Frustration doesn't equate to unprofessional behaviour, and they know that. This is not the first, or last time there was a dispute over money; the whole *point* of professional sport as a business is the price of talent causes changes to contracts.

"He got better results than expect and now he wants more money? Where is my fainting couch?"

Methinks, lady, protest, etc. 

No mention of the laptop he destroyed...

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dr-freeman-found-guilty-of-ordering-testosterone-knowing-or-believing-it-was-for-a-rider/

An old KCC alum sent me this to watch. What I found fascinating is Horner's assertion that everyone in that race prepared the same way, and it seemed to me that he was admitting to having doped, along with *all* the contenders despite not believing in it several times. Like the big point he was making is that Floyd won on his own merits. A pretty dog-eared argument but the self incrimination seems new.

Strikes me as a guy trying to be a little too clever. Then again, I'm not a lawyer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiaapSD85SA

Maybe the inevitable, and potentially only interesting to me (and my sister is who is actually Dr Freeman!). My mum has been texting me about being in the news a lot in the UK this week...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/mar/19/former-british-cycling-and-team-sky-chief-doctor-richard-freeman-struck-off

Jules said:

An old KCC alum sent me this to watch. What I found fascinating is Horner's assertion that everyone in that race prepared the same way, and it seemed to me that he was admitting to having doped, along with *all* the contenders despite not believing in it several times. Like the big point he was making is that Floyd won on his own merits. A pretty dog-eared argument but the self incrimination seems new.

Strikes me as a guy trying to be a little too clever. Then again, I'm not a lawyer.

Horner's ascent to the top of the sport has always had doping undertones.

Whether it's the camper life (always moving around with a trailer, allegedly to always have fresh roads and see friends) he engaged in while training in the US, his mobile phone not charged or with an overfull mailbox (heard this from teammates of his), his preference for lots and lots of training with zero racing (the year he won the vuelta he was 'recovering from injury' for much of it), his defense of Lance, his fronting about cheeseburgers and such (Phil Gaimon has some choice words for Horner on this front), he's been dancing ever-so-close to this line for a long time.

Horner can be charming; I've interviewed him both post-race and have had a snack with him the morning before a stage of the 2005 Tour.  And it was clear he was a pretty savvy tactician a long time ago.  That written, maybe with time, he's letting the facade slip.  

RichFreeman said:

Maybe the inevitable, and potentially only interesting to me (and my sister is who is actually Dr Freeman!). My mum has been texting me about being in the news a lot in the UK this week...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/mar/19/former-british-cycling-and-team-sky-chief-doctor-richard-freeman-struck-off

Maybe it's a shame, but I haven't been getting any texts about a 'richard freeman' on Kissena and how he's involved with doping in the UK.

Maybe we need an Instagram campaign about you're not that Richard Freeman.

mugwump said:

Horner can be charming; I've interviewed him both post-race and have had a snack with him the morning before a stage of the 2005 Tour.  And it was clear he was a pretty savvy tactician a long time ago.  That written, maybe with time, he's letting the facade slip.  

His "everyone wasn't prepared exactly the same, but everyone was prepared" had a definite... ahem... ring to it.

Add this to the pile of worrisome comments.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chris-froome-riders-are-starting-the-year-with-tour-de-france-form/

mugwump said:

Add this to the pile of worrisome comments.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chris-froome-riders-are-starting-the-year-with-tour-de-france-form/

Methinks the Froome doth protest too much...

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-investigating-banned-doping-doctors-presence-in-volta-a-catalunya/

Big wheels keep on turning...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsJ_i8VTtIc

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/opinion/brenda-martinez-doping-depression-olympics.html?

Jules said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/opinion/brenda-martinez-doping-depression-olympics.html?

Is it just me or does it seem that the author is relying on the word of caught athletes?  

At the very least, it seems that multiple industries have a problem with tainted products.  

I think the author is definitely relying on secondary sources more than they should. "Innocence" has been claimed by many and the "unintentional supplement" excuse has seen some pretty severe abuse (tainted beef, anyone?).

Supplements containing banned substances are nothing new either. I think the real moral here is how borked the current testing & enforcement policies are, and in some sense how naive athletes have to be to submit their lives to them. 

The contamination of medication is kind of freaky for anyone, olympian or not haha

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/15/1006622129/an-olympic-hopeful-says-her-burrito-is-to-blame-for-her-positive-drug-test?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr 

To quote one of my favorite Canadians...

https://twitter.com/GeoffKabush/status/1404846859248705540?s=20

So much for the Bowerman club being cleaner than most, perhaps still true...

Very disappointing to find Shalane Flanagan defending Houlihan here. 

RobertMullen said:

No post ride chipotle, my friends. 

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/15/1006622129/an-olympic-hopeful-says-her-burrito-is-to-blame-for-her-positive-drug-test?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr 

I mean I'm not competing for global competition, I say bring on the tripe burritos.

I saw on Twitter that Kabush was slagging the women's winner of Unbound Gravel  for her association with Tom Danielson (she's coached by him and was wearing his business' clothing).  What was particularly amusing is that it seems some folks hate-follow ex-dopers to nag them.  I think Kabush was blocked by Danielson or some others for his recent critiques.

mugwump said:

I saw on Twitter that Kabush was slagging the women's winner of Unbound Gravel  for her association with Tom Danielson (she's coached by him and was wearing his business' clothing).  What was particularly amusing is that it seems some folks hate-follow ex-dopers to nag them.  I think Kabush was blocked by Danielson or some others for his recent critiques.

Saw that. I think in the end he said some nice things like "I hope she has some friends who can explain things to her" or something like that. TBH Danielson is an interesting one if only because Gaimon seems to have forgiven him, which is definitely a crack in the "clean-soap" squad's wall of hate.

Kabush trained side by side with Rider H so I'm sure he's particularly bitter.

Gaimon got involved on twitter a littler bit about the Tom D. thing. Seems like the dichotomy that always comes up is if you doped but are working to make amends and give back to the next generation of the sport, your past sins are relatively forgiven.

I guess it comes down to the person and whether tjhe former doper is a POS or just someone who made bad decisions and now feels bad about it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I agree with that sentiment too. Like I think it is admirable that Landis put money back into cycling and seems genuinely remorseful for what the ramifications his role in that whole charade had on American cycling. Based on the website, Cinch seems to be more of just a coaching service than a full fledged team so I doubt there is anything too fishy going on. 

RobertMullen said:

I agree with that sentiment too. Like I think it is admirable that Landis put money back into cycling and seems genuinely remorseful for what the ramifications his role in that whole charade had on American cycling. Based on the website, Cinch seems to be more of just a coaching service than a full fledged team so I doubt there is anything too fishy going on. 

Hope you're right.

The fallout from doping on decent people seems to be great.  Danielson's ex-coach quit coaching as a result.  That person, Rick Crawford, seemed like a pretty good guy overall.  

I just came across the site Chronoswatts.

Seems to be run by Antoine Vayer.

mugwump said:

I just came across the site Chronoswatts.

Seems to be run by Antoine Vayer.

Here's an interesting page looking at many, many performances up the lower slopes of Mont Ventoux, which seem to have been chosen because the grade was steep and the road mostly tree-lined--to take out wind as a variable.  the 2021 Tour is not yet included.

https://www.chronoswatts.com/en/watts/21/

Antoine is the one who teamed up with Ross Tucker a few years back. I think Ross got sick of the blowback and Antoine kept on truckin'

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/sports/cycling/during-tour-de-france-watchdogs-seek-doping-clues-from-a-distance.html

Jules said:

Antoine is the one who teamed up with Ross Tucker a few years back. I think Ross got sick of the blowback and Antoine kept on truckin'

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/sports/cycling/during-tour-de-france-watchdogs-seek-doping-clues-from-a-distance.html

I know Antoine.  I forgot that he teamed up with Ross Tucker.

Interestingly, it seems that 2013 is the last time Ross commented on the TdF.

mugwump said:

Interestingly, it seems that 2013 is the last time Ross commented on the TdF.

Yeah; he seems to be assiduously avoiding the topic, which is a shame.

https://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/article/2021/01/28/testing-doping-down-across-cycling-2020

"There are no public testing numbers from 2020 available yet, the 2019 results were published in December 2020, so it may be some time until full results are known.

The Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF) admitted a 90 per cent decrease in the out-of-competition tests during the two months following the start of the pandemic compared to the same period last year."