"Speed Trap" Interesting book.

In article <[email hidden]>, Sandy

Quoted message said:

Once you abandon the jargon ("performance enhancing drugs"😉 and deal
exclusively with _cheating_ you can make more sense of the problem. A
body that endures a 3-week tour is in constant need of recuperation,
some of which may involve prohibited means. A body that trains more
than 15 hours of week may have similar yet lower needs. Maintaining
health is not cheating.

I disagree. If further participation in a contest seriously imperils
health, the competitor can and should withdraw, painful a move as that
is. Or he can forge on, honorably, in a diminished capacity, calculated
to sustain his health or dignity. Continuing by illicit means *is*
cheating.

You touch upon another topic: the rigors imposed by a Grand Tour may
require recourse to currently prohibited therapies to maintain health.
If it's established that the prevalence of such a dilemma is sufficient
perhaps the UCI/ProTour should reexamine its prohibitions and/or
reconfigure the contests to be less rigorous (1 or 2 more rest days,
shorter stages?).

But I'm unaware of medical consensus on the therapeutic necessity of
the doctor's mystical potions. I'd like to think that many compete
fairly; and that those that do undermine such an assertion. Perhaps
competitors requiring extra-legal means shouldn't be participating in
the first place. Why should the rules be modified to defer to them,
comprising the lowest denominator as they do? Elite level athletics is
by definition not for everyone.

Quoted message said:

On the other hand, public scandalmongering could become a sport to itself.

Second oldest profession?

Luke

In article <[email hidden]>,

Luke said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Michael Press said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

steve said:

All in all a very interesting read that raises some difficult questions.

Luckily I have some easy answers. Stop talking about
doping, and stop testing for dope. Put the competition
back on the field and out of the tribunals. Take doping
out of the public eye. The higher the of level play, the
more players will seek every advantage on the opposition.
Nevertheless, the strongest team and individual prevail.
What's wrong with the picture I draw?

Well, doping already takes place out of the public eye. ;-) If by your
suggestions you mean to reduce spectators' exposure to the
ramifications of these sordid practices, i.e., the airing of the
sport's dirty laundry, I suspect that would make matters worse.

After all, the quickest way to induce apathy among a constituency and
strangle the sport is to, in effect, instill the notion among fans --
all those voyeuristic virtual participants who pay the freight -- that
they're not worthy to speak to the problems of the sport they love;
that they are superfluous to the proceedings. Limiting fans to shutting
up and showing up for the race will guarantee they won't be fans for
long.

Stopping cheating shouldn't come at the cost of diminishing those that
nurture the enterprise. Let those that cheat be punished; and let the
process that determines culpability be impartial and transparent.
That's the kind of picture I'd like to see.

Some people do not _want_ to know some things. If the
subject is sports as entertainment they have a right to
their illusions. TV, newspapers, radio, and news
organizations have an endless appetite for scandal. Why
feed them? Those who want to know will know.

--
Michael Press

Ryan Cousineau said:

Well, I think it was Francis that claimed that the weird thing about Ben
Johnson's positive was that stanolozol was just about the only steroid
he wasn't on.

I'm not surprised Francis would shoot from the hip like that either...

Quoted message said:

I'm not shocked Pound would have represented Johnson. He was an IOC
member, a countryman, and a lawyer. The third one means that he
understands the idea of being an advocate for the seemingly doomed and
guilty. The fact that he is now head of WADA means he really, really
hates doping. The fact that he is also prone to under-supported

It is a good sign

Quoted message said:

statements and rash conclusions in public means that he is dangerously
close to becoming Sen. Eugene McCarthy: the worst possible proponent of
a noble cause.

If you really mean Eugene M can you give us a link?

--
ciao,
Bruce

drift wave turbulence: http://www.rzg.mpg.de/~bds/

Carl Sundquist said:

"Ron Ruff" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The problem with all this doping BS is that 99% of the athletes don't
really *want* to dope... but the authorities are incapable (and always
will be) of ensuring that their competitors are *not* doping. The dope
works... so do you want to play or not? If you give your competitors an
advantage, then you are pretty much out of the game...

That doesn't explain why people dope for weekday training rides.

Chicks dig it.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bruce Scott TOK [email protected] said:

Ryan Cousineau said:

Well, I think it was Francis that claimed that the weird thing about Ben
Johnson's positive was that stanolozol was just about the only steroid
he wasn't on.

I'm not surprised Francis would shoot from the hip like that either...

Quoted message said:

I'm not shocked Pound would have represented Johnson. He was an IOC
member, a countryman, and a lawyer. The third one means that he
understands the idea of being an advocate for the seemingly doomed and
guilty. The fact that he is now head of WADA means he really, really
hates doping. The fact that he is also prone to under-supported

It is a good sign

Quoted message said:

statements and rash conclusions in public means that he is dangerously
close to becoming Sen. Eugene McCarthy: the worst possible proponent of
a noble cause.

If you really mean Eugene M can you give us a link?

Ah [censored].

The real McCarthy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

Some impostor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_McCarthy

I need a drink,

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos