1. Vino was caught in 2007, when the anti doping campaigns had really been up and running for some time. He knew all about the testing that he would be subject to, and still chose to dope.
2. Vino was blood doping, a form of cheating which is designed to be considerably harder to detect than the additional of other substances to your body. He was trying to evade controls.
3. Millar admitted his offences before he was caught (but he could hardly do anything else).
4. Vino has never repented.
5. Millar is voiciferously anti doping. Vino has never been, and today, is not.
Bruyneel only took over Astana when a term was inserted into his contract that he would not have to take back Vino and Kashekin. Vino seems to think that he can walk back into the team, and the Khazak federation should be distancing themselves from this viewpoint at a right rate of knots. I hope they have the honour to do so.
On a personal note, Vino tarnishes my memories of the 2007 TdF. I watched the Prologue hanging off the fountain at the top of the Mall, and it was the best days cycling I have ever seen. The fact that I know that Vino was cheating the crowd disgusts me, and try as I might, that thought still hangs around my head and mars the fantastic memory of Cancellara steaming round that final bend to victory (he really was moving considerably faster than anyone else!). The cheer from the crowd when he hit the line was simply magnificent.
Rant off.
