Former Junior World Champion, Mark Scanlon announced his retirement today.
http://www.rte.ie/sport/cycling/2007/0822/scanlon.html
http://www.rte.ie/sport/cycling/2007/0822/scanlon.html
Mark Scanlon : retires
- Thread starter limerickman
- Start date
That is a shame. It makes me feel old because I always thought of him as a promising young rider. I guess he has really been around for a number of years now. Time flies.limerickman said:
He went to the USA this season (Toyota-United). One of the reasons to leave Europe was the doping culture in European cycling.Gregers said:
cyclingheroes said:
The USA ? Where's there's no testing.... just like the good old days in Europe....
cyclingheroes said:
Scanlon was interviewed on Newstalk yesterday evening :
He said that doping wasn't the primary reason for his retiring : he said that he had not been as motivated to train/race as he should been since 2005.
In hindsight he said that his refusing a team place for the 2005 TDF was the first indication that he wasn't as committed to cycling as he should have been.
He said that to try to change his outlook he moved from AG2R to Navigators hoping that a change of scene would help him.
He said that AG2R had been a very good team and that they'd done everything they could for him - but that his morale had not been 100%.
He said that even with the move to Navigators that he still could not rekindle the commitment.
He said that he trained at 90% and dieted to 90% : but that he could not motivate himself to put in the extra 10% through 2006.
he said that professional cycling requires 100% dedication and that he could not muster that level of commitment.
As if his commitment had been questioned because of the doping controversies - Scanlon replied that the doping was an issue but that his commitment to the sport coupled with the ongoing doping saga made it difficult to stay in the sport.
He said that AG2R operated a clean policy.
(CH was Mancebo at AG2R at the time of OP?????).
The program played a previous interview in which Paul Kimmage and Scanlon were talking last year.
In it Kimmage said that Scanlon was the most naturally gifted rider that this country had ever produced.
He said that in ability terms he exceeds Kelly and Roche.
And with that in mind, KImmage said that he fully understood what state the sport is in - when a guy who is as good as Scanlon could not get the results which his early form had indicated (Scanlon was junior world champion in 1998).
Personally I know from speaking to Paddy Marry (Scanlons coach) that Scanlon's physiological profile was at the top of the elite level in the professional sport.
limerickman said:
He was and retired as soon as OP broke... sent a text message to Moreau confessing to blood doping and apologised to later come back and say he didn't dope...... AG2R had to pay out his 1.2 million euro salary a year till the end of this year based on the fact that Mancebo was never sanctioned......
Being world junior champ isn't always an indication someone is going to be a superstar. Simply look at the list of world junior champions for confirmation. Sure there's are plenty of gooduns, but not all of them were stars at the elite level. I also think that Kimmage forgets (he shouldn't, having know Roche as a young lad) just how good Kelly and especially Roche were at a young age. Roche won 17 races as a 19-20 yo amateur in France and Paris-Nice as a 21yo in his second month as a pro!!!!! Scanlon never even looked like performing at the level IMO.limerickman said:
classic1 said:
I take your point.
There have been a lot of guys who were stars at junior/underage level who
never followed through at the highest level.
Kimmages point I think was that physiologically, Scanlon for his age was at higher level than kelly/Roche.
Of course performance doesn't always come down to who's physiologically best suited : but it does give some indication as to the persons capacity do perform and do well.
classic1 said:I was gonna say he always looked fat to me (yes, I have seen him in the flesh), and appeared to be too nice to be a top pro, but that would be mean.
Yeah - his appearance looked deceptive.
I saw a photo of Scalon in our national newspapers taken the day before he rode the national road race championship here and in the photo he looked like he was carrying a few pounds.
But I saw him the next day "live" and he looked lean.
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