Sky - gaming the system?

[sojournermike]

Mutiny is drawing closer: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/exclusive-team-sky-riders-consider-asking-brailsford-to-resign/

Resign to protect everyone else? After throwing several others under the us first.

[Hot Flatus]

It's a bit of a problem for Sky because a resignation is a tacit acceptance of guilt.

They cant wipe the slate clean because Froome is hiding in plain sight on the slate. He was a key part of Wiggins Tour campaign, not to mention Vuelta etc etc etc. Froome is still a bankable talent, but if Brailsford takes a bullet for the team it won't be long before the finger gets pointed at Froome...not least because his physical transformation (puppy fat to vascular waif with major  loss of unused muscle) that occurred after his move from Barlow to Sky bears all the hallmarks of fat and muscle stripping Kenacort usage.

[sojournermike]

It's a bit of a problem for Sky because a resignation is a tacit acceptance of guilt.

They cant wipe the slate clean because Froome is hiding in plain sight on the slate. He was a key part of Wiggins Tour campaign, not to mention Vuelta etc etc etc. Froome is still a bankable talent, but if Brailsford takes a bullet for the team it won't be long before the finger gets pointed at Froome...not least because his physical transformation (puppy fat to vascular waif with major  loss of unused muscle) that occurred after his move from Barlow to Sky bears all the hallmarks of fat and muscle stripping Kenacort usage.

Fingers are already being pointed at Froome. It just feels to be a matter of waiting and watching.

Very good piece this morning in the Irish Independent on Sky, Salazar, Wiggins, Froome and Farah. Hopefully they'll get to tennis, football and rugby next

[Hot Flatus]

He's managed to avoid any guilt by association with this Wiggins TUE/Package debacle. Largely down to not doing a Wiggins and openly lying about injections, only to be caught out by the unforeseeable hack of TUE data by the Fancy Bears.  We know he won the Tour de Romandie on a TUE, but that seems to have been forgotten in the furore surrounding Wiggins.

[rafletcher]

Mutiny is drawing closer: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/exclusive-team-sky-riders-consider-asking-brailsford-to-resign/

Resign to protect everyone else? After throwing several others under the us first.

But not all are wanting him gone (at least in public)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39185863

[Hot Flatus]

Mutiny is drawing closer: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/exclusive-team-sky-riders-consider-asking-brailsford-to-resign/

Resign to protect everyone else? After throwing several others under the us first.

But not all are wanting him gone (at least in public)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39185863

...and I wonder who put them up to that???

Strange that they all used similar language in their tweets (I back Dave 100%)

And then there's Froome's tweet of support...

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's a bit of a problem for Sky because a resignation is a tacit acceptance of guilt.

They cant wipe the slate clean because Froome is hiding in plain sight on the slate. He was a key part of Wiggins Tour campaign, not to mention Vuelta etc etc etc. Froome is still a bankable talent, but if Brailsford takes a bullet for the team it won't be long before the finger gets pointed at Froome...not least because his physical transformation (puppy fat to vascular waif with major  loss of unused muscle) that occurred after his move from Barlow to Sky bears all the hallmarks of fat and muscle stripping Kenacort usage.

Fingers are already being pointed at Froome. It just feels to be a matter of waiting and watching.

Very good piece this morning in the Irish Independent on Sky, Salazar, Wiggins, Froome and Farah. Hopefully they'll get to tennis, football and rugby next

Or perhaps cycling is easier to expose because there is less money in it? Not just in the sport itself, but much less associated betting and probably less opportunity for result fixing (easy and traditional to fix who wins in the minor post-Tour races, but not who comes third etc).

[citoyen]

Strange that they all used similar language in their tweets (I back Dave 100%)

"We all love the Glorious Leader!"

[David Martin]

Sky have posted a couple of documents relating to the events around the Dauphine. These are well worth reading.
https://www.teamsky.com/article/team-skys-medical-and-anti-doping-practices

They answer, with readily verifiable facts, the issues surrounding Flumicil. Kenacort is a broader issue and there will surely be questions asked of how Freeman was mixing his BC, Sky, and private practice. He does seem to have been rather keener to go with the TUE than was comfortable for the other medical staff and to have been a bit of an IT dinosaur. GMC will no doubt be investigating and I would expect he will get a chastisement of some sort. (3 years to not upload records - that can't be good practice).

There is an element of reading too much into this. of over interpretation. Kimmage complains that he gets a hostile response from the team when he just tries to be an honest investigative journalist. I wonder if he has looked in the mirror and considered that the reason he gets a bad response and David Walsh has a far better time of it is becasue David Walsh isn't an arse.

[Hot Flatus]

Sky have posted a couple of documents relating to the events around the Dauphine. These are well worth reading.
https://www.teamsky.com/article/team-skys-medical-and-anti-doping-practices

They answer, with readily verifiable facts, the issues surrounding Flumicil. Kenacort is a broader issue and there will surely be questions asked of how Freeman was mixing his BC, Sky, and private practice. He does seem to have been rather keener to go with the TUE than was comfortable for the other medical staff and to have been a bit of an IT dinosaur. GMC will no doubt be investigating and I would expect he will get a chastisement of some sort. (3 years to not upload records - that can't be good practice).

There is an element of reading too much into this. of over interpretation. Kimmage complains that he gets a hostile response from the team when he just tries to be an honest investigative journalist. I wonder if he has looked in the mirror and considered that the reason he gets a bad response and David Walsh has a far better time of it is becasue David Walsh isn't an arse.

There is an element of desperate genuflexion to find any possible reason to bury this. of wilful ignorance of what key players are saying, and why they are saying it.

People like Walsh 

[Hot Flatus]

Meanwhile, here's what Kimmage has to say:

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/03/interview-paul-kimmage-team-skys-charade-exposed/

[toontra]

Quote of the day:

"There is a fundamental difference between process failures and wrongdoing," said Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39198422

I don't think "process failures" accurately describes what went on, Dave! 

[DuncanM]

I agree with Kimmage that it's really strange the way that Wiggins improved in 2009. I have way more faith in Garmin/Slipstream/whatever than I do in Sky, but it was while he was there he went from being a rubbish climber to someone who could survive with the best in the mountains (he wasn't at that stage bossing things). The story is that he lost weight after leaving the track, but I don't believe that a few kg can make the difference between walking up mountains and keeping up with Contador/Schleck(s).
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what drips out over the next few months/years.

[Hot Flatus]

The Sky document is spin. Very obvious that they have been making things up as they go along, reacting, rather than proactively being open and transparent. If they were open and transparent they would have kept a tight rein on anything contentious, like massive stocks of a classic PED that has very restricted clinical use. An open and transparent team wouldn't have been caught out at every turn of their story.

Telling the truth is really easy. Sky are finding all of this very difficult.

[Jaded]

Telling the truth is really easy. Sky are finding all of this very difficult.

Will that have anything to do with being part of the Murdoch brand...

[Hot Flatus]

No, I don't think so. They are struggling because if they tell the truth it's game over.

Of course, the irony is that Sky are being held accountable to their own, much-vaunted, standards.

[sojournermike]

No, I don't think so. They are struggling because if they tell the truth it's game over.

Of course, the irony is that Sky are being held accountable to their own, much-vaunted, standards.

Indeed, we accept Astana for example.

[Hot Flatus]

I think we all (well maybe not all) remember when Astana were kicked out of the MPCC for not following its rules (ignoring Labs Boom's low cortisol levels and rostering him to race)

We probably all ( well maybe not all) wondered  why Sky never even joined the MPCC.

Now we know.(well, maybe some of us dont)

[DrMekon]

Meanwhile, here's what Kimmage has to say:

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/03/interview-paul-kimmage-team-skys-charade-exposed/

Great piece.

I think a Phillip Deignan interview with Kimmage could be really interesting. I hope it happens.

[citoyen]

I think we all (well maybe not all) remember when Astana were kicked out of the MPCC for not following its rules (ignoring Labs Boom's low cortisol levels and rostering him to race)

We probably all ( well maybe not all) wondered  why Sky never even joined the MPCC.

Now we know.(well, maybe some of us dont)

Nah, as I've said before, the MPCC thing is a massive red herring.

I mean, you have to wonder why they allowed Astana to become members in the first place.

And Katusha weren't kicked out, they left of their own volition.

A good number of other teams didn't join in the first place, not just Sky.

The MPCC is a joke. Voluntary self-regulation never works - just look at the British press.

[Hot Flatus]

And yet MPCC rules would have precluded Wiggins from contesting the 2012 Tour...

[citoyen]

And yet MPCC rules would have precluded Wiggins from contesting the 2012 Tour...

Looking at the evidence, you have to say that existing UCI rules at the time probably should have excluded him.

[Hot Flatus]

I think it's fair to say that the MPCC was predominantly supported by French teams. There is probably a reason for that. 

[citoyen]

Yes, one of the chief architects of the MPCC was Vincent Lavenu. It's all very well him telling other teams to abide by his high ethical standards, but I'd like to see him get his own house in order first.

Although, to be fair, AG2R did voluntarily withdraw from the 2013 Dauphiné after Sylvain Georges was busted. Unlike fellow MPCC members Lampre, who carried on racing in 2010 despite having three members suspended for doping.

[mattc]

No, I don't think so. They are struggling because if they tell the truth it's game over.

Of course, the irony is that Sky are being held accountable to their own, much-vaunted, standards.

We probably all ( well maybe not all) regarded those as normal marketing baloney.