Lance wins

[Jaded]

Nice to see that the Times has caught up with us from Wednesday.
http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=60346.15

From today's Times:

After Wiggins’s imperious victory in the recent Critérium du Dauphiné, Jonathan Vaughters, the directeur sportif of Garmin, one of Team Sky’s rivals, got dragged into it. “I don’t think Sky are doping,” he said. “Just think they bought a lot of good and expensive talent.”

“Not sure why people are surprised by Sky,” he said. “A few €800k guys pulling a €900k guy, who then pulls for a €1.3m guy, who helps a €2m guy. They aren’t doping, they are buying up all the talent! Sky has a big budget AND they are executing very well. That’s why they are winning.”

Sky certainly reflect the realities of British economic performance.

Quote
In response to the Team Sky questioning, Team Garmin-Barracuda manager Jonathan Vaughters took to Twitter and commented, "not sure why ppl are surprised by sky:a few €800k guys pulling a €900k guy, who then pulls for a €1.3m guy,who helps a €2m guy."

For all the sly comments regarding Wiggins becoming a real grand tour threat you first need to look at the mechanism behind the man. Team Sky has one of the richest budgets in professional cycling. And to quote Vaughters again, "they aren't doping, they are buying up talent."

http://www.roadcycling.com/articles/Tour-de-Drama_004932.shtml

One of the sponsors are IG Markets.
http://www.igmarkets.co.uk/cfd/cycling.html

Quote
IG Markets is the leading provider of Contracts for Difference (CFDs) to retail clients around the globe.

What is CFD trading?

CFD trading enables you to take a position on thousands of different financial markets, without physically needing to own the underlying asset. This means you can trade on the value of a share (without owning the stock), or on the price of gold or oil (without purchasing the commodity itself).

I'm intensely relaxed about speculative globalised capitalism paying the going rate to secure the talent needed to ensure success. I'm not averse to a bit of jingoism on top of that. Underneath all that we are still talking about people, and I like Bradley's style, and I'd like to see him win the Tour.

Sorry, as a non-TdF or hard-core racing aficionado I don't spend a lot of time trawling through posts in racing. I do read a newspaper and the article interested me enough to consider it of worth.

At least I know about CFD trading now though, thanks!

[Exit Stage Left]

There's something about pro-cycling which appeals strongly to those in the City. IG Markets compile a performance table of pros. http://www.igmarkets.co.uk/cfd/procyclingindex.html
Of course to a bunch of cocaine-fuelled acheivers, morality is probably not such a huge concern. We tend to ignore the extent to which the 'chemical generation' is unshocked by drugs. I grew up in contact with those involved in the Northern Soul scene of the 1970s, and it was an accepted part of that culture to sustain yourself with various pills. It was also part of general working class culture as a hangover from WW2. If you examine the lyrics of the Who/Kinks/Stones/Small Faces, there are plenty of references to 'Mother's Little Helpers' and the like. That resurfaced in the Mod revival of the 80s. So Brad's Paul Weller fixation starts to look a bit dodgy.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Now there's a thought - stocks traded under the influence of cocaine should be negated!

[Exit Stage Left]

Drug testing was introduced into cycling to stop riders keeling over dead. It's become complicated by the pros competing in the Olympics. The last Olympic Road Race of the old era was probably 1988 when Olaf Ludwig of the GDR won.

[hubner]

1988 might have been pre-fall of the Berlin Wall, but Olaf Ludwig from E Germany  almost certainly doped.

This is going off topic, and Olympics is unimportant as far as cycling is concerned.

[Exit Stage Left]

1988 might have been pre-fall of the Berlin Wall, but Olaf Ludwig from E Germany  almost certainly doped.

This is going off topic, and Olympics is unimportant as far as cycling is concerned.

I'd disagree with that. The presence of professional cycling in the Olympics has tended to cause a convergence in IOC and UCI protocols, as illustrated by this Telegraph article of the last couple of days.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/cycling/9332651/London-2012-Jacques-Rogge-comfortable-with-reformed-drug-cheat-David-Millar-representing-GB.html

[Exit Stage Left]

The USADA which is looking into Lance is the competent body for controlling the Olympics anti-doping programme.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is a non-profit organization and the national anti-doping organization (NADO) for the United States. The organization is charged with managing the anti-doping program for U.S. Olympic, Paralympic, Pan-American and ParaPan American sport. Its work includes in-competition and out-of-competition testing, the results management and adjudication process, the provision of drug reference resources, the therapeutic-use exemption process, various scientific research initiatives, and athlete and outreach education.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Anti-Doping_Agency

Armstrong last competed in the Olympics in 2000, hence all the fuss about that period.

[citoyen]

Mind you, as someone in the BR thread where I got this from points out:

Great graphic, but look at some of the "clean" characters...

Brad Wiggins may yet win the 2010 Tour! 

d.

[citoyen]

Eddy Merckx was probably both; certainly the former, but he's hinted that everyone was taking something or other in the 1970s.

The difference between those days and the 1990s onwards is that Big Pharma got involved and shit got real. EPO was a game changer.

d.

[spesh]

Mind you, as someone in the BR thread where I got this from points out:

Great graphic, but look at some of the "clean" characters...

Brad Wiggins may yet win the 2010 Tour! 

d.

Depending how strictly you apply criteria for "cleanliness", you can come up with any list you like of winners from the 1990s onwards, to the point that, as one poster elsewhere said, you might as well award the GC victory to the lanterne rouge. Granted, he was probably juicing as well, but at least he wasn't making an effort to win.   

[Andrew]

I don't think it fair to say that the entire peloton was doping, not even in the hazy days. Admitted, you might have to exclude the top *pick a number* places but there were clean riders. It may have been that they couldn't afford dope  but that's another story!

[LittleWheelsandBig]

There weren't/ aren't many not doping and certainly very few of the stars.