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Commentary: Fans Want Cyclists to Dope
From the article:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Robert Messenger Only at TNR Online | Post date 07.27.07 Revelations of illegal doping have marred yet another Tour de France. On Tuesday, the Astana team pulled out of the race after its star, Alexandre Vinokourov, tested positive for blood-doping. The Cofidis team followed them out the door on Wednesday after Cristian Moreni tested positive for synthetic testosterone. And, that same day, the Tour's leader, Michael Rasmussen, was fired by his team for missing doping tests earlier this year and lying to his employers about his whereabouts. As the Tour rides to its conclusion in Paris this weekend, cycling commentators and officials have been trying hard to cheer the success of the sport's war against doping: The cheaters are being caught, they say. "Things are changing. Yesterday, riders sat down against doping at the start of the stage. Ten years ago those riders would have been sitting down against drug tests," said Patrice Clerc, the head of the Tour's organizing group. But there is a very deep hypocrisy at work here. Many of the sport's officials, team managers, and commentators are ex-racers, men who have long been a part of the sport's doping culture. CSC's manager, Bjarne Riis, this spring admitted that he took EPO, a blood-doping agent, to win the 1996 Tour de France. Rolf Aldag admitted using EPO between 1995 and 1999, but remains a T-Mobile sporting manager. The manager of T-Mobile when both Riis and Aldag raced for it, Walter Godefroot, came out of retirement this spring to help oversee Vinokourov's Astana team. The team that has just fired Rasmussen has one Erik Breukink as its sporting manager. I remember him as a fine racer who finished third in the 1990 Tour. In 1991, he was suited up for the powerhouse PDM team which withdrew all its riders from the Tour with what was variously described as "influenza" and "food poisoning." In reality the riders had been using a nutritional supplement that masked the presence of anabolic steroids in their urine and left the Tour at the organizers' behest to save a scandal. The team and the riders weren't punished, and Breukink went on to race for six more years and now to run another powerful cycling team. The list could go on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read it at http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w0723...essenger072707 (get a login & password at http://www.bugmenot.com/view/www.tnr.com) J. Spaceman |
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#2
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Commentary: Fans Want Cyclists to Dope
On Jul 28, 9:35 am, Jason Spaceman
wrote: But there is a very deep hypocrisy at work here. Many of the sport's officials, team managers, and commentators are ex-racers, men who have long been a part of the sport's doping culture. J. Spaceman Bruyneel isn't a glaring ommision of all these names... not glaring at all ! Double standards in the press? What???? That article is a dime a dozen and with it's selective name-dropping is quite frankly misleading. Is it accidentally left out? Or is he catering for his public? Journalism? bad if you can call it that. |
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