Originally Posted by GV27

Son of a *****! I guess you have a point to some degree there. But Basso basically pleaded "no contest". He said he bought (or at least was provided) doping products but didn't use them. But you're right, he didn't fight it but still pretty weaselly. I still don't think he should be treated like a returning hero. I guess David Millar got similar treatment, but he did come clean completely none of this "I didn't inhale" stuff.

I agree with you to some extent on Tyler. Floyd, OTOH, really did get railroaded. The independent lab that did the counter-testing came up as a negative but WADA decided to ignore that and send it back to France to make sure they returned a positive and made sure Floyd's people couldn't watch the test. Maybe he was guilty but the whole process was BS. I understand in that case the authorities being unhappy with him - he made them look really bad. But one would think in that case that sponsors - especially American sponsors would be more than willing to have him back if they're so willing to have Basso back.

The other weird thing about Basso's case (and Millar's) is that everyone seems to think he'll come back clean and at the same level he was when he was (presumably) doping. If the doping products don't make any difference to performance why do riders use them and why do we test for them?