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Everybody is doping and has not stopped. The numbers guys are doing up big climbs do not lie. This goes for every sport. In cycling, look at what the Brits hav

Everybody is doping and has not stopped. The numbers guys are doing up big climbs do not lie. This goes for every sport. In cycling, look at what the Brits have been doing the past few years- they look like zombies, but they stay healthy and can put out superhuman power. Revolutionary stuff! Re Lance: Everybody was. Lance was just an exceptional asshole who ruined other people's careers and was widely disliked. Contador, Nibali, Wiggins... not huge assholes. Liars, yes, but not assholes.

braythwayt 11y ago
Astana and Sky are ridiculously good. They go to the front of the peloton and start putting out the power, and the other teams are shattered. One by one the domestiques drop off like flies until the leaders from the other teams are isolated. Astana have had a series of embarrassing drug busts, and were supposed to be dropped from World Tour status as punishment, but they bought their way back in. Sky alone manages to remain untainted by drug busts. Presumably, their “incremental gains” are as good as everyone else’s nighttime EPO micro-dosing out of pig’s bladders.
- rurban 11y ago
  Sky most likely has similar protection as the US team had in the last decade.
marincounty 11y ago
Lance lost my respect when he sued other people for telling the truth. I will never understand using money/legal system to manipulate your ongoing lie, and livelihood. Disgusting! That said, I don't care about the drugs, or that he lied. If he didn't ruin other people's lives--I would still like the dude. I honestly don't think the drugs played the role we think in his victories. I said it. I know everyone will disagree. I remember his Doctor/Coach being attacked in a interview. That Italian Doctor, I forget his name. His doctor said, 'The main reason Lance won those races is because of the placebo effect. Lance thought those drugs would help him perform better, and magically his body performed better." Just like the Placebo Effect operates? I doubt Lance knew anything about the Placebo Effect? He strikes me as a perfect candidate for a Placebo response? (Kinda dumb, and believes whatever that doctor told him?). I do wonder if all that training brought on his cancer? It just doesn't seem healthy to train that rigriously? We will probally never know why he got cancer, but I wish researchers would follow these bikers for the next two decades, and see if their is a correlation between extreme training and cancer. The results would be skewed because of all the drug use going on, but I feel they should be studied anyways.
- Doctor_Fegg 11y ago
  > That Italian Doctor, I forget his name Michele Ferrari.
ablation 11y ago
>> This goes for every sport. Indeed. One only has to look at the recent rash of doping convinctions in MMA (and convenient short-notice "injuries" before fights) following introduction of more doping scrutiny as one piece of anecdotal evidence of this. But across sport, it's endemic. Heck, the NFL practically allows doping.[1] And let's not forget baseball.[2] The only reason why certain sports receive more attention than others is due to their prior association with doping, in some weird circular logic. The Tour has Lance, baseball as Rodriguez, MMA has Anderson Silva, and so on. But look at soccer. Strange that there is so little discussion about doping in soccer. And strange there have been so few convinctions for doping in soccer. Similarly rugby. They're not sports traditionally associated with it. But back to the main topic: the Tour. Yes, some performances this year have been dramatic such as Froome's acceleration on that first proper climb. Yes the pace of the tours is still high. It's clear the peloton is not clean, whatever that means and however it breaks down. Lance was just the king rat bully who went so far as to - like you say - "ruined it" for everyone else. But I'm always very sceptical of armchair power analysis as evidence of doping, no matter how interesting it is. We need more stringent independent testing - IF we want the sport to be clean, which is a different matter entirely. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/sports/27iht-nfl.1.9522468.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/sports/27iht-nfl.1.9522468... [2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23578738 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23578738
fasteo 11y ago
>>> This goes for every sport .. and many professions. Popping Aderalls is doping for geeks much like EPO is doping for cyclists.

braythwayt 11y ago

Astana and Sky are ridiculously good. They go to the front of the peloton and start putting out the power, and the other teams are shattered. One by one the domestiques drop off like flies until the leaders from the other teams are isolated. Astana have had a series of embarrassing drug busts, and were supposed to be dropped from World Tour status as punishment, but they bought their way back in. Sky alone manages to remain untainted by drug busts. Presumably, their “incremental gains” are as good as everyone else’s nighttime EPO micro-dosing out of pig’s bladders.

rurban 11y ago
Sky most likely has similar protection as the US team had in the last decade.

marincounty 11y ago

Lance lost my respect when he sued other people for telling the truth. I will never understand using money/legal system to manipulate your ongoing lie, and livelihood. Disgusting! That said, I don't care about the drugs, or that he lied. If he didn't ruin other people's lives--I would still like the dude. I honestly don't think the drugs played the role we think in his victories. I said it. I know everyone will disagree. I remember his Doctor/Coach being attacked in a interview. That Italian Doctor, I forget his name. His doctor said, 'The main reason Lance won those races is because of the placebo effect. Lance thought those drugs would help him perform better, and magically his body performed better." Just like the Placebo Effect operates? I doubt Lance knew anything about the Placebo Effect? He strikes me as a perfect candidate for a Placebo response? (Kinda dumb, and believes whatever that doctor told him?). I do wonder if all that training brought on his cancer? It just doesn't seem healthy to train that rigriously? We will probally never know why he got cancer, but I wish researchers would follow these bikers for the next two decades, and see if their is a correlation between extreme training and cancer. The results would be skewed because of all the drug use going on, but I feel they should be studied anyways.

Doctor_Fegg 11y ago
> That Italian Doctor, I forget his name Michele Ferrari.

ablation 11y ago

>> This goes for every sport. Indeed. One only has to look at the recent rash of doping convinctions in MMA (and convenient short-notice "injuries" before fights) following introduction of more doping scrutiny as one piece of anecdotal evidence of this. But across sport, it's endemic. Heck, the NFL practically allows doping.[1] And let's not forget baseball.[2] The only reason why certain sports receive more attention than others is due to their prior association with doping, in some weird circular logic. The Tour has Lance, baseball as Rodriguez, MMA has Anderson Silva, and so on. But look at soccer. Strange that there is so little discussion about doping in soccer. And strange there have been so few convinctions for doping in soccer. Similarly rugby. They're not sports traditionally associated with it. But back to the main topic: the Tour. Yes, some performances this year have been dramatic such as Froome's acceleration on that first proper climb. Yes the pace of the tours is still high. It's clear the peloton is not clean, whatever that means and however it breaks down. Lance was just the king rat bully who went so far as to - like you say - "ruined it" for everyone else. But I'm always very sceptical of armchair power analysis as evidence of doping, no matter how interesting it is. We need more stringent independent testing - IF we want the sport to be clean, which is a different matter entirely. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/sports/27iht-nfl.1.9522468.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/sports/27iht-nfl.1.9522468... [2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23578738 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23578738

fasteo 11y ago

>>> This goes for every sport .. and many professions. Popping Aderalls is doping for geeks much like EPO is doping for cyclists.