant
believe how many people try to discredit Decanio, rather than embracing
his cause.
Thanks for chiming in Saul, this is exactly what kids need to hear.
--
ODH_Bikes
We've killed this subject here in the past and I'm glad Saul isn't
seeing the drugs and transfusions, but I don't know if the lawsuits
from the past practices of the US National Jrs have been settled. I'd
be shocked if cycling was clean when the estimates run about 30% for
elite HS athletes and doping. I don't have any hard evidence but there
are enough questions surrounding the people involved in the National
Team, and a lot of the Jr teams out there, some of whom are
representing USCF again that I personally was not interested in giving
my kid who was a top 10 Crosser/top 25 roadie, and had a legitimate 4th
in a UCI race, and had raced both in germany and Italy for a German
team to these people.
Luckily after great coaching from the coach of the US Military team,
we came back here to Adam Hodges-Myerson who is as straight edge as it
gets, and who really gives a [censored]. I Was happy as hell to have him
coaching my son. Chris Harnisch cares about the kids, and though I
don't know Fernando Cuevas real well is that he's one of the real good
guys.
We can't whitewash this, and pretend that it hasn't been close to
standard practice in the past for teams coached by people who don't
give a [censored] about anything except winning, and where Darwinism is the
only rule.
I've said this before, and I'll still stand by it. I'd be happier to
put a bunch of kids into cat3 and having fun racing, and who were going
to stay with it, than driving 9 out of 10 from the sport to get 1 cat1.
I don't think that most of the "development teams" even get that many
kids to stay in and become 1s.
This is first and foremost about developing cycling, not stroking your
own ego by wrecking kids to get 1 star. Losers who are willing to
sacrifice all these kids to gratify their egos need to be driven out of
the sport, not elected or hired to national office.
Bill C
