Originally Posted by
swampy1970 .
Hey, I come from the county where doping in cycling probably began. Good ol' Choppy Warburton! A Lancashire lad that was an athelete, coach and probably the first to administer drugs to a cyclist and have them die during competition....Strychnine, not too good for the ol' body apparently
But back to the comment of saddle sniffers - so the legions of folks who idolised Kelly for being the hard b#stard that he was, were saddle sniffers too? I remember him being mentioned with God like reverence whenever he was spoken about in England and he was spoken about a lot - much like Lance is to alot of cyclists in the US. An ace guy who could be counted on to give it his all but unlike Millar who was dumb enough to leave his needles and stash of goodies out in the appartment, Kelly was even dumber and use his mechanics ****... and mechanic who was up 18 hours a day taking speed. Doh! Playing "hide the sample" with someone elses pee - worse than saddle sniffing.
I have no problem with Lance being nailed to the cross and being made to pay for his sins - if it turns out that he was guilty. I expect they'll get him for something but like most of Novitsky's other cases it won't be directly for drug use.
My only problem with this "investigation" is that it's costing way too much for a return that'll be very little - even if he Lance goes down. With the money spent on something that really isn't that important in the grand scheme of things you could have funded the entire education budget for a big City for a year. Know what I mean, jelly bean?
As a general rule, I tend to ignore comments from folks who were used to the good times and now that everything is shot to hell and they have nothing decide to come out and make "statements", especially like Tyler and Floyd. Very convenient for Tyler that it mystically just happened that the Tour of California was on AND that he's gonna have a book out soon... and that he's got no contract and a relies on a bit of a part time training job for his $'s. Same with the massage bint, who the last I heard was working in merry ol' Manchester. Was once on great money and now isn't. Funny how none of those people said anything while their pockets were being lined with the almighty dollar. Now, if they'd had quit USPS and said something then I'd give it more credence.
Personally, I have my doubts about a fair few of the GB track squad which may/may not be linked to the UCI "guilty as sin" table leaked last week and a fair number of the Team Sky (Brailsford does, or at least did, both Team Sky and the track squad for those who aint aware) who ranked very poorly. Wiggo too, although I don't recall his name being that high up on the list.
But, as with all the greats gone by who were mostly guilty of failing dope tests, I'll still live in awe of the savage attacks that Lance did in the mountains. Do I care that he may/may not have doped? Sure, it takes the edge off the achievements but if I ignored everyone who doped there'd be very little in the way of cycling heros that I grew up admiring left.