Squier

It's great that the anti-doping agencies are so busy and they are doing good work for the most part, however, can't help but wonder whether it was worth all the effort to change the ban from 10 years to a lifetime ban. Not much difference between the two IMHO.

Glad to see that some pros have balls. Gawie Combrink just posted this on the book of face: "I don’t normally do posts like these, but after 14 years of loosing out to conmen like these I’m pretty angry and frustrated. It’s great that they are getting caught. Sure we can go update our CV’s, but it doesn’t change anything for us now. The damage has been done. They stole the glory and satisfaction we get from hard work and sacrifice, by cheating and beating us in races. They stole thousands of rands of prize money and potential sponsorship deals that we’ll never see again. They stole all the exposure our loyal sponsors would have gotten and the justification they had for sponsoring us. Worst of all these scumbags stole the hopes and dreams of a lot of youngsters that want to become pro cyclists. They tainted our sport and the credibility of everyone that competed agains them. They chased away so many sponsors by their actions that could have helped so many riders live out their dreams. I’ve been blessed and thankful that I could make a courier of cycling and live out my dreams. Thanks SAIDs for catching them and keep up the good work!" Just irritating to see the amount of flack he is getting for his post...

Could be. He didn't reply directly to Barend's comment but his comment is next in line.

He replied to Declan's instagram post posted earlier in the thread.

Look, that was just dumb. Trying to defend yourself on an anonymous public keyboard warrior internet forum. And you thought that was going to end well? I'm not saying he did or didn't deserve it, but c'mon, what did you expect was going to happen? I'd follow the LA strategy, go on a talk show - perhaps Felicia Mabuza or 3 Talk with Noeleen.... perhaps even Francois van Coke's new talk show on kyknet? Anyway, tell the story, talk about how it hurts letting down the people that you love, cry a little and make sure you strike a deal to get a cut of the show's advertising income. Sounds like a win win to me.

I'd have to say that that one caught me off guard as well. I like the guy but after that comment I'm a little concerned...

So, what's the best course of action here for Max? Just keeping quiet, the bikehub mob hates you already and nothing you'll say will change that or come clean (pun intended), tell your story and say you're sorry (whatever that may be worth). Personally I'd have a bit more empathy in the latter scenario.

Agreed, the definition of sport changes when it becomes someones livelihood. There's obviously a couple of different definitions, but fundamentally fraud is defined as "wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain". That's pretty much the definition of doping too.

Don't think I agree. To what extent supplements are performance enhancing is debateable, however, it can definitely not be grouped in the same category as drugs like testosterone, HGH, steroids and EPO. Giving everyone in the pro-peleton free reign with EPO would not be the issue. It'll be managed by team doctors so should theoretically be pretty safe. The issue comes in when this culture starts to fizzle down to the non-pro peletons of the sport. Juniors deciding to dope themselves etc. We've all heard the stories of people not waking up the next morning. The other thing is; imagine one of your kids were keen on cycling and now needed to inject themselves with all kinds of drugs just to have a chance of getting in...

Wonder no more.

Searching for it but can't find it.

Still remember this clearly!

There's an app called 'ASI Snakes' which helps with snake identification, first aid guidance, etc. Looks to be quite useful.

I'd have to agree that it's a bigger problem here than elsewhere. Our rugby culture is one of size trumps skills, which gives rise to these sort of things.

He was, indeed. He did get a two month reduction though. That was 6 years back though. I doubt that his info is related to the current investigation.

My point is specifically around the availability of the drug, EPO. Even though ill-advised, there's nothing stopping anyone from getting it and doping up themselves. but look, it's only my opinion... Can someone ask David George?

Can you imagine an African state sponsored doping programme? That would make one epic Police-Academy-vibe comedy movie. It could start with Khalid Galant standing in line behind Nene in Saxonwold to meet the Guptas... Anyway; If you read books like Hamilton's Secret Race or even the LA's Reasoned Decision, there was never a massive scale operation to obtain the EPO. It was as simple as getting it from a pharmacy in Switserland and giving it to a gardener on a bike. Yes, that was way back but even today EPO needs to be available to patients with kidney diseases, chemo patients, etc. so it is still widely available. It's not cocaine or sacred donkey balls testosterone. It's a relatively widely used medicine for people with chronic kidney ailments. Perhaps someone saw a gap in the local market and started bringing in a few extra batches to make it easier for his friends to buy, the same as someone would bring in chinese carbon frames or something similar, but I highly doubt that we're looking at a mimic of Pablo Escabar's drug cartell here. Like I said, to us it's EPO (OMG! Gasp!), to the other 99% of the world it's Granma's kidney meds. I'm not downplaying EPO as a PED, I'm just saying it's probably easier to get your hands on by the average Joe than we think.

Everyone is looking for information from dopers on suppliers etc like it is one giant drug ring or organised syndicate. I don't think it's like that at all. I googled "erythropoietin shop" and the first two hits were places where you could buy EPO online - the one place being local. To us, it's the biggest and baddest performance enhancing substance. To non-cycling folk it's just medicine. My point is, it doesn't seem as if you need a drug cartell or an organised crime syndicate to get it. From a 1 minute google search it looks to be pretty easily obtainable.

Right you are, indeed. I checked mine and most of my results are also now missing. Maybe I should test myself? Point being; I don't recall seeing him at any of the local races of late...

When last did Max race? I checked SAseeding but the only results on there are from 2015. Nothing since. Does smell kinda peculiar...

Yup, and with every birthday he gets closer to getting to the end of his lifetime ban.

Podcast extraordinaire... and cyclist.

Agreed. Cullinan is a good option for a first Marathon. The 70km route has some nice features and barring a few bumps doesn't have any major climbs. It does tend to get windy though and being in November may be a bit muddy. Some scenic bushveld riding.

Good luck man. I would not have been able to do what you're doing. May this play out in your favor in the long run.

Dawie_777 (Used to be Dawie777 but my account was hacked by a supposed russian lesbian couple last year March. Lost nearly 3000 posts...) Mostly kids and mtb. Some GoPro footage of most of my races and rides.