SKY & David Walsh



limerickman

Well-Known Member
Jan 5, 2004
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Today's Sunday Times newspaper has a very good article by David Walsh regarding SKY cycling team.

Last November in Manchester England, Dave Brailford, the manager of the SKY team approached Walsh after an Irish doctor became
chief medical officer to the team.
Basically, Brailsford asked Walsh what was the perception of the his team within the sport.
Walsh said that like a lot of people, he wanted to believe but given the sport and it's history.........................after hearing this Brailsford made Walsh an offer that he couldn't refuse.

Namely full access to the team whenever/wherever he wish.
Walsh is calling this an extraordinary offer.

"You join the team, anytime you like, for as long as you like. You live in the hotel, eat with us, attend our meetings. Everything.
Access to all areas and that doesn't mean you get to see only what we want you to see. You want to know what the doctor is carrying, you go to the doctors room and knock on his doctor. He won't have a problem with this. The riders? You speak to who you want, when you want, but try not to **** them off. That's my only issue. Link up with the team any time you want to:when we're in training camp, when we're at a race, we'll find you a room. If we're short a room, our doctor says that you can share with him.
Who you want to talk to is entirely up to you"

Walsh goes on to talk to two young American riders : Joe Dombrowski and Ian Boswell.
Both are new pros and walsh is invited to see them undergoing blood and other tests.
(Dombrowski doesn't like needles and can't bare to look at blood being withdrawn for UCI sample testing).
Dombrowski when he met the tea first was wearing a Liverstrong band. Wiggo told him "for a start, you can take that ****ing this off"
"It was not well received by Bradley. It was little bit uncomfortable for me at the start....."

Brailsfords last words "It is my responsibility to make absolutely sure that we do everything in our power to say to Mrs.Dombrowski and all other riders parents that your son will never be put in a position where he has to decide "should I or shouldn't I dope" If he or any other rider is not good enough to get to the level required by their contract, no one from this team will ever says "there's another way to get there". That will never happen"

It's another really good article and it is a statement of intent by Brailsford.
Walsh has committed to following the team to see especially how Dombrowski and Boswell progress in thie SKY careers.

Unfortunately ST's article are subscription one but I'll keep ye updated with further updates when they're published.
 
Originally Posted by limerickman .



Last November in Manchester England, Dave Brailford, the manager of the SKY team approached Walsh after an Irish doctor became
chief medical officer to the team.
Basically, Brailsford asked Walsh what was the perception of the his team within the sport.
Walsh said that like a lot of people, he wanted to believe but given the sport and it's history.........................after hearing this Brailsford made Walsh an offer that he couldn't refuse.

Namely full access to the team whenever/wherever he wish.
Walsh is calling this an extraordinary offer.

"You join the team, anytime you like, for as long as you like. You live in the hotel, eat with us, attend our meetings. Everything.
Access to all areas and that doesn't mean you get to see only what we want you to see. You want to know what the doctor is carrying, you go to the doctors room and knock on his doctor. He won't have a problem with this. The riders? You speak to who you want, when you want, but try not to **** them off. That's my only issue. Link up with the team any time you want to:when we're in training camp, when we're at a race, we'll find you a room. If we're short a room, our doctor says that you can share with him.
Who you want to talk to is entirely up to you"
This is quite an eye opener for me. Unlimited access to the team? That's unprecedented, isn't it? I will always retain a healthy amount of skepticism concerning doping in professional cycling, but this goes a hell of a long way to convince me that SKY is doing something right.
 
In some circles there's been considerable criticism of Sky, usually of the sort as, "They're so good, they have to be using something," or speculation on past use by the older riders and fair enforcement of they're zero-tolerance rule.

While I'm not sure about the past, I'm confident that their anti-doping program is as faithful and effective as that of any other team.
 
A report about a speech given by David Walsh yesterday http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jan/28/lance-armstrong-sundaytimes

The comments section makes for interesting reading
 
thanks for the link, lim. shouldn't be very long before someone else tweets about all those getting rich off a sports figure's downfall and taking of the victory laps and such.
 
Originally Posted by slovakguy
thanks for the link, lim. shouldn't be very long before someone else tweets about all those getting rich off a sports figure's downfall and taking of the victory laps and such.
No problem, slovak.

I'm reading Jeremy Whittle's book "Bad Blood" at the moment and in it he discusses how Walsh and journalists like him were completely boycotted during the 1999-2010 era by the sport.
It's a good read especially with the benefit of hindsight
 
limerickman said:
A report about a speech given by David Walsh yesterday http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jan/28/lance-armstrong-sundaytimes The comments section makes for interesting reading
Yeah... Why is it when anything relating to transparency and "drugs in cycling" does Armstrong need to be brought into the discussion. It's bad enough that we get a butt load of articles in all the cycling mags that always seem to hark back to the date of the "reasoned decision." Rider X was banned for using EPO. This comes 397.25 days after Armstrong was banned for blah blah blah. Give it another 6 years and we may hear "Chris Froome wins his 7th Tour. This comes 7 years after Lance was **** canned for doping" Forget BC and AD, we're living in 1 RD.
 
Originally Posted by swampy1970


Yeah... Why is it when anything relating to transparency and "drugs in cycling" does Armstrong need to be brought into the discussion.

It's bad enough that we get a butt load of articles in all the cycling mags that always seem to hark back to the date of the "reasoned decision." Rider X was banned for using EPO. This comes 397.25 days after Armstrong was banned for blah blah blah. Give it another 6 years and we may hear "Chris Froome wins his 7th Tour. This comes 7 years after Lance was **** canned for doping"

Forget BC and AD, we're living in 1 RD.
I guess the man who brought Armstrong down will always be linked.
That isn't David Walsh's fault.

I'm more interested in the fact that David Walsh was asked to address a prestigious gathering. Hence my post.
 
Didn't deserve another thread rather than fritzing up this one - or was this one just to happy and needed some Armstrong chucked in to bring us all back to "the good old days" of dopers. Maybe it's all about dopers and I'm missing the point. Everyone digs Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx and Kelly - all of which doped up the ass for years so maybe it's time for a happy happy joystrong thread. Go Mapei!
 
Originally Posted by swampy1970

Didn't deserve another thread rather than fritzing up this one - or was this one just to happy and needed some Armstrong chucked in to bring us all back to "the good old days" of dopers.

Maybe it's all about dopers and I'm missing the point. Everyone digs Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx and Kelly - all of which doped up the ass for years so maybe it's time for a happy happy joystrong thread. Go Mapei!
I'll decide what can and what cannot be posted here, thanks.

You "forgot" to include Tom Simpson in your list.

The fact that you supported Armstrong throughout telling and sundry here that there was no evidence that Armstrong doped and therefore he did not dope, is noted.
 
You'll decide what's posted here - sounds very dictator like. You never really hear too many people talking about Mr Tom, which is why I didn't mention him. I didn't mention Roche (or the rest of the Carrera Team) but could have - maybe you should have noted that. Let the hypocrisy continue. Shame to **** up a good thread about Team Sky.
 
shouldn't be necessary to point out this fact to anyone who had been here for any length of time, but hardly any thread in these many forums stays on topic forever. to raise the alarm about this veering slightly off course, especially as walsh is part of the thread title, seems disingenuous at best.
 
Originally Posted by swampy1970

You'll decide what's posted here - sounds very dictator like.

You never really hear too many people talking about Mr Tom, which is why I didn't mention him. I didn't mention Roche (or the rest of the Carrera Team) but could have - maybe you should have noted that.

Let the hypocrisy continue.

Shame to **** up a good thread about Team Sky.
Oh, if I was a dictator, let me assure that we would not be having this exchange.

You also managed to forget to mention David Millar. And Sir David Brailsford who was present when Millar had his, err, difficulties.

You have been shown to be on the wrong side of the Armstrong doping issue throughout cyclingforums.com.

I suggest that you consider re-directing your frustration elsewhere.
 
As I said with Armstrong I'll give him the doubt until either he fails a test, there is a mountain of evidence (not he said she said banter) or he admits it. The latter two happened so he now gets lumped in to the "less than saintly but no less fun to watch" group with nearly all your favorite riders. I didn't mention David Millar because of his sanctimonious drivel that he feels the need to spout on TV every time someone is busted. Can't stand the guy. I don't want to listen to him harp on for a quarter of a show answering the same questions as they asked the last time someone was caught. But as you failed to notice my gripe isn't with any of the riders it's the fact that way too many stories in the cycling mags or threads on message boards get ruined because someone has to turn a good read into mush by bringing up Armstrong and doping again for the umpteenth thousandth time. Hey, did you hear, Armstrong doped!
 
Originally Posted by swampy1970

As I said with Armstrong I'll give him the doubt until either he fails a test, there is a mountain of evidence (not he said she said banter) or he admits it. The latter two happened so he now gets lumped in to the "less than saintly but no less fun to watch" group with nearly all your favorite riders.
Reasonable enough.

I was always open to the idea that Armstrong doped, but I didn't want to accuse him until I was sure. But if I had read Lance to Landis when it first came out, I would have jumped on him a lot sooner.
 

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