(Untitled)

[morganmuffle]

So there appears to be HP racewank again (sometimes you do kind of wonder if people were paying attention the first time round *sighs* still I haven't read stuff properly and likely won't till this evening so *shuts up*)

Anyway I'm still in a cycling frame of mind.

Comments

[ringlunatic]

Rabobank definitely stays. The only thing they are considering to change is to make the Rabobank team completely Dutch, cause now they have non-Dutch in it too. This idea was already there before the recent rumors of having country teams in the Tour again.

And I agree with you on David Millar. He seems to really have learned from his past mistakes and seems so utterly honest when he talks about the fight against doping. His reaction on Vino was heartbreaking!

[morganmuffle]

The only thing they are considering to change is to make the Rabobank team completely Dutch, cause now they have non-Dutch in it too.
Ah, I hadn't seen that, thank you! The T-Mobile thing seems likely to just involve changing rather than pulling out altogether (and honestly their programme is great anyway) because they've got their women's team too.

I actually wrote and then deleted (because I don't want to tempt fate :P) a sentence that started "I refuse to believe that any man who bursts into tears on discovering one of his favourite cyclists was a doper would EVER do that to us again..."

[mrs_redboots]

The trouble with Millar is that he protests too much! I'm sure he is clean now, but he goes on about it so much you wonder....

And, as Jacques Anquetil so famously said, you can't do the Tour on mineral water.

We shall see....

[morganmuffle]

Millar has that over-enthusiasm of an addict who is now clean or a smoker now trying to ban all smoking and I can see that his attitude looks weird to some people but I have to say it doesn't make me wonder.

I have to say I always thoguht that Anquetil quote was a little silly. Of course you can't but then that doesn't mean they're all doping which is what it sounds like.

I may be proved wrong again but far beyond the fact that it'd be stupid for David Millar to risk getting caught again I do believe that he know sees what doping is doing to the sport and that he wouldn't harm it like that. (and I also believe that Bradley Wiggins is far more vehement than Millar and people don't seem to be doubting him...)

Hugh altitude training all round then *g*

[morganmuffle]

*High

Freduian slip much :P

[mrs_redboots]

I think Anquetil did mean that they were all doping - back in his day, the testing wasn't nearly as effective as it is now.

But there is hope. Twenty years ago, athletics was as riddled with dope scandals as cycling is now, but now it's clean.

Testing in all sports is pretty rigorous nowadays. "Why is it always me?" demanded a friend of mine, on being tested for the second time after a major championship (he didn't know whether to be flattered or annoyed!). In theory I could be tested, although it isn't going to happen - not that I dope, but I have been known to take a Beecham's Powder's capsule to get me through a competition when I've had a bad cold. And a friend of mine, who is on regular doses of morphine, had to jump through all sorts of hoops one year when we did have to sign an anti-doping statement - her doctor had to sign all sorts of things to explain she needed it!

[selenay936]

I almost threw something at my computer moniter when I saw the news about Mayo yesterday. Yup, explains his flaky performance rather too well *sigh* The thought had ocurred to me last week, watching him struggle up mountains some days and be fine on others, but I'd been hoping that I was wrong

[morganmuffle]

I was thinking about the penalties the other day. I think the year's salary thing in the rider's charter is a good step in the right direction.

I don't believe in lifetime bans but I wonder if you put it up to 5 years, or similar, it would effectively be a career ender for any of the odler riders but if a new, young rider were somehow pressured into doping there would be a chance for them to start again if they were determined enough to keep training through their ban.

The frustration at it all is the big thing for me at the moment. How can they do it? Surely they must realise they're likely to get caught and surely they don't like what doping is doing to the sport of cycling! *sighs*

[morganmuffle]

Possibly. All sortsd of ideas are being thrown in the pot at the moment so hopefully something good will come out of it.

The two key posts I've seen are here and here. It's mainly about the use of the word Miscegenation.