posted Jul 28, 2008

Don't think Cavendish is going to need this sort of help. Glad that Freire took the green jersey though, it couldn't have a more deserving owner.

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posted Jul 29, 2008

My answer to iaindw333 who wrote "just ban all spanish riders and there goes half the doping problem".
Dear iaindw,
It is not that "all spanish" riders cheat. It's just a statistical question: there are more spanish riders than those of other citizenships. Maybe some people like you envy the present success of Spaniards in different sports. Sheer jealousy!!!

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posted Jul 29, 2008

Definitely on the up.

Providing they all keep clean, the line up of favourites along with expected progress from youngsters like Kreuziger and A.Schleck promises an even better race in next year's edition.


As a Spaniard, I'm saddened and worried at the still lukewarm approach to doping on behalf of Spanish sports' governing bodies, but that doesn't mean all our competitors are spiked and yes, I do think Iain's comment has a little spite or envy enclosed.

However, Juliana, isn't it a shade worrying that 50% of the positive cases this year were Spanish while nowhere near 50% of the riders were Spanish?

IMHO, Spanish sports fans should lead the way to claiming better efforts to clean up our sports, since the press and authorities still seem to prefer the 'ostrich approach'. (The way the "Operación Puerto" scandal was closed is simply appalling.)

We all want to think and believe our champions are clean: Sastre, Contador and the rest of them in other sports. Taking a much firmer stance against the cheats is the only way to secure this.

Viva España.

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posted Jul 29, 2008

The double standards regarding Operacion Puerto is simply disgusting. So there are alledgely well known Spanish footballers and Tennis players 'getting away with murder'. Something stinks - and journalists from those sports laugh at cycling for it's doping problem.

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posted Jul 29, 2008

Andy - I fully agree with your comment, but this doesn't subtract from the appalling manner in which Spanish authorities 'buried' the case.

As a result, a host of riders have been left with a question mark over their heads due to the obscurity of it all.

I love cycling, have done ever since I first came into contact with the sport in the early 80s, and have defended it through the thick and thin.

I also agree that cycling has been made the scapegoat for doping in the world of pro sports, unfairly so because the efforts made to pursue doping in this sport are second to none, but the fact remains that Spanish authorities are yet to act as firmly as other countries in the pursuit of cheats in sport.

Only once have I truly seen a Spanish sportsman obliterated in our press over a doping scandal: cross country skiier Johann Müehlegg, a German-turned-Spaniard because he was kicked out of the German team. That wouldn't do, and overnight the press turned on "Juanito", once again making him a German. Such hypocrisy!

Until now, when there has been rather timid albeit promising condemnation of Dueñas and Beltrán, Spanish cheats have virtually always been awarded the benefit on the doubt in our rags. Open-water swimmer David Meca is almost a national hero who capitalised on his fame by undertaking channel crossing and other promotional events during and after a 2 year competitive ban from the sport for doping.

As a result of our national bodies' attitudes, the talent and exploits of great riders such as Contador or Valverde are constantly questioned and I'm sure that, providing they're clean, they're the first who'd like Spanish authorities to stamp down for once and for all.

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posted Jul 29, 2008

As someone who has got back into watching cycling in the last three years I would say that it is definitely on the up. But then it would have struggled to go further down without dying.

Teams like Garmin and Columbia are leading the way and I would like to see more teams be more public with the way they test. With the sport being so low they need to innovate and lead the way in testing, so blood, DNA profiling, whatever is possible. Be whiter than white and people will start to believe. How about the same for athletics?

However, I was disappointed that the teams with a cheat in did not get thrown out. I fully understand that it is extremely harsh on the rest of the cyclists but peer pressure is very powerful and if you knew that a colleague was doing something that could lead you to be kicked out after three weeks of pain you would be much more likely to try and get him out. Plus the managers would be far more concerned about their riders knowing their sponsors' reactions.

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posted Jul 29, 2008

I notice it is a cyclist and not a footballer that has yet to have a suspect drug test and I hope Bastianelli's explanation is good http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/cycling/7529836.stm but I don't readily suspect it will be so.

Now, I am not in the footballing nation of England, it strikes me as some sort of complex that those defending cycling again resort to saying, "well footballers are named too": I do not say anything wanting to offend anyone's sensibilities on this issue.

I personally wish this cyclist is clean. The details of the story is about some "dietary" substance found.

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posted Jul 29, 2008

Ricco caught by a designer molecule? Correct? The one Spaniard, was it Beltran caught because it was an amatuerish attempt at doping possibly? So, four caught, two through the two manners stated. We can hope that better times are coming.

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posted Jul 29, 2008

Ricco was caught through an extra module which was added to the 3rd gen EPO on request of anti-doping agencies, yeah.

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posted Jul 30, 2008

definitely on the up - and so is the beautiful sport of cycling!!

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