Lucky Luke.

Then factor in an army of lawyers to keep the press and everybody else quiet for as long as you possibly can. A private jet to make it easier to get around on the down low, with or without a stash of drugs on board. Sounds like playing field about as level as a Giro d'Italia queen stage. edit: fand beat me to the jet thing

For sure, it helps to have uncle Hein's phone number on hand to dob in your ex-teammates when they look like they might beat you, a good early-warning system courtesy of JB for when the testers are coming around, and a great plan-B for those numerous times when you do happen to come up positive.

Jaco I don't know LA, all I can say is what I see in this pic that he wanted us all to see. It looks lonely down there with a bunch of jerseys that no longer correspond to the history books. Lance himself did say going down for drugs would mean he lost everything - sponsors, legacy, income, the good faith of cancer sufferers, and and and. Watch the Four Corners documentary, it's a good one. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cnn-armstrong-documentary-deposition-doping-382302

Yep, the image is purposefully ambivalent and no doubt Armstrong realises this. He's one of several celebrity investors to Mobli, so the more viral action he gets out of it the more money he will make, regardless of how people interpret the pic. You can say he looks like a real champ (a bit obtuse if you ask me) or you can look at it and say he looks a bit lonely, with only remnants of his hollow 'victories' for company. He obsessed over winning those jerseys for years and now that's all he has left.

pineapple

No worries guys, apparently it's a bug with the website. This thread was actually posted in 1999 and got stuck in the server's nuts and bolts for 13 years.

Yep, Jaco rode for Anderson and I just found out he was tested at the Argus MTB this year. I'm told he took a decongestant bought outside of SA which caused the positive. He still had the packaging which he produced for Drug Free Sport. I've raced with Jaco for a few years now and he's always been a decent guy and a good teammate. He's decided to take the ban and get on with his life.

http://i513.photobucket.com/albums/t338/sittingbison/couchpotato.jpg

I'm now wondering, how many of those jerseys were secured, not through athletic performance, or even better doping, but through well-timed calls to the powers that be? If the allegations are true, it becomes impossible even to argue that Armstrong was the best doper in a tour of dopers. More like the best-connected coward who did not have sufficient faith in his own abilities on the bike. Or a cheat who simply wasn't willing to risk defeat given the amount of cash at stake.

Based on your statements 1. I think you've totally missed the point of retrospective testing. The point is to test for substances banned at the time, when new testing methods are developed. For example AICAR - widely believed to be in use by the peloton. Right now there's no effective test for it. Synthetic haemoglobins and new forms of EPO would be other examples. The riders are likely using them now because they know they can get away with it. 5 years time? Probably not. http://tourdejose.co...raceable-drugs/ 2. 32GI is not and never will be banned so this is a completely outlandish 'analogy' in my view. A child-friendly low GI energy drink? Good luck winning the tour de france with that. In the case of retrospective testing, the UCI has consistently acted as a roadblock to combatting new forms of doping, where the anti-doping agencies have tried to keep up with the peloton's dope doctors. More here : http://road.cc/content/news/9522-uci-dismisses-afld-tour-report-while-afld-boss-says-two-new-drugs-used-2009-tour The UCI is not interested in cleaning up the sport:

Seriously?

Merckx's experience is from the history books. Second chances are getting this sport nowhere. Get real please.

I wonder if he will be heading to the all new teabreak-friendly DC? Can Daikin still afford his services?

Penny Krohn was knocked down today at Masiphumelele. Side-swiped by a driver towing a trailer. Hit and run as far as I know. She has a cracked helmet but is otherwise ok.

Nope the '99 samples were positive for EPO, many of them. http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2009/michael-ashenden Regarding the Tour de Suisse sample mentioned in The Secret Race, this was not a new 'juicy' tidbit. It was merely a corroboration of what others had already alleged.

I've broken lots of light stems. The usual rule applies: Light Cheap Strong Pick two. I have a 130mm PRO Vibe stem at the moment which has been excellent. I also was unable to break my 120mm ControlTech stem - weighed 99 grams. By contrast I've had KCNC stems that only lasted a few weeks. Not a nice thing to have fail. Depends on the rider though, I am quite a big guy and others have used them without issue.

Internal testing never really accomplished much in Europe. I don't mean any disrespect to CWC, but speaking generally, why would anybody place any faith in dope tests conducted by a team? Slightly less reliable than tests managed by the UCI. Most if not all pro teams will submit their riders to regular blood analysis anyways. What they do with the results is of course down to their own discretion, whether they profess otherwise or not.

I reckon Nuge is mostly right, the racing teams will send their weaker 6 guys up the road to hit the picnic area first. The fast guys will cruise in there ideally about 25 minutes after them, grab some fuel and the team heads off again straight away. The strong guys roll in and out of the tea festival, they have warm legs and are still fresh after chilling all the way so far. The weaker guys are a bit poked but have benefitted from some tea and biscuits, maybe a massage, blood bag or whatever. So now you have a 12 man team that can smash it for at least another 30 k's before you start burning guys off. The strongest guys and climbers are kept in reserve until you hit the nasty rollers at the end. Bingo, course record. Except not really. Try selling this race to the euro pros now - 'ja, it's like a 200k team time trial, except we have to stop for half an hour and have some cucumber sandwiches.'

Doping at pro level is theft, which is just another crime, plain and simple. The culture tells us everyone does it and the pros need it but this is just BS. The culture needs to change at the top in order to change the popular point of view expressed by yourself above. Once the punishment reflects the reality - that dopers are robbing clean riders - guys who dope will weigh up the risk vs. reward and begin to choose not to.

Great to hear from a clean pro - Candadian cyclist Will Routley on how dopers have effectively stolen from him for 15 years. http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Whistler+cyclist+Will+Routley+says+competitors+used+PEDs+aren+just/7502237/story.html This guy sums up why guys like David Millar make me throw up in my mouth every time I read his sanctimonious bull***t.

Interesting to see how the top labs can pinpoint almost exactly how prevalent doping is in a given grand tour. This from The Clinic: Full thread is here: http://forum.cycling...503#post1076503 It seems to me, that far from being an unwinnable war, the information above points to real and significant responses to anti-doping advances. Although these admittedly didn't last long based on the above, there seems little doubt that by upping the testing budgets and taking testing completely away from the UCI real progress can be made.

For starters taking drugs is cheating because it's a health risk without expert medical supervision. Only an idiot would choose to add that aspect of competition to an otherwise healthy physical pursuit.

That about sums it up for me, all of the above

Exactly, if you need to sit down for a bit go for it, but what's the point of building it into the schedule? SA needs longer, harder events, not more tea breaks. Feck off to a cricket club if tea breaks are what you're after.

These are big questions beyond the immediate scope of your thread Is it in society's interest for the current crop of humans to live for as long as possible? Personally, looking at some of the mangled, variably preserved and puffed up corpses over in hollywood, I'm not sure I want to go that route. I don't ever want to look like Sly Stallone or the governator. It seems like humanity is approaching a crossroads in terms of what is considered to be a 'normal' aging process.