So, here's my prediction. A two year ban for Tom Boonen will be handed down before the end of 2012. Let's face it. He was basically washed up and had not won a big race since April of '09 because of what the pros call "bad luck". Yet so far this year he has won eight races, including the Tour of Flanders (last weekend) and Paris-Roubaix (today with a 50k + solo breakaway), the overall and points jerseys in the Tour of Qatar, and got 2nd in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (part of the UCI 2012 Europe Tour).
Really?
He worked for Johan Bruyneel back in the day which always makes me suspicious (nearly everybody who rides and/or rode for Johan, except, oddly Lance, has gotten banned for being on the juice). If not EPO, then maybe the white powder again.
For sure something isn't on the up-n-up, but who thinks I'm way off base?
I think they should allow everybody to use them and quit pretending that some of our species are superhuman. No one can always be on top of their game without help.
Hmmm. Interesting supposition. I must admit, since I have taken up flashlight collecting in earnest and Velonews started to suck so bad, I have not been following the cycling scene as much as I used to. I watched PR yesterday with interest and it was news to me to hear about Boner's resurgence this season. He certainly did look superhuman yesterday, but that is not a new thing for him and when athletes are truly on form, it usually lasts for weeks. Looking at years past, it is not unusual for one cyclist to dominate one period in the classics. Spartacus did it two years ago in the ToF and PR.
I hope you are not correct, cone, but based on history, I'm afraid you might be. Time will tell and a lot depends on how good Boner's trainers are at hiding it. It was an exciting race yesterday, though. From the looks of it, he was pretty excited over the victory too...
Well, I agree that nothing breeds success like success and failure begets failure. But, as I'm sure you know, the science of peak performance is no secret within the pro peloton. So when a cyclist rides away from the pack with 50k plus to go and another favorite with 3 or 4 teammates in the chase can't bring him back, well, that starts to look suspicious.
I'll add here, that I come from a cycling family (non professional) and that my father came to America as a little boy from Holland in 1954 after the floods devastated Holland in 1953, so Belgian and Dutch cyclists, especially the hard men of the spring classics have always been my heroes. And always will be. So, scheven, please don't think I'm dumping on one of your national heroes for the fun of it; nobody wants a true two wheeled Lion of Flanders more than me. Let's face it, we have Lance in the US and no one is more ashamed of a national hero than me.
Cycling in the modern era, which for me means post the Festina affair, is riddled with remarkable feats which latter turn out to have been accomplished by what are later proven to be cheats. Landis' TDF victory in '06 and Contador's TDF win in '10 come immediately to mind. Frankly, they should have taken Contador's two other TDF championships away as well, along with the rest of his palmares, because now everything he has ever done or will do is in doubt. The rest should suffer the same fate. And then we, as a community, are allowing him to race again. The cheaters should be shunned. Gregory Bauge was just stripped of his world title for doping last week for Heaven's sake.
Vinokourov, Klöden, Ullrich. I could go on and on.
And of course, doping has always gone on. The Dutch team time trial team had to give back their bronze medal at the '72 olympics because of it. As did Tyler Hamilton with his '04 Gold, speaking of Olympic cheats.
Which brings me back to my assertion in the OP that "all roads lead back Johan Bruyneel" Almost every rider of significance (I'll add Ivan Basso, Hincapie, Leipheimer, Popovych, Andreu, Beltrán to those already mentioned) that he has managed has been caught doping (or with the materials to dope) and the one that didn't should have been.
I don't know, I put the small pieces together and they tend to point in a certain direction. As BetweenRides said, I too hope I'm not correct. I love to see amazing feats courage and determination on two wheels- think Flecha and Hoogerland finishing a stage of the TDF where they were clipped by a car and thrown into a barbed wire fence- instead of people, years later, giving back titles they won fraudulently. The former makes me proud to be a human being and the latter, well, that just makes me sad.
It really sucks that we all look at great athletic performances with a tinge of distrust, doesn't it? For me the last straw was Landis (this right after Tyler). To go from cheering on an incredible one day performance to hearing the bad news right after the tour was just too much. I still enjoy watching cycling, I just don't invest too much in believing any athletes are truly heroes.
I've always liked Tomeke, been following him since his freshman year under Bruyneel at U.S. Postal. He's a tough SOB and is a master of his craft. The self inflicted problems he's had over the last three years have been sad, so I hope his resurgence is real. I really hope you are wrong on this one - but time will tell, eh?
The reason drugs shoukd be banned is because it robs the inspiration from sports. To see a regular non-drugged up person do something nearly super human is uplifting. To see a drugged up machine preform the same task is a freakshow. If they just allowed drugs, i wouldn’t watch another race. They are cheaters and not true sportsmen when they take the drugs.
It's the most beautiful sport in the world and it breaks my heart a little (in a manly way) when courage turns to cowardice. I don't even mind the PEDs, per se. Lets face it, is anything in sport harder than being a member of the pro peloton? I think not. With the time limits, even the slowest guy has to be, say 90% as fast as the fastest guy in the world on any given day. Day after day. Year after year. I just think that they should all ride clean, or the UCI should allow it to be the wild, wild west. Only at those to extremes is the road equally level for all.
Well, Lance, it seems will be stripped of his titles. The most beautiful sport in the world and every year it gets harder and harder not to feel bitter and jaded. “Where have all the heroes gone?” Worse of all, you can’t even give most of those titles to the next in line racer because many of them are also on lifetime suspensions. From now on, I say that the 11th placed rider will be declared the winner unless and until 1-10 can prove their innocence.
This may be the darkest of the dark days in cycling my two wheel friends. Very dark indeed.
Ah, cone. Forgot about this thread. Heard the news last night during the brew portion
of Thursday night’s Bike & Brew. I finally decided Lance was a total A-Hole 7 years ago and became convinced he was doping while following the Landis trial. I am actually surprised he threw in the towel on fighting the charges. I’ve been asked by half a dozen people today what I thought about it. My answer is cheaters deserve to be punished to the max.
I know there is a lot of hate for Lance out there but I don’t know, it does seem like sort of a witch hunt to me, I mean he is the most tested athlete in history but to my knowledge he has never once tested positive. Overall it is sad though, especially if he didn’t dope, if he did it’s sad for that reason alone and because he is and has been lying about it ever since. I hope he can still continue to do work through his charity though, they do do good things.
I agree on Livestrong and hope it continues to thrive.
On testing, the authorities are generally years behind the dopers. Marion Jones never tested positive either. If an athlete gets caught it’s usually due to surprise tests, new tests or mistakes. From what I’ve read LA was facing overwhelming evidence in the form of eye witnesses and coroborating facts. It is probably better that it doesn’t go through the trial process, the damage would be worse.
Edit: bose, I for one do not hate LA. I enjoyed following him since 1991 or so. He did an incredible amount of good for cycling and for cancer victims. Now he’s done an equally incredible amount of harm. He is an A-Hole though, most champions are.
Yea, part of my problem with it is most of these witnesses have been banned themselves and have tested positive, one has to wonder if they are doing this because Armstrong did dope or just sour grapes. In all likelihood Armstrong doped, probably a >95% chance he did, but they have never proven it for sure.
I’m not a Lance hater, if fact as an American cyclist, I want to believe. Of course, there is no denying the great things he has done off the bike for cancer. But for years nearly every exceptional rider on USPS and the teams that followed under Johan Bruynee’s leadership, including Frank Schleck at this year’s TDF, have either failed drug tests and or have admitted to there use. Every one but Lance? Plausible, but not likely.
The only on bike performances I can trust are PED free are my own, well, unless they ban cheese, and that doesn’t make me feel to good about a sport/lifestyle that is so intertwined with the Cone family’s life.
I live in the U.S. and while it seems common to believe someone is guilty as soon as they are accused, to say so is slander and to put it in print is libel. My admiration for any athlete is not determined by what is said about him or her in the press. I am disappointed when one falls short but having a few accomplishments of my own only gives me greater respect for them. Drugs or no, athletes on the world stage are capable of incredible efforts and given the widespread usage that is present I find it hard to condemn anyone actually caught. I recently read an article written by a middle aged cyclist from the perspective of a noncompetitor written several years ago who set out to see for himself what the effect of ped’s would be on him and at times the results were very seductive in how GREAT they made him feel. In a time where the rewards can be measured in millions or more and competition is fierce, it is easy to see how they can be seduced. Try to remember just how good all of them are and not get caught up in the media. Root, root, root, for the home team, but role models should have higher standards than physical prowess. EOR.
I hate to beat a dead horse, but… now even Hincapie admits to PEDs. Just saying, if it looks like a dead horse and smells like a dead horse, it is probably a dead horse.
George has always been one of my favorite riders - he did it for the love of the sport, not for the glory. This admission is not news. It has been obvious for some time that USPS was on the juice and LA did not do it all alone. About the only thing good to be said about it is at least it's now out in the open. From 1996 up until the last 2-3 years, the top end (and apparently the middle in a lot of cases) of cycling has been rife with 'enhancement'. I wish George the best.
I couldn’t agree more, BT, but I just wish they would either all come clean and stop or let it be the wild wild west nd let the chips fall where they may.
