tubed

http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/updateframesetcall?openform&08tduSt1 finally some decent racing pics after most of the drivel that has been going on on this site for some time - a good daily dose in store from GW from now on For the wannabee pros you can even tell your mates that you held this okes wheel during Dec... or bought his kit...whatever

Same number of dopers as before. Testing has got better, no doubt. Tide has turned from sponsors perspective. Team managers and doctors still complicit. More expensive and experienced lawyers used to drag agencies into mud and to delay tactics. (these lawyers are bottom feeders - PS I am a lawyer). But, most interesting has been the role of journalists and blogs, especially in Euro and USA. Rasmussen got bust by journos - not scientists. Previously confidential information and leads can be anonymously shared and followed up on - you can see the full Puerto dossier online, you can read the statements/ transcript of Kevin Livingstone and his wife. You can read the cryptic but clear referenced comments of Zabriskie. All of this means that the truth will come out (eg Basso) and Contador!

Although I have no doubt that Bruyneel and LA will have got this covered, like they did with Basso (remember him?). Check out the quotes from cycling4all.com. 24.07 - C (Again) question marks behind the "cleaning operation" of the UCI of a.o. Alberto Contador Velasco (= team Bruyneel) in the Fuentes case (Sueddeutsche Zeitung). The article is referring to document no. 31 of the Guardia Civil OP investigation. (see file - page 32); with the text: <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> En el documento 31 se localizan unas anotaciones con el t?tulo "INDIVIDUALIZACI?N" en el que se identifican a distintos corredores del equipo LIBERTY por sus iniciales: RH (Roberto HERAS), MS (Marcos SERRANO), JB (Joseba BELOKI), IG (Igor GONZ?LEZ), AV (?ngel VICIOSO), JJ (Jorg JAKSCHE), AD (Allan DAVIS), L. (sin identificar), AC (Alberto CONTADOR) translation: In document 31 some annotations are located with the title "INDIVIDUALIZATION" in which are identified different riders of team LIBERTY by their initials: RH (Roberto HERAS), MS (Marcos SERRANO), JB (Joseba BELOKI), IG (Igor GONZ?LEZ), AV (?ngel VICIOSO), JJ (Jorg JAKSCHE), AD (Allan DAVIS), L. (unidentified), AC (Alberto CONTADOR). This document could well be a <?:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Liberty medication plan for 2005. Next to the initials AC appears a handwritten note: Nada o igual a J.J." = Nothing or like J.J. J?rg Jaksche of course has recently admitted to be J.J. Initially the name of Alberto Contador was on the "Black List" of Operacion Puerto, but was disappeared from that list after last years Tour (Bruyneel - HLN) The newspaper is claiming that a deal was made between the investigators and some riders involved. Contador should have been acted as a witness, demanding in return his deletion from the Fuentes list. And this should explain how in Spain Contador quickly disappeared from the agenda, similarly to the shelved case of Valverde (according to SZ).

Most interesting sites to follow these developments are: www.cycling4all.com www.si.com also interesting article I expect possibly that LA will prove in time to be one of the biggest frauds in American history, they have built him up to be such a hero and icon of hope and he has lapped it up, made tons of cash from it. Not that I don't believe that he is immensely physically talented. Just too many people saw it to keep quiet, he cannot sue them all. Just look at Lemond when he could care less for the personal consequences - I suspect somebody directly involved will sing loudly at some stage as they cut a plea bargain, it just takes a threat of "you decide: go away for perjury or you stand by your previous sworn statement." What will be interesting for me will be to see the connection with the local medical fraternity, not that the I consider the local cyclists as newsworthy on the scale that we are talking about, rather lets see what "trainings" (quote: Eddy M), were taking place when the pros had their unoffcial training camps here. We have quite an honours list of guys being victimised: Ullrich Hondo Kessler Was very surprised to see Astana rider training here month or so ago post his spring campaign (most stay in Euro when the sun comes out and not head to SA), thought he was 'training' for the tour, but he he did not make the roster. I have already made up my mind that my devotional following the sport for the past 20 years has been tainted. As for the likes of of one of my previous heros, in my view he continues to perpetuate something and give false hope to millions that he is a surviving hero who won seven Tours on courage and talent alone. I hope I am wrong, but doubt it.

Sorry to disagree pokerface, but he only partially confessed when he knew he had no other option. ie he has been holier than though preaching about Basso 'betraying' him etc, when all along he knew that he had been guilty of what Basso only 'intended to do'. Putting in place measures and preaching about anti doping is fine after you have fully confessed, up until then he was a hipocrit of the worst order. Still now his confession is guarded, he did it all on his own, he refuses to name names of who was complicit in it with him, probably for fear of retribution, although it seems Ullrichs threats are quite menaingless. This would make me have some faith in him: yes I did dope, yes I doped with my other teammates yes Ullrich doped with me I got me EPO from this Dr I was introduced by I beat the controls by doing this I have until now kept silent because it was convenient to do so If he really wants to do something useful then confess fully to everything he knows then and now. So I still think he cleared his conscience, held on to his team and job and partially perpetuated the vow of silence. Remember I saw this oke on the top step of the podium hands held up high in victory when he had knowingly and scheming cheated others out of a famous victory. My hero? not!

Difficult to say if Indurain doped. (I have already said I am biased.) My impression is that the only time he would have had to have doped or as was his preference - quit the sport, would have been if the others via dope came close to his immense natural ability, it appears to be scientific fact that he was close to superhuman. Interesting Indurain always had a air about him that he was at odds with his DS (who to my mind are the persons responsible for the institutionalsing of doping), one always got the impression at his press conferences and via his contract negotiations that he was committed to the sport but that he was always about to leave/ bow out, ie his committment was conditional. Was there perhaps a boundary that he was not prepared to cross? Likewise he really did suffer in the mountains and this was where his rivals always had the drop on him (Chiappucci, Pantani, Virenque, Riis, Berzin etc). Maybe he knew that that despite the drug aided climbing ability, his natural (huge) engine would decimate their gains in the time trials. Apparently same could said of Ullrich (and has been said by D'Hondt), that he only doped because the drugs used by others were so effective that his natural abilities , (which under normal circumstances would have allowed him to dominate), were overshadowed by a bunch of talented but very normal cyclists who were prepared at all costs to win. So I choose to believe for now that Indurain did not dope that Riis and Co. did.

I stood on the side of the road on Sestrierre the day that Riis shattered Indurain, who was my hero, kind of wonder now about how the whole thing was really unfolding. Then in Paris it seemed like half of Denmark had decended on Paris to welcome their national hero. Even at the time it was evident that riders like Berzin, Virenque, Brochard were achieving surprising results. I cant help but feel that in the absence of a full confession these guys should be prosecuted (remember how quickly the patsy David Millar howled when faced with the loss of his playstation and some jail time), essentially they committed public fraud from which they benefitted enormously financially. It is one thing to say you can come and get my jersey (too snoep to courier it back?), how about rather saying I will repay my prize money, if my employer requests it I will repay my salary or better still donate it to a worthy cause and then tell the whole story. The problem for me is that these guys have given the impression that they no longer are dopers, in most cases that is a fact - seeing that they are retired, so then all they have really done is tried to clear their conciences. What they need to do is break the 'omerta', until that happens pro cycling has zero credibility. I for one support Riis' exclusion from the tour, his resignation as a team manager and his exclusion from the sport until such time as he has demonstrated that his weepy confession is more than just a cathartic conscience clearing exercise, but that he actually does something for the future of the sport he so hansomly benefits from and has so badly tarnished.