The whole thing stinks, and not just because of the few riders that officials of various ilk have chosen to scape-goat for suspect reasons.
Such negative publicity is a real black eye for competitive cycling in general. I think the unfortuntate outcome is that the general public gets the impression that it is all due to a few cylists trying to evade the well intentioned sanctioned bodies who appear to be trying to stop it. The reality is that the cyling ruling bodies are too concerned about bickering amongst themselves than doing anything about the situation, otherwise they could have stopped this whole fiasco from happening in the first place. They probably fear that there would be no one left to start the Tour if they had acted pre-emptively and uniformly (and they might be right)!
And look what happened to Rasmussen, he was never nailed by any testing (and he must have been tested up the yin yang having the yellow jersey that many days), the corporate sponsors panicked and decided that it was better to get rid of him rather than have him win and stand even a remote risk that he would be implicated later, protect the corporate interest at all cost, but what about Rasmussen? He is now vilified as a cheat, while there is no objective evidence to prove it, while others who are most likely as guilty of such things as all the rest are left to stand on the podium.
There has to be some uniformity of enforcement and proper due process for the riders in order to get past this sad state of affairs.
MarcusR wrote:
In despite of all doping news I did a "clean" 60 km ride yesterday
/MarcusR
Clean eh, Marcus? You expect us to just take your word for it? I know you Swedish riders all too well. My Swedish friend always rides unaturally well after eating a big plate of Janson's Temptation; if that is not doping I don't know what is
I have to admit to some adulteration on last weekends rides as well, before it comes out in the press. Saturday I rode my mtn bike 60 km and 1000 m vertical (almost all on dirt), but I ate a bunch of wild strawberries on the decent, I know they are a banned performance enhancing substatnce but I could not resist the temptation.
Sunday, Wolf Creek pass 100 km and 1000 plus m vertical, but I cheated again near the finnish by stopping at the little raod side cafe for a hot fudge sunday, I am so ashamed...
John.[/quote]
