posted Jul 25, 2007

FANTASTIC... Tour De France's made newshour on the BBC World service... Whooo...

Put me down for 10 minutes, I don;t live in the UK, so listen to the show as it's the only thing in English I can get. Don't really want to talk too much on the drugs thing though, it's old news, I think you should have a phone in of all the Superstars of yesterday who have knowingly taken a few snorts or whatever, to come clean, I hear it's good for the Soul.

I feel sorry for those who dont take anything and finish way down the list. So much for the idea of it's not the winning its the taking part mentality.

Please contact me via Email,

Ps. any jobs going. I here the BBC are moving up North.... not such a bad place manchester, I may want to come back to UK some day. Do they still race on the A6 at Brock? course ref:L101.

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posted Jul 25, 2007

I travelled to London with my six year old son to watch the star of this year's Tour de France. I have been following cycling for a number of years and had in recent years become disillusioned with the sport. Time after time I had marvelled as riders performed superhuman heroics only to find out later that these heroics were the result of cheating. Cheating the sport. Cheating the fans. Cheating themselves.

My trip to London served to introduce my son to the sport. We had a great time and my son joined the thousands of other spectators shouting his support for competitors as they passed by.

The weekend / experience has now been tarnished as a result of the continuing Rasmussen saga and the Vinokourov expulsion.

How many false dawns must cycling have before it can be truly viewed as a clean sport? What will it take to get us to that seemingly far away position?

Shame. Shame. Shame.

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posted Jul 25, 2007

I'm up for taking part in the 'debate' - although interested to know exactly what we're debating?

Perhaps it's whether we should open the floodgates and let the whole peloton take what they like, whether or not to feed drug cheats to a pack of wild dogs, make Le Tour slightly less than impossible if you're not drugged up to the eye balls, test every competitor before, during and after the stage?

Please feel free to email - I'm from London, but working in Scotland - can't get much more cosmopolitan European than that, surely?

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posted Jul 25, 2007

I suppose it's fair enough that people are upset at another drug scandal in cycling but I think we should also be honest about the sport's past. Cyclists have always been prolific users of anything and everything. It's simply not possible to ride over all those mountains for a month like that on just perrier and a banana. You need all the help you can get.

So, ok, if we want cycling to be clean, so be it, but just don't expect to ever see another Pantani hurtling up the Alpe d'Huez, or a hat trick of successes like Roche's in the 1980s. It'll be like watching today's women sprinters compared to Griffiths Joyner. So, most of all, don't come back here in a few years' time complaining that cycling is dull and there are no more "superheroes" like Armstrong and Indurain.

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posted Jul 25, 2007

honesty and integrity need not be dull.....

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posted Jul 25, 2007

you can count me in for that one please would be very interested to hear the debate considering ive witnessed at first hand doping by a close friend within british cycling

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posted Jul 26, 2007

comment by Whats_the_problem
posted 23 Hours Ago

Dear happy Manc Red,

It is with some distain that I write this article. " distain" means I'm not happy by the way, my wrong dooing may be to presume you are a football supporter, pray silence please..... but if you're looking to pour petrol onto what is already a burning fire, then I'm sure by your comment you are simply joining the band of lemmings (like sheep) who already have jumped on the band wagon. It would be like me saying... " get rid of all the foreign players and owners of British football teams so that we can bring on some 'home grown' players and win some international trophies for a change. Exactly, I would be talking.. nonsense.

Money and sport go hand-in-hand like Robson and Gerome. They'll be hard to seperate, what they are doing is eliminating the Wheat from the Chaff. We are merely spectators and the world is but a stage... You cannot take the money out now.. it's too late. How much do you think these cyclist as professionals earn? It isn't that much... or as a comparison ... as much as footballers. Well done if you can make it earn I say. The funniest moment I had in a road race was whilst looking for my pre race snack, I dropped a pound coin out of my race jersey and there was a 5 bike pile up behind me... One guy behind me said... " bloody hell, if they're that desperate for a quid, I'd hate the see the bunch sprint for the £10 prize at the Line"...Nice one roger H witty people cyclists, you'd have to be to wear Lycra .... name and address supplied. Ex Manchester Lad..

-------------------------

Just to clarify - I am certainly not going to condone alot of things that happen in football (eg diving, ridicuolously excessive wages etc) and drug taking in ANY sport is just plain unacceptable. My main sport is actually cricket and yes there have been drug cheats there as well, but it seems that the extent (and that may be my perception) of drug-taking in cycling seems at be greater than sports like cricket?

You can argue that is because the testing is better in cycling and therefore more people are getting caught - true.

But people are getting caught in relatively large numbers and it raises doubts over the riders who are clean.

so what is the solution?

you have focused on my suggestion about making the sport amateur - this may be a bit more draconian and I admit difficult to impliment, but if as a rider you are pressured into taking substances that will improve performance, but could damage you in the long run - are you more or less likely to take that chance if you are getting paid?

the other point which i think would be a much more practical way to cut the supply of drugs is to stop the teams employing their own doctors and have a group of doctors who are paid by the governing body of the sport. therefore all medical advice is given equally and fairly to all riders with no bias towards particular riders/teams.

thelifetime bans that everyone seems to be advocating are also an option. I must admit that I'm on the fence as to whether they should be for the first offence or second offence as there is such thing as human error in testing.

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posted Jul 26, 2007

by the way I would be happy to take part in any deabte - please contact via email

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