The problem (as I see it) with the TDF expulsion of Rasmussen and the post TDF investigation of Contador is this:
As compared to Vino, who tested positive during the tour, there is nothing new in either of thier cases.
Both riders were allowed to start the TDF with this information being known. This is my entire point. Why is it my entire point? Well because... the santioning bodies did not take action against (ie DQ) either rider before the race. Having made that decision, the only honorable course of action is to have the integrity to honor that decision going forward.
Instead, once these riders are winning, they decide to focus on past information and reopen what should be a closed matter, for motives that appear purely political in nature. This is a complete breakdown in honor and integrity.
This kind of ongoing undertainty, of never putting anything in the past, of bringing the past back to life whenever convenient for political ends... this makes it impossible to ever move forward. They need to make decisions, honor prior decisions, and keep all sanctions and penalties forward looking in nature.
The problem is that unless and until the sanctioning bodies get it together, and start conducting THEMSELVES with honor and integrity, they will find it impossible to rebuild (or perhaps build for the first time in decades) the honor and integrity of the sport.
If you want a clean sport in the future, then you have to start leaving the past in the past. Period.
squeakywheel
07-30-07, 09:20 AM
Are you sure Rasmussen's lying about his whereabouts in the weeks preceding the tour was known before the tour started?
curveship
07-30-07, 09:35 AM
Are you sure Rasmussen's lying about his whereabouts in the weeks preceding the tour was known before the tour started?
Exactly. Before the tour, he was known to have missed them for a clerical error. During the tour, it turned out that he was flat out lying.
And there's also the 2002 shoebox full of doping products story that came out during the tour.
harlond
07-30-07, 11:47 AM
To what post-TdF investigation of Contador are you referring?
* jack *
07-30-07, 12:25 PM
Doping expert levels charges against Contador
A leading German expert in the fight against doping claimed Monday to have evidence indicating that Tour de France winner Alberto Contador had used drugs.
Twenty-four hours after the Spaniard donned the winner's yellow jersey on the Champs Élysées the expert, Werner Franke, described the 24-year-old's victory as "the greatest swindle in sporting history."
Franke bases his claim on documents he says are in his possession from the Spanish police's Operación Puerto inquiry into Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor said to have masterminded doping programs for athletes. Contador was cleared last year by both Spanish investigators and the UCI.
"The name of this Mr Contador appears on several occasions on the court and police documents," Franke told German television station ZDF. "All of this has been simply concealed and hidden under the carpet whilst the name Contador was erased from the list of suspicious riders."
Franke claimed to have a detailed list of banned products used by Contador which appear in sworn statements following the raid on Fuentes' medical practice.
"He took insulin, HMG-Lepori, a hormone to stimulate the secretion of testosterone and also a product for asthma called TGN - in brief I have before my eyes a protocol for doping," he told ZDF.
"All of this has been covered up, at least in Spain," added Franke.
Contador, who inherited the lead in the Tour de France last week upon Michael Rasmussen's expulsion in a dispute over missed drug tests, denied he'd had any links with Fuentes' drugs program.
Speaking after Saturday's penultimate time-trial in Angouleme about why his name had been linked to Fuentes he told reporters: "I was in the wrong team at the wrong time and somehow my name got among the documents, but the UCI corrected the mistake and now I've got no link to Puerto."
Among the cyclists associated with Fuentes were Jan Ullrich, the former Tour de France winner and former Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso.
from: http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/13016.0.html
'nother
07-30-07, 03:01 PM
The problem (as I see it) with the TDF expulsion of Rasmussen and the post TDF investigation of Contador is this:
As compared to Vino, who tested positive during the tour, there is nothing new in either of thier cases.
Both riders were allowed to start the TDF with this information being known. This is my entire point. Why is it my entire point? Well because... the santioning bodies did not take action against (ie DQ) either rider before the race. Having made that decision, the only honorable course of action is to have the integrity to honor that decision going forward.
Instead, once these riders are winning, they decide to focus on past information and reopen what should be a closed matter, for motives that appear purely political in nature. This is a complete breakdown in honor and integrity.
This kind of ongoing undertainty, of never putting anything in the past, of bringing the past back to life whenever convenient for political ends... this makes it impossible to ever move forward. They need to make decisions, honor prior decisions, and keep all sanctions and penalties forward looking in nature.
The problem is that unless and until the sanctioning bodies get it together, and start conducting THEMSELVES with honor and integrity, they will find it impossible to rebuild (or perhaps build for the first time in decades) the honor and integrity of the sport.
If you want a clean sport in the future, then you have to start leaving the past in the past. Period.
Rasmussen was fired by his own team. TdF rules are that you cannot ride if you're not on an invited team. The details may have been known to the UCI at the start, but ASO (the Tour organizers) claim they did not know (I'm sure this is one thing at the heart of the beef between ASO and UCI). When people started poking around, the lies were uncovered, which evidently angered Rabobank enough to sack Ras. At that point it became moot: no team, no ride. You want to fight for honor, take it up with Rabobank.
Contador case remains to be seen. The Tour and other events won't be postponed to wait for government agencies to complete their investigations (if that were the case we'd be waiting a long time to watch the next Tour). I think the agencies actually did do the honorable thing, gave him the benefit of the doubt and allowed him to ride.
ryanhulce
07-31-07, 08:53 AM
Contador didn't test positive durning the tour that is enough for me.