Originally Posted by DocRay
Dick Pound was right about Pro cycling.
Y'know, I am very much in favor of clamping down on doping violations, but even so.... That sentence makes my eyes hurt.
Originally Posted by derath
Haven't they already had a year? Whether all of the riders are guilty or not, IMO the way this whole thing has been handled is doing undue damage to the sport.
No, they haven't had a year. UCI and ASO were given very limited information by the Spanish police last year, but I believe the UCI either received the full dossier a week or so ago or hasn't gotten it yet.
In addition, a Spanish judge locked down the evidence in fall 2006, so the UCI was unable to perform any action based on OP until now.
What's doing "undue damage to the sport" is not the enforcement, it's the 50-100 riders who are doping and doing whatever they can not to get caught at it.
Originally Posted by Trevor98
BS on the current blood but you have a point with the long paper trail. Having blood removed is not doping. Re-injecting said blood is doping. Merely having his blood at Fuentes shows nothing other than an attempt to dope....
Perhaps I used the wrong words in that specific post (and the correct ones in my following post). Dornhummy's question was, "if Basso's blood is clean, is that still a violation?" The answer is yes, because the presence of his blood there can be used as evidence that Basso attempted to dope, and even this is a violation (per WADA Code S.2.2).
If it was some other doctor who did, for example, testing on blood but did not have a lab littered with EPO and other PED's, Basso could likely fight it.
The first time they get caught counts as their first doping offense and they get the standard two years- regardless of how often or how much they doped. Asserting that each specific time they doped is a separate violation is unsubstantiated nonsense- show where anybody has received a lifetime ban for a single bust (none that I am aware of).
If you're talking about failing a test, you are correct -- at least, that's in line with WADA Code S.10.6.2. E.g. if you failed a test for Stage 10, they notify you, and later on they decided to test Stage 4 and you fail that one as well, it still only counts as one violation.
However, that is a significantly different situation than evidence provided by a criminal investigation that alleges doping activities that extends over multiple years. Also, McQuaid clearly stated that he was looking for a lifetime ban for Ullrich based on OP (
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...ug06/aug28news - scroll down a bit). I may be wrong, but to my knowledge Ullrich has never been accused, let alone formally sanctioned and banned for 2 years, for a doping violation.
It's possible that McQuaid is wrong (or bluffing), but I suspect he knows the relevant codes and regulations far better than either of us.
Again, it is possible (although unlikely) that Basso first started using Fuentes in mid 2006; e.g. he felt utterly wiped out after the Giro, and wanted to win Le Tour so badly that he hired Fuentes. If that is the case, I'd agree that with or without his cooperation, a single violation is justified. But is that what really happened? I don't think we will know that for awhile.