RonSonic said:A player on my local pro baseball team failed a drug test. He has been suspended
for 50 games. There were no leaks about this case before the official
announcement. There was no attempt to change the record book and rescore the
games he played. The penalty assessed does not ruin his entire career. The
conduct of the lab and sanctioning body were so scrupulous that there is no
question of the test's validity.
Those are the things that are wrong with doping in cycling. The athletes are,
aside from a notable lack of agility and upper body mass, pretty much the same
as any other athletes. The sanctioning agencies and WADA and the blithering
incompetent labs are the difference.
dumbass,
the avg. rbr simpleton doesn't understand that cycling VOLUNTARILY*
accepted the WADA code. the code itself is a compromise which was
written in a way to bring all the sports federations aboard.
that's where the automatic 2-yr suspensions come from. when they did
that they gave up a lot of autonomy, but also a lot of power to deal
with a problem in the optimal way.
on top of that cyclists and support personnel have been getting in
trouble with the LAW, which is a PR problem that can't be ignored.
a good example of baseball dealing with a potentially damaging scandal
was the case of pete rose and his gambling. that was an issue that hit
at the integrity of the game. drugs in ball sports don't really do
that.
in cycling on the other hand, blood doping and other unallowed methods
of boosting aerobic power are cheating at the fundamental skill of the
sport. this makes them different than abuse of uppers, diuetics,
steroids, etc.
pete rose never admitted to gambling on baseball at the time despite
the overwhelming circumstantial evidence but the bosses were still
able to deal with him in a way that said to the public -- "look we
don't have a gambling problem in the game, because look at the severe
penalty we handed out when we found one".
any observer with half a brain who sees that the OP evidence (even
before the DNA tests and Basso's non-admission) and sees it still
isn't enough for the bosses to hand down penalties will have zero
faith in the integrity of the sport. but because of WADA their hands
are tied.
if you had a business and you thought an employee was stealing, you
would either a) look at the evidence and make a decision or b) look
for more evidence before making a decision. you wouldn't wait until
the police or some regulating body caught them. you could be wiped out
by the time that happens.
if cycling was independent and run like a business (like MLB
is...sorta) when it suspected a problem it could've sought evidence,
held inquiries, heard testimonies, done whatever tests in the labs
they wanted to and dealt with the problem - at least to the
satisfaction of the fans, and more importantly the sponsors.
instead the only way the OP stuff is going ahead is because forces
outside of cycling are pursuing things.
desite what the confused people in this group think, the UCI and the
gov. bodies are the rider's friend. they don't want to suspend their
own riders. they are forced to, because of the agreements that exist
between the UCI and WADA.
until people understand that we'll keep getting incoherent and
confused rants, just look at the cyclingnews letters.
