Crankyfeet said:
I think TDL brings up very valid points. The powers that be have got to deal with information about wrongdoing when it comes out. But they are hamstrung by legal issues. Everyone can be 95% sure that Valverde was a Fuentes doping client, but unless you can prove it in court (and the Spanish authorities release the evidence) it's still conjecture. If they start banning riders because they think it's "likely" they are dopers... then it just becomes a mess... and threatens the rights of all cyclists to exercise their trade without prejudice and kangaroo court judgments.
A similar hypothetical analogy would have occurred if the OJ Simpson trial had happened in the middle of OJ's football career. Assuming there was no civil case to muddy the picture... after being acquitted of murder... the NFL would have had to witness him playing and starring on the football field while perhaps 80% of America thought he was a cold-blooded murderer. To ban him from the NFL would have incited litigation from OJ accusing them of groundless discrimination.
So they have to let Valverde ride IMO... unless fresh evidence comes out that gives them an excuse to take action.
If Valverde is banned on circumstantial linking to Fuentes... we could perhaps ban Cadel Evans similarly based on circumstantial evidence that he worked with Ferrari... though I realise that Fuentes has more legal evidence of doping activities. There are a host of other riders the authorities could ban on reasonable suspicion. IMO, Rass was removed last year based on evidence of an infraction of a rule and a lie.
if I am clean, and I am Cadel Evans calibre, on the cusp on winning. I blow the lid, I create havoc, I call Valv.(piti) for what he is. I don't let him beat me at the Tour, if he is doping.
These guys are alpha male pro sportsman. They don't ride to lose. They ride to win. Some might suck wheels cos they see it as their best chance of winning.
But if you can get in a **** fight to win, why can't you use the press, and take it to Valverde and Contador, and Rasmussen.
Evans is close to winning the Tour, he does not have to worry about making enemies, he only has to look for the wheel of his main threat, and gun the tts. He can create havoc in the press, and really hurt those guys, and turn up the heat.
Yeah, it won't really endear him to the peloton, but if the French peloton is mostly clean, and the peloton getting cleaner, he will not be run out of town like Bassons.
They guy can win the Tour. Use the power, take the fight into the PR sphere, off the bike. Pressure the guys in the media, get the lawyers in, hurt them.
Ofcourse, it won't happen. Evans manager is Rominger ofcourse. And Evans may probably has the same skeletons.