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Posted

These guys are always the victim

 

Lets face it cyclingnews.com are stirring the pot and got the reply they were hoping for.

I bet if Valverde was an ozzie they would not be so 

 

Personally i liked some of Valverde's other comments:

 

 

"The secret is enthusiasm. I love cycling," Valverde said.

"And then there's the quality - that's something you're born with - not something you can manufacture."

Posted

Like when?

like when you get popped for meanling less crap like asthma meds.

I'm also not that convinced the case against Valverde was strong but the UCI was pushing for scapegoats to take the heat off the exploding Pharmstrong debacle. I recall there were a few cases where guys were getting bust on ........."circumstantial evidence"

Posted

Can you imagine an African state sponsored doping programme? That would make one epic Police-Academy-vibe comedy movie. :lol: 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.

 

 

When I was training for the 2010 Epic and went for the medical, my doctor with whom I had a very open/transparent relationship (which is what you should have with a doctor, no secrets, so s/he can treat you properly), asked if I wanted any 'help' with preparation. I said no thanks. S/he works with a lot of athletes in many sports. I wonder how many say 'yes' or request 'help' in the first place.

Point being, you can get 'professional help' pretty readily if you want it. We think it's bad, a lot of people consider it perfectly normal. Especially those in the 'anti ageing' industry...

Posted

About 3% positive tests returned.

That is concerning, but going by the hype around it being so prevalent I would have expected more like 10-20%

Yeah, but did they test the sub vet/vets/masters catagories? Inside Hubland knowledge puts at least 68.4% of them as confirmed dopers.  :ph34r:

Posted

When I was training for the 2010 Epic and went for the medical, my doctor with whom I had a very open/transparent relationship (which is what you should have with a doctor, no secrets, so s/he can treat you properly), asked if I wanted any 'help' with preparation. I said no thanks. S/he works with a lot of athletes in many sports. I wonder how many say 'yes' or request 'help' in the first place.

Point being, you can get 'professional help' pretty readily if you want it. We think it's bad, a lot of people consider it perfectly normal. Especially those in the 'anti ageing' industry...

A mate of mine who also races vets(but like me is towards the back of VA) was doing epic 2 years back and went to one of these coaches(who is a top vet rider, top as in has worn the stripes before). This guy sommer tells him he needs to take all sorts of "stuff" to help with the training. When he did some research, most of the stuff needed a prescription and most of it was banned. Made us wonder how these guys/girls get the stuff but now reading your post I see some doctors are happy to dish it out. 

Posted

Their dads

It is disgusting, willing to risk their children's health to say their kid played Craven week..pffft..

 

I see the physical tranformation of rugby boys every year..astonishing to say the least..

Posted

Their dads

Yip... somebody has to pay those bills.

 

I do feel rugby is a lot like cycling was two decades ago (maybe still is), but you're going to struggle to compete if you're not doing a little something extra on the side. I'm all for evolution and of course there have been big advances in nutrition/training etc, but the one schools rugby pack last year was bigger than 95 Bok rugby world cup winning pack... and it wasn't because they ate all the pies.

Posted (edited)

It didn’t need fixing. The statement stands true, the rugby culture in SA is a problem. That doesn’t imply it’s not a problem elsewhere too.

Yep, all you have to do is see how rugby is the be all and end all at some schools to know there is something very very wrong.

 

I can't speak for other towns but it wouldn't surprise me at all if the A teams and first team players in this town tested positive for something.

Edited by Gen

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