mugwump said:

Brian Miele said:

The Froome drug thing makes sense of the Giro attempt. He found out about the test and then he decided to do the Giro to gain public favor, before the test was made public.

I couldn't figure out why he would try for the Giro when he has one more tour victory to tie the all time record. He wanted to seem like a cool guy. It seems like this would also set up more cycling stakeholders to be upset about him getting suspended - the Giro and the Tour would now loose Froome.

Interesting thought.  Could very well be.

That written, I think Sky and Froome going for GC not terribly exciting.  It's the other racer who make it exciting, the guys attacking to knock off Froome.

The multiple financial incentives--Israel and the Giro both--could be a play.  Of course, if they were really smart, they would have done something to attract Peter Sagan to the Giro.  He enlivens a stage race like few.  But then, cycling promoters have never been terribly smart.

I feel the Israel start is a big question mark ,even more so since Trumps declaration about Jerusalem's capital city status .I'm curious how much "sponsorship" pressure was put on the team 

Maybe Frooome Dog just wants to collect the appearance fees to pay his lawyer bills

titillating
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/french-magistrates-investigating-big-name-riders-for-mechanical-doping/ 

tangentially....I'm spicious of Tom Brady's "Dr" friend...I know the NFL is a swamp filled with steroids...linemen, linebackers, etc are flagged almost every week and nobody notices.  But when a quarterback is suspected it's a big deal for some reason.  My opinion on this is that football is a blood sport like ultimate fighting and you do what you have to do to survive. anyway...

https://nypost.com/2017/12/20/belichicks-frustration-with-bradys-guru-reaches-new-level/

um, sorry what?!?

American Sprinter Used ‘Passionate Kissing’ Defense in Doping Case. And It Worked.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/sports/gil-roberts-doping-kissing.html

eloy said:

um, sorry what?!?

American Sprinter Used ‘Passionate Kissing’ Defense in Doping Case. And It Worked.

By REBECCA R. RUIZ JAN. 25, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/sports/gil-roberts-doping-kissing.html

Oh FFS

eloy said:

um, sorry what?!?

American Sprinter Used ‘Passionate Kissing’ Defense in Doping Case. And It Worked.

By REBECCA R. RUIZ JAN. 25, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/sports/gil-roberts-doping-kissing.html

That is one terrible article.  They could at least explain why the drug is banned, how much he had in his system.  

Jules said:

http://www.velonews.com/2018/01/news/12-fail-doping-controls-at-vuelta-a-costa-rica_455957

Vamos a la farmacia!

Donde est la Motoman?

Well that sucks
http://www.velonews.com/2018/02/news/inside-costa-rica-doping-nightmare_458228

just did a nice one-two of reading Phil Gaimon's Draft Animals an then Thomas Dekker's Descent. 

As usual, the better-written clean book left behind by the ghost-written doper book. 

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/questions-raised-over-whether-testosterone-was-ordered-at-team-sky-and-british-cycling-hq/

check it out...Sky's new Tour De France Bus....with Brailford & Froome Dog hanging out

I find this whole saga stupid, I really can’t believe that Sky are the only team at all this ,they really have made strong enemies 
Brailsford is such a prick 

Mark Taylor said:

I find this whole saga stupid, I really can’t believe that Sky are the only team at all this ,they really have made strong enemies 
Brailsford is such a prick 

They're definitely not the only ones doing this but they *are* the only ones with a stranglehold on the biggest race in the sport.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/select-committees-report-darkens-clouds-over-team-sky-and-brailsford/
tangentially...Icarus just won the oscar 

twoyacks said:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/select-committees-report-darkens-clouds-over-team-sky-and-brailsford/
tangentially...Icarus just won the oscar 

I didn't think Icarus was a good movie.  I had no problem stopping in the middle and waiting a few days to come back to it. 

All those "lesser" oscars get given to the films with the most media profile , The Kobe Poem was not the best animation by far 

mugwump said:

twoyacks said:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/select-committees-report-darkens-clouds-over-team-sky-and-brailsford/
tangentially...Icarus just won the oscar 

I didn't think Icarus was a good movie.  I had no problem stopping in the middle and waiting a few days to come back to it. 

It think the movie's value had to do with the explosive revelations rather than the skillful cinematography et al.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/landis-i-cant-see-team-sky-surviving-to-the-tour-de-france/

Ah the ad-homiem attack... the second last refuge of a scoundrel...

"I think you have to question Landis' credibility because he lied under oath before, and the stories that you hear about him drinking and things like that and you know, [making] telephone calls to people I know, threatening them with things, you just think that the guy appears to not all be there," Wiggins said at the time. "So when you see these kinds of claims in the press you have to question his credibility because it's almost like it's coming from a mad man, but at the same time maybe that's all borne out of frustration and things.

"You just never know, but you just look at the way his life has gone over the last five years and you think there's one person who it would have been so easy to have just admitted it when it happened in 2006, come clean if he did do it and he would have been back racing in a professional team making pretty good money," said Wiggins in the 2011 interview. "It's quite sad how his life has gone away, just dwindled away and now there's all these claims and counter claims and it's quite a sad story for him."

Jules said:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/landis-i-cant-see-team-sky-surviving-to-the-tour-de-france/

Ah the ad-homiem attack... the second last refuge of a scoundrel...

The best part of it is Wiggins could be talking about himself. 

so smug...and so full of shit
http://www.velonews.com/2018/03/news/vaughters-gaming-tue-system-not-commonplace-among-mpcc-teams_458833

mugwump said:

Icarus just won the oscar 

I didn't think Icarus was a good movie.  I had no problem stopping in the middle and waiting a few days to come back to it. 

These people will be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives, IMO it's the least.

JohnMalcolmson said:

mugwump said:

Icarus just won the oscar 

I didn't think Icarus was a good movie.  I had no problem stopping in the middle and waiting a few days to come back to it. 

These people will be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives, IMO it's the least.

I agree. Rodchenkov is a character straight out of a Cohen brothers movie. Shame he's got to hide from his family forever now.

http://www.velonews.com/2018/03/news/former-sky-coach-sutton-to-wiggins-come-forward-and-tell-the-truth_458901

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37714540

Pass the popcorn!

As far as i can tell this report offered nothing we didn't already know,
 
I thinks its hilarious Wiggins keeps saying , i'm going to tell my story in the next few weeks ,for about the last 2 years 

I don't know what the British government committee is banging on about. All parties seem to be in agreement that there was no cheating. They keep talking about "ethics" and this is so typical of the British old guard where winning is considered gauche and playing like  a true gentlemen is what matters. All I heard growing up was "It's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts".  As a nation we seemed to abhor people who focus exclusively on being the very best and winning consistently (Michael Schumacher, Pete Sampras, the US Athletics relay team).

Sportspeople and the teams that surround them know the rules and where the line is between cheating and not-cheating. It behooves them to do everything they can to get as close to that line as possible without crossing it.

The problem is that although we like winning the Brits do not consider approaches commonly used in other countries to be very "British" and so
1. We expect a whole cycling team to be disbanded because of bending TUE rules to ones advantage
2. We fire the most successful coach of the most successful Olympic program we have ever had because they told one of the track team that they are fat and slow.
3. We fire the most successful national Soccer coach we have ever had right after we get our first World Cup medal since 1966 for shouting at some of the players and making them feel bad.

So these dunderheads running these committees know nothing about Sport and want to return us to a nation of plucky losers.

The UK paper The Mirror is the rag that keeps making a lot out of this story and that is because of a vicious and often personal rivalry between the owner(s) of the Mirror and Rupert Murdoch.

Ah - I feel better now for that venting.

Complying with ethics is quite simple...don't do anything you wouldn't want video taped and streamed online...simple
1. We expect a whole cycling team to be disbanded because of bending TUE rules to ones advantage
Can we ask Sir Bradley what was in the jiffy bag?  
Froome's positive for being TWICE the legal limit has yet to be explained
we are not talking "bending" TUE rules we are talking systematic abuse.  Say what you will about Landis...but he knows what doping is

"For a guy like Wiggins, who was too heavy and not a climber, corticoids would be just as beneficial as steroids, EPO and blood doping, because if he didn't use it then he wouldn't have been able to get that skinny, and all the EPO in the world wouldn't have helped him get over the mountains," Landis said. "People shouldn't downplay what has gone on. He was using steroids. They kicked me out and they took my title for that. They better fucking take his."

2. We fire the most successful coach of the most successful Olympic program we have ever had because they told one of the track team that they are fat and slow.
Don't let little things like facts get in your way:
"Further questions about the culture at British Cycling were raised on Thursday after three current riders in the squad told the Guardian that Shane Sutton called women “bitches” and “sheilas” and once referred to a non-white rider as a “dirty terrorist” when he turned up to a race with stubble."
British cycling is currently a dumpster fire and they have themselves to blame.


3. We fire the most successful national Soccer coach we have ever had right after we get our first World Cup medal since 1966 for shouting at some of the players and making them feel bad.
Nobody cares about soccer dude...or fake flops.  Here we play real football with legit get-knocked-on-your-ass flops

Good Morning Britain w/ David Walsh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0zWJwUDnzs

@Yacks, I think "Sheila" is a fairly benign Aussi colloquialism—blokes and sheilas.