bigfred 

Claims that the peleton is clean may have been premature:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...oping/3878843/

https://velonews.competitor.com/2013/...ositive_310593

Zinger

You know when teams take on serial offenders like this and get all indignant and "surprised" when they get caught again kind of indicates how serious they ain't about running a clean team.

jyl

Peleton is not and never will be 100% clean. That is impossible and not a realistic standard, no sport is 100% clean. What the sport can try to achieve is to have almost all riders clean and those doping to either be detected and punished quickly, or forced to hold their doping to a very low and thus less effective level, so that although an occasional result might be disrupted by a doper, there won't be dopers regularly making podiums at the expense of clean riders. The guy who won the Tour of Turkey, the two Vini Fantini dopers at the Giro - that sort of thing is going to keep happening, get used to it. There will be a 4 year ban now for serious doping cases, meaning that a rider probably won't be able to come back - I think that's pretty close to a lifetime ban except maybe for the youngest riders.

Zinger

Well at least they seem to be busting more of them now, through the testing procedure, I'll say that much. If it were a team doping program you'd think they'd be a little better at hiding it than Di Luca has been.

jyl

Yeah, I think/hope we are in the era of furtive desperate rogue dopers, rather than systematic teams of dopers.

Leinster

I don't get this. He came back from a suspension aged 35 to ride for no money, and then cheated. If he was willing to ride for free, it wasn't about the money, but where's the enjoyment in winning through chemistry? Maybe I can't get into the headspace of these guys.

bigfred 

For some it might be the decission between using or the unemployment line. I'm unaware of the particulars of his return to Katusha, but, if he didn't have any other offers he might not have seen a way back into the peleton and a paying position without giving himself to Katusha in an effort to prove he still had what it takes.

jyl

He figured that if he could get some results, he could move into a paid contract.

canam73

In addition to the above comments, he'd also have a better chance of picking up some sponsorship and/or appearance money if he was riding for somebody then not.

txags92

I assume by no salary, they mean he would only get money if he won something or would get a share if the team won something. If so, then no salary probably gave him even more incentive to dope. If your only earnings come when you or the team wins, you have very little incentive to coast along in the peleton.

fietsbob

maybe he can start another ex racer named bike brand.


USA Today only pays attention to the doping stories, , not the racing ..

bigfred 

Hey, I also linked the velonews story. But, yes, it's sad that it's easier for the sport to get negative press than to actually get any results published. Where's USA Today's coverage of all the WR's that were broken at the Mexican Track World Cup meet?

Jay68442

Di Luca: 90 per cent of riders in Giro d'Italia were doping
Italian gives revealing interview
By Cycling News. January 21, 21:15


Six weeks on from being banned for life from sport, Italian Danilo Di Luca has given a revealing interview, to be aired Wednesday on Italia 1 television.


In the interview, according to Gazzetta dello Sport, Di Luca states that 90 per cent of the 200 riders in the Giro d'Italia were doping, and that if 10 per cent are not, "that 10 percent don't care about the Giro d'Italia, they are preparing for other races and therefore not doping."


"It's impossible to finish in the top 10 in the Giro d'Italia and not dope."


The 38-year-old has twice served suspensions for doping: first as the result of the "Oil for Drugs" investigation, for which he received a three-month ban in 2007. Shortly after returning, Di Luca's urine samples at the 2007 Giro d'Italia turned up suspiciously absent of any hormones, leading to suspicions that he was using a substance to break down any traces of drugs in his urine.


He then tested positive for EPO CERA in 2009, after which he served a reduced 15-month suspension after cooperating with authorities.


Upon testing positive for EPO again ahead of the 2013 Giro d'Italia, he was sacked by Vini Fantini, and then in December given a lifetime expulsion from the sport for his offences.


Not surprisingly, Di Luca said, "The best thing would be to legalize drugs so the entire peloton is on a level playing field."


Di Luca, showing little remorse or regret for his actions, revealed that he first learned about doping when he was an amateur. "I was always a champion, and won often. Then, when I left the amateur ranks, riders who had raced with me a month before were a month later stronger than me."


He said that riders used to discuss doping openly, but due to recent scandals, there is much more secrecy. Riders are given advice from doctors, but must source their own doping products, unlike the days of team-sanctioned doping such as that at Festina or the US Postal Service team in the late 1990s.

bigfred 

Not surprising in the least.

What amazes me is that people seem to be clinging to this idea that in the absence of LA the peleton is now magically cleaner. I'm not sure where this notion started, other than during the witch hunt for [sarcasm] the horrible man that forced everyone to break the rules [sarcasm off].

The Pros are driven. They don't accept defeat easily and unemployment even less easily.

Oh well. I'll still spectate.

Zinger

VeloNews
Talansky blasts Di Luca’s claim

excerpted:

The American wasn’t the only one who weighed in; Italian Marco Pinotti, who retired and joined the coaching staff of his BMC Racing squad at the end of 2013, said in a Tweet the assertion was “bull****.”