Special Guest Expert Weighs in On Armstrong Saga

Wink256 has an unusual keenness for pro cycling and is a student of doping lore and history. He let me know, in between his many feedings, that he wanted a chance to weigh in publicly on the Lance Armstrong "crisis".

Wink, what did you think of the big Oprah extravaganza:

Huh... What do you think is next step for the Armstrong to control the damage:

Well there you have it. I am sure Wink256 will be back soon enough to weigh with prediction for the spring classics.

Holy F&$%, Doping!

It is like christmas for doping nerds like me, I keep wanting to write about it, but I can't get my head around the magnitude. Well done to Floyd Landis for really kicking this off and the USADA for seeing it through. Twice a day I check velonews and twice a day I am rewarded with even more information. Anyhow, go read for yourself, I really have nothing to add, the Reasoned Decision and even better the spectacularly entertaining/grim/depressing affidavits. If you search around a bit are some entertaining bike racing forum investigation to the names of the redacted people in the Reasoned Decision, pretty much implicates the few obvious american cyclists who did not give direct evidence in the USADA case.

I will say it again. The UCI needs to declare some sort of amnesty program so that we can get more of the scoop from more people without any fear of serious repercussions... It may have been the UCI's fault that doping was so widespread in the first place, but if I am writing about doping scandals in cycling in 10 years featuring riders who are now in their 20's, it is absolutely on the UCI. USPS had a great doping system, but it was built on the bones of the ONCE team's system and it is clear from the affadavits that many other teams were all in as well, there is much to learn from more honesty and openness.

The Secret Race -Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle, a review

Long time Moscaline readers will know I used to write about doping often, but I stopped cold after Tyler Hamilton came clean, see thank you tyler. I considered that, short of Lance coming out and admitting doping, the epilogue on a long ugly period in pro cycling. When I heard that Tyler Hamilton was writing a tell all book with Daniel Coyle, I was extremely eager to read it and boy was I not disappointed. Not a super long read, not spectacular prose, but a really solid gripping rise and fall tale. With lots of the really gritty details thrown in. It shows how unbelievably messed up every aspect of the Lance era was. Even better you can see how messed up high level pro cycling is even without the drugs. Pro tip: Get hella skinny. Nope skinnier than that. Lycra flapping on the arms skinny. Can you see your organs through your pale emaciated skin? Ok good, now you can be fast.

One of my previous favorite books of the Lance Era was Daniel Coyles book Lance Armstrong's War (LAW):

LAW is incredibly well written and a great read. As I have said in the past, there are two possible inescapable conclusions from that book:

1. They are so rigorous and scientific in their training, recovery and medical plans that there is no need to resort to doping.

2. They are so rigorous and scientific in their training, recovery and medical plans that systematic doping is the next logical step in improving performance.

With this new book by Tyler Hamilton and the same Daniel Coyle, you can pretty much any possibility of #1 being the truth. The account of doping is detailed and credible. It follows beautifully as an addendum to the training techniques laid out in LAW. It is not an especially kind portrait of Lance, but it is not especially malicious either, it just includes him in Tyler Hamilton's personal journey through deciding to and completely succumbing to doping as a means to become a top pro cyclist. No doubt it is unflattering to Lance, but he kind of has set himself up for this eventuality. Details of doping methods, evasion of testing, evasion of authorities are presented. Fascinating as a train wreck. Filled with skinny tiny cycling men riding high in the mountains.

I realize that some people are incapable of accepting that Lance doped and think Tyler Hamilton and all the other pro cyclists who have admitted to doping are liars out to get Lance. If you fall in this category you should read this book and enjoy it as a work of exposing the gritty underbelly of Hamilton's personal journey through cycling. It is an entertaining read. As Bike magazine editor Joe Parkin (and former Hamilton teammate) wrote in his review: "But erase every single sentence alleging a connection between Lance Armstrong and doping, and this book is still a must-read for aspiring bike racers and every fan of the sport." After you read it though, I would like you to come by and explain to me how Lance is innocent and/or "level playing field".

However, if you are anything like me and were once a big Lance fan, and then were only slightly happier than nonplussed when he came back after he retired, and now are 100% sick of his megalomaniac innocence claims, his weird martyr syndrome, and his triathlon career, you probably will really enjoy the parts of the book dealing with Lance. Fascinating guy, not really likable at all, but again it is an interesting extension of the portrait of Lance that was developed in LAW.

Anyhow, there was nothing that really surprised me in this book. Go back and read the list of things that moscaline doping hero Jesus Manzano said he took or was given for some background. But "The Secret Race" is comprehensive with regard to Tyler Hamilton's riding and doping history, showing how a rider viewed as the clean cut, honest, nice guy type gets into the heavy heavy shit. It also shows the ludicrous levels that cyclists went to get their dope on. This book does sweep up many cyclists in its wake, already eliciting some recent preemptive doping admissions from Jonathon Vaughters (here, and a by proxy admission of past doping for Christian Vande Velde, David Zabriskei and Tom Danielson, and a call for cyclists to come clean like Tyler by great champion and admited doper Johan Museeuw. Cycling has often been an extremely dirty business. It is great sport and spectacle, but the human costs are high at the three week grand tour level. I expect we will see many more confessions coming in the wake of this book. Especially if the UCI gets off its ass and figures out an amnesty program (that they should have instituted a decade ago).

Finally, I will leave you with the most exciting thing I learned reading this book:

I knew that Christian Vande Velde's father John was a former olympian and great track racer.

I knew that he invented the Vandedrome, a portable wooden veledrome.

I learned from this book that he played one of the Cinzano bad guys in the film Breaking Away.

Boom.

Mind blown.

I bought myself the kindle version of this book last Thursday night and had it read by Saturday.

Update 9/11/12 8pm:

Hey y'alls, check out the Boulder Report's interview with coauthor Daniel Coyle. Just posted today. The boulder report is pretty much the other reason I stopped writing about doping. Joe Lindsey has been consistently excellent on doping (and pretty much everything else). I can't compete with that anymore. Big Dummy Log hauling photos from moscaline from now on. Guaranteed...

Thank you Tyler.

And so it comes full circle. I think all my doping posts started with the initial Tyler Hamilton doping bust in 2006. I have always been a big Tyler Hamilton fan, but have never believed his innocence. Big thanks to Tyler Hamilton for finally spilling his beans. Watch the video preview for a 60 minutes feature this coming week:


That is some fairly unambiguous stuff. I need to watch the full video, they sure cut to a grimacing Tyler often for a 1 minute clip. I don't think he is a particularly credible witness what with the 5 years of denial and ruining himself defending his "honor". But I don't think people just make things up when they come clean, especially multiple years of chronic doping. Lance-y-pants is on the highway to vast conspiracyville at this point. Floyd and Tyler had millions of dollars of incentive to lie when caught doping. Not sure what all encompassing conspiracy would give them the incentive to lie now. I am sure we will start to hear more first hand doping reports come out in the next year. Lanceipants should have retired for real the first time. I think the whole Federal case against armstrong (and Barry Bonds) by Jeff Novitzky is a huge waste of taxpayer money, but due to the grand jury subpoenas that many riders received, there is big incentive for telling the truth. Hamilton appeared before the grand jury last year, I would suspect he started spilling beans then. There is at least one other (not yet caught for doping) US cyclist out there who reportedly provided first hand accounts of Lance doping to the grand jury. (see this Aug 2010 NYT article.

I wish Tyler came clean in 2006, but I was pretty sure that there was imminent confession coming down the pipe from Tyler, see the end of my last two Floydtosterone posts (1,2). Anyhow, I am now officially tired of the doping. My doping writing has been ongoing for 5 years. Which is a long freeking time. I do I am pretty sure we are in for some more confessions from prominent American cyclists who decide to confess and retire before getting caught, or at least confess their past doping. I welcome it all. I will still watch them tiny bike people, but I probably am not going to write about the doping no more. There are a sea of other bloggers doing a much better job at covering doping in pro cycling (boulder report is my favorite), and the mass media has been coming around to reasonably non-hysterical bordering on intelligent coverage of doping. My work is done.

So thanks Tyler, thanks for telling the truth, and thanks for setting the Moscalines free.

Floyds beans full on spilt

Great interview between Paul Kimmage and Floyd Landis. Read it all at NYVelocity:
http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2011/landiskimmage. It is also at Velonews but they have a nasty habit of changing their links every few years, so I usually don't link to them anymore, but it is here anyway as NYvelocity gets blocked from work and may have been crashed due to traffic for a while after posting the full interview. I am not a huge Paul Kimmage fan as I think his journalism is completely lost in his quest to out doping, but he is exactly in his element in this one.

The most notable thing to me is that Floyd admits testosterone patch use (floydtosterone lives!) and blood packing, but STILL denies that he should have been caught at the tour for testosterone. Read the interview. This is a bit weird, but maybe he is still trying to avoid getting some sort of perjury charge. Who knows. This is his excuse for spending tons of time and his money and others money trying to clear his name. The positive made no sense to him and the lab work was sloppy thus he should be cleared. I sort of am with him. Sort of. My big problem with the UCI and the testing system has often been how nontransparent and apparently sloppy it is. It really bugs me that they do not have this shit AIRTIGHT and unassailable, not only then, but still. It also bothers me that they (UCI and testing labs) leak tons of information to the press. Finally it bugs me that the UCI has never offered amnesty to riders in exchange for useful doping info, I think we would have heard a whole lot of this kind of story by now if they had been less idiotic. I guess they cut Dilucca's sentence down to 1 year based on turning people in, but I don't think we have heard any details yet. Much of this is also covered in the interview. Did you read the whole thing yet? Good stuff, no?



Floyd has no credibility as he spent a huge amount of time lying about being caught. But I believe he is mostly truthful now. Read the whole interview and if you think he is still lying, fine, but it is hard for me to believe he is just making stuff up at this point. I think his current story will be mostly vindicated over the coming years, much like Jesus Manzano (my doping hero) has been. (and Jose Cansenco too).



Anyhow, I am waiting for someone else with not much to loose to come out with a similar tell all. Tyler, I am looking at you buddy.

Read more about me writing about floyd and doping and the like at the
doping tag

Remember Floytosterone is a registered trademark of the moscaline corporation.

Floyd Landis is...

Jesus Manzano? Or just plain Crazy?
NYT article where floyd spills the beans

I guess he is probably telling the truth. As I have stated in the past, I think the majority of the peloton was doped to the gills in the late nineties and early to mid oughts. But maintaining you are innocent and writing a book about how innocent you are and then recanting like this is not the best credibility move. I wish he did this immediately upon getting caught. I can't wait for his next book. I hope he calls it Floydtosterone and then is forced to pay me royalties for using the phrase.

Remember Manzano as the guy who detailed every little bit of the doping calvacade at Kelme, was tarred as crazy by everyone in cycling up to the head of UCI, but it turned out in the end he was almost completely vindicated by subsequent scandals including Operation Puerto and the continued attempt to ban Valverde. See previous writing by me on Manzano, doping hero. Please note the list of substances he claims to have ingested for doping purposes. Awesome.

I also wonder if we are in for a bandwagon confession from Tyler Hamilton.

Note, regardless of doping, the Giro and Tour de California are pretty interesting this year. Check em out.

Saturday Video Fun

Everyone and their uncle has linked to one of these videos or another, but has anyone linked to them both in the same post? At moscaline we go the extra step for blog gold.

Dock Ellis and the no-hitter on acid:


I have no problem with McGuire and Bonds in the hall of fame, despite their drug use, but maybe the veterans committee can elect Dock Ellis so there is there is no question that drugs have been a part of MLB for a long time.

Anyhow, in a completely unrelated note, can I wear tight jeans while racing?

source
Actually if those guys race a single race this year, they will race more cross than me thus far this year. This may be the second year in the last 14 where I skip cross season, we shall see...

Finally, everyone in the world has seen the Danny MacAskill video right? Here is him selling out to the man. Good for him:



I hope he sleeps in piles of money.

Another dead pro cyclist and football/ mountaineering = dumber than I thought

I thought about what, if anything, I wanted to say about Frank Vandenbroucke, but don't need to now, via the end of this boulder report postI found this article: this excellent article by Lionel Birnie. Go read it. Mostly what I wanted to say was this part:

While not for a moment suggesting that Tom Boonen is on the same path as Vandenbroucke, it is impossible to avoid the early-warning signs. Like Pantani, Vandenbroucke's descent seemed steady and unstoppable. Once on the downward spiral the brief rallies were only temporary.


It is pretty clear that VDB was on a path that was difficult to get off, ditto pantani. I think I had my say about boonen here. There is a riders union, there is a pretty strong governing organization in the UCI, get with it before it is too late, when your star riders are dying alone in hotel rooms, you have a problem that is bigger than Operation puerto and Astana's trash, especially if this continues.

In somewhat related news. There is a typical Malcom Gladwell article in last weeks new yorker on football and dogfighting. No, it does not talk about how pro football players engage in dogfighting, but in a typical Gladwellian overreach he says football and dogfighting are pretty much the same. Why? Because football players, especially ones that get hit hard often and get concussions, get permanent brain damage at extremely young ages and this leads to very early onset dementia. And dogfighting is a similarly cruel sport where the "athletes" die or kill on the game floor. See? Exactly the same. I think this would have been an excellent article without conflating dogfighting with football. He rightly takes the NFL and football in general to task for the whole "warrior/playin hurt" mentality. There are some disturbing stories of severe brain damage in teenagers and college football players as well as some impressively dismal instrumented helmet experiments showing magnitudes of head deceleration. The article is typical Gladwell in excellent research and writing, but I think he is stretching further and further with his conclusions of late. I pretty much hate football, don't watch it, don't even pay attention anymore, but if you like it go read the article, the medical evidence is pretty damning without the dogfighting equation. So there you go football fans, your sport is really frying the brains of your heroes.

Switching sports again, there was a remarkably similar article (minus the dogfighting BS) in Outside this month on brain damage in climbers, mountain climbers that is. Bottom line is that high altitude sickness seems to be a symptom of permanent brain damage, well maybe not quite a symptom, but perhaps they often occur at the same time. The article claims that seasoned pros climb slow and are well trained to avoid this. But people who blitz 14'ers in two days when they live at sea level, well, maybe they are doing some serious damage. Kind of a bummer. How bad is this brain damage? I have no idea, this article, unlike the football one, has no stories of 45 year old climbers dying from early onset dementia caused problems. But since I know lots of people who do this kind of thing (or similar like race Leadville with no high altitude training/acclimatization), uh, slow down guys, if it hurts your brain, it ain't good. There are some interviews with guides who seems to have pretty much fried their cognitive skills doing lots of fast high altitude ascents in short periods of times. I am a bit skeptical of Outsides claim that climber hero Conrad Anker does not have this problem because he is really careful and well trained. I would have liked to see some of the big name climbers get MRI's to show that they are so well trained that they have no brain damage, but my guess is that these guys were once dumb amateurs who fried their brains as well, before they knew better. Anyhow, the most striking point is that they had evidence of people who climbed too fast and had done some damage at a "mere" 14,000 feet. The author, in true outside magazine style, attempted to cause visible (to MRI) brain damage by summiting Mt. Rainier too fast (with his son no less) but alas, he was turned back by weather before making the costly point.


So there you go, cycling has problems, but really they pale in comparison to what is going on in football, that's what I am trying to say, they still have not even begun to look at the steroids/hgh problem in football. Remember if skinny cyclists and relatively tiny baseball players are pickling themselves in drugs to stay competitive, what makes you think your football player don't do the same. To tie it all together, I will say that the climbing and brain damage is a bit of a related downer, but I think it really applies more to weekend warriors blitzing climbs with no altitude prep, and idiots who climb Everest and the like sans supplemental oxygen, but they are dumb to begin with. In conclusion, if it hurts real bad, it probably is not good for you. So stop it. Unless it is fun. Then think about it for a bit...

Postcript: my secret theory is that racing hard in endurance sports kills brain cells too. No way that going that far into oxygen debt is good for you. I think it is probably the best/healthiest way to kill your brain cells though. Stupid football

Say it aint so tommke, again, sigh....

I have grown tired of writing about doping and sports, both because it is overwhelming and because it is getting better coverage in the press. It seems like the tide has been turning. The truly unbelievable grand tour performances have been reward with two year suspension lately, hopefully indicating a cleaner sport. Now that baseball actually tests and players are getting suspended right and left, cycling does not look like the only pharmacy sport out there. I am sure both american football and the rest of the world football are not far behind. But as far as boonen goes? Well, go read this which I wrote last year.
At least he now admits he has a problem. Poop on all of you who said "it was no big deal, just recreational drug use". Recreational drug use that he can't handle, that is. He needs to get off the highway to Pantaniville. Just go read the post from last year, my feelings are the same, as I concluded with last year:

he needs to get turned around before the Tom Boonen memorial kermisse is all we know of him

I blame Tyler, or The Lance Armstrong Comeback Post

Lancipoo done gonna come back and whip him some skinny eurocyclists.

I think I wish him luck.

I keep thinking and thinking about this and I can only come up with a big "good for him."

Lancypoo has lots to lose here. If he flops in france next summer he looks like a moron at best. I am sure he realizes flopping starts at second place and only gets worse from there. If he wins he shows that he is still class of the field going on three years since his retirement, and he has as many TdF victories as that phelps guy has medals in Beijing. He can raise quadrillions for cancer research, clear his name of doping innuendo, cement his legacy as the greatest cyclist outside of Merckx, and launch his career as a politician - all in one very tiring 21 day stretch.

Go read the vanity fair article. Lots of interesting stuff in there and hinted at, but Lance is spot-on on one point: he is a tabloid joke. I can't remember the last time I picked up a tabloid and did not see a picture of him looking drunk and cross eyed with some blonde ten plus years his junior. Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey and ashley olsen.... Ashley Olsen? Olsen Twins Ashley Olsen? Seriously?

I can see his desire to focus a bit. I can see his desire to get back in the limelight for what he is good at. I can see his desire to try to clear his name a bit by winning a tour under the current antidoping microscope. I can see his desire to get his foundation flush for forever, instead of just for the next 10 years. I can see his desire to really put some serious cash into cancer research.

But still I am not sure what is really driving this, he has been and can continue doing a lot of good without throwing a leg over a bike again. Maybe it was the constant lingering suspicious and innuendo from him being the dominant racer in the doping era, but it might have been watching the TV and seeing Carlos Sastre win. The same guy he put 3 minutes in on the last TT in the 2005 tour.
All his major competitors from his glory days have been discredited. Who is left? Here are the top ten from 2003-4-5 tours, Lancypoo's last three wins. Striken Names are those who were busted for doping (Mancebo is a judgment call, lets call him a doper as he retired immediately on being associated with operation puerto, and came back only after it was obvious there was no teeth to it).

2005 tour top ten
1 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 86.15.02
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 4.40
3 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team 6.21
4 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 9.59
5 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 11.01
6 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner 11.21
7 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 11.33
8 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 11.55
9 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 12.44
10 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 16.04


2004 tour top ten
1 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal p/b Berry Floor 83.36.02
2 Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile Team 6.19
3 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 6.40
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team 8.50
5 Jose Azevedo (Por) US Postal p/b Berry Floor 14.30
6 Francisco Mancebo Pérez (Spa) Illes Balears - Banesto 18.01
7 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 18.27
8 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 19.51
9 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Rabobank 20.12
10 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 22.54

2003
1 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal-Berry Floor 83.41.12
2 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi 1.01
3 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 4.14
4 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 6.17
5 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 6.51
6 Iban Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 7.06
7 Ivan Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 10.12
8 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 12.28
9 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 18.49
10 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com 19.15



What do we learn from this? No one who has not been caught doping has finished a tour within 6 minutes of Armstrong during his winning streak, for the three years shown, or all 7 tours if you go back to 99 and apply the same reasoning. The last two guys that finished in virtual second by this half assed retroactive reordering, Leipheimer in 2005 and Kloden in 2004, would be Lance's teammates should he return to the Astana team.

(Also notable is Oscar Pereiro, who really is not that bad a bike racer, that would be a virtual 7th, 4th and win in 2004-5-6.)

So really who is going to beat Lance if he shows up in any kind of shape?
Sastre? I think Lance out TT's him by minutes and minutes.
Cadel Evans? I don't think he can handle the stress.
Contador/Leipheimer? They will be well paid to shut up and ride for Lance.
The Shlecks? Only if they can make up for losing 15 minutes in the prologue.

I think the end story is that Lantz Y. Pantz wins decisively next july and he wins as clean as they can tell with the modern testing, which means he is as clean as everyone else who makes it to the finish, just like he was from 1999-2005. In his mind the TdF is one big low hanging fruit due to the lack of credible threats.

But still, the only possible way for him to look good here is to win. He looks really bad if he does not win and he could possibly be completely disgraced if he gets pipped for some sort of doping test. He has set the bar pretty high and I expect and demand that he follow through, completely transparent antidoping testing with publication of his results (something that has been promised but only sporadically delivered by many a CSC/Garmin/Highroad). I expect him to follow through on his promise to meet with antidoping crusaders/reporters David Walsh and Paul Kimmage. I expect him to really do some serious good in cancer research. I expect him to show that this is not a big exercise in ego and there is a greater good.

The excellent Boulder Report has his thoughts here, spinning some sort of political/sports management power thingy at the end that I do not quite get. Personally, I blame Tyler:

Tyler Hamilton is the current US Pro national champion.
Tyler, who is older than Lance by a few months and has had zero significant results since returning from his doping suspension, somehow outsmarted the entire clean young force of the future Garmin/Chipotle team and will be wearing some hideous stars and stripes rock and republic jersey next year. I bet Lance saw that and thought, shit, if he can win the US national champs at the age of 37 and clean, well I can beat the whole world. Just watch me.

And I think I will be right there by the TV rooting for him. I can't think of a reason why not. So:
Go Lance.

(I think)

Beautiful

In prelude I will avow that I certainly hope that the dope testers have their act together, but this really makes me smile:
from ap feed on yahoo sports

...Roche Pharmaceuticals placed a molecule in its product CERA— Continuous Erythropietin Receptor Activator—when developing the drug to help anti-doping authorities detect illegal use.


Yeah science! While a small tiny victory in keeping cycling clean, this is the kind of thing that should be expected if you are going after doping the right way. Go to the producers and get their help in making a test for their drug. Do it before it is easily available. Use scientists.

kudos to all involved. I would like to think that the tight top 10 in the tour this year after some truly outrageous mountain stage is due to some excellent doping controls leading to a pretty level playing field among the freakishly gifted.

But I am psyched for the science. Really, scientists are good at what they do and it probably helps to ask the right questions. And perhaps, the involvement of the science types got ricco kicked out on stage 12 wearing the polkadots instead of on stage 21 wearing yellow...

Please please please let whoever the hell is doing the doping controls this year have their ducks in a row.

Also, are you watching? It is a good good tour. Again. Oh the Drama, the suffering, the nearly naked people falling asunder at 70 kph. Must sleep so I can awake mighty early and then play some flex time enhanced hooky to watch the tiny little men go over two huge passes and only then tackle l'alpe. I told my boss that tomorrow is a national holiday for my people. He looked so confused that I had to explain that it was not some sort of crypto-jersey religious ritual, but was in fact the queen stage.

Hey Ricco

Hey Ricardo Ricco,

What the fuck?

Love,
Everyone

Greed is good, or Say it ain't so Tommke

The award for the stupidest drug positive this side of the Ulrich meltdown of 02 goes to, Tom "the tominator" Boonen. Apparently I was mistaken in attributing his Mullet to impenetrable-to-Americans eurotrash fashion choices. It seems he is just a walking talking throwback to the go go eighties.

Apparently Tomito is a bit of a party boy. His driver license suspended twice in recent months due to DWI and extreme speeding in his fastcar. With his pockets full with millions in endorsements, the undying worship of all of belgium and an epic trouser python, who could blame him for some hubris? Allegations began this winter when belgie cross star Tom Vanoppen tested positive for cocaine. Vannopen in turn allegedly implicated the Bonnikie as his coke dealer. Belgian police investigated but found no evidence and did not press charges. Now he gets pipped for a cocaine positive in an out of competition drug test. What the fuck Tom? Really. The only reasonable statement in the current environment is "boy did I really fuck up, I need some help, I am taking the rest of the season off to figure some stuff out and I will see you next spring in the classics", not his weasily quasiapology that was no doubt highly influenced by his lawyers and possible pending legal action due to his positive test.

What would posses someone who is drug tested as often as a pro cyclist to develop a cocaine habit? I can't relate, but I bet it is hard to figure out that a little blow in January might lead to a need for a bit more blow during the season, but cycling is strewn with cautionary tales of people who slid from the performance enhancing habit onto the recreational habit and then on to ruin. How could you start in the first place? Especially right now? Someone should be hammering this home to these guys who have more money and skill than brains. The team doctor? A handler? I have no idea, but get on it pro cycling, I am holding you responsible if you can't figure out how to keep Boonen from turning into another Pantani.

I wrote most of this when the news broke, but did not get around to finishing it until this AM, since then I have read a bunch of good blog posts that helped me finish this one. The Boulder report weighs in here with
tongue and cheek speculation that cocaine is the forefront of the new wave of retro doping abuse leading inexorably to strychnine doping like the did in the early 1900's six day races , The BKW takes Tom to task for not getting the Memo, the short one, that should be tattooed on the inside of every pro cyclists eylids "Don't embarrass our sport anymore.". flahute has some good points from a different perspective, I don't really buy into the recreational drugs are not the same at performance enhancing argument, especially when coke is a reasonable stimulant with a long history of performance enhancing use, alone and mixed in Belgian pot, but like I said, I can't relate, others have different experiences that are worth reading. But I do whole heartedly agree with him that this is Boonen's wake up call, he needs to get turned around before the Tom Boonen memorial kermisse is all we know of him.

Surf over to velonews for the details...

the Mayo post

Man, I am so glad other bloggers are better writers than me. Instead of thinking up a new post all by myself, I can read excellent reporting elsewhere, react to it, paste up a bunch of links and go from there. Thank you internets! So here goes


First go over to velonews and see that Mayo's B sample for EPO was declared negative by the lab that did it.
Then note that the UCI says they will continue testing the sample as "The analysis of it has not yet finished." (anne gripper, uci doping commisar).

Now go read this excellent post over at Belgian Knee Warmers (BKW).

Right on there BKW! some interviews with doping sources with good stuff on different reputations at different labs, how irregular this is compared to the usual protocol, and the implication on the Landis case.

Great stuff (check out the rest of the blog too, lots of great pro cycling stuff).

Here are my reactions to this (I wrote these as comments to the BKW post originally, but since I wrote them I think I can reprint em here, no?):

What astounds me is that the UCI thinks it is OK to continue to test a sample to get the "correct" answer. This cuts to the fundamental problem with cycling dope testing. It is not impartial and it seems that there is no plan by the UCI to even attempt to maintain a facade of impartiality.

That they are willing to go ahead and announce that they are going to continue testing to see if they can overturn the negative is mind blowing.

The right answer is for the UCI to declare the Mayo test a negative, reinstate him and then go and figure out how and why and if their testing system failed them. And then fix the problem.

The UCI must be willing to accept that it is better to let some guilty riders go than:
a. convict innocent ones
b. ruin all their credibility by changing the rules as they go along.

This has been a persistent problem in the realm of antidoping in sport. At this point no one should give a shit whether Zabel doped in 96 or if Lance doped in in 2000, they should be spending their efforts in making sure their system is fundamentally flawless so riders like Hamilton, Landis, Heras or Mayo can be quickly banned without lengthy trials that expose legitimate uncertainties in the process.

Anyhoo, like I says, good post BKW, thanks to the blogosphere for making it easy to react and link and think. Stupid UCI....

Powered by the Satan

Sweet! It is not about whether Bettini is on drugs or not, it is really about who he has in his corner. He clearly is a Satan powered pedaling machine. How can anyone compete with that?


click for source
(update: http://velonews.com/images/int/13429.20908.f.jpg, they seem to have taken this off the original article, crafty, trying to impede satan bettini)

Well you can't really. You just can't.
I expect the UCI to ban satan worship directly as an obvious performance enhancer.

Congrats to the cricket on getting to be all stripey again next year.

Sono Paolo Bettini, We are all Paolo Bettini. You are getting sleeeeeepy...

the Rasmussen post

Uh, so they done kicked Michael Rasmussen out. I can't think of too much to say that I did not say yesterday in the Vinokourov post. To reiterate, he was warned 4 times for not letting the authorities know his whereabouts, I am surprised they could not get this straight and prevented him from starting. He got kicked out for lying to his team about where he was. Good for Rabobank.

Well maybe let me try to say some more, the UCI/WADA should spend less time going after armstrong, stripping tour titles from Riis and green jerseys from Zabel, and more time closing loopholes and getting their collective heads out of their asses. Do not go after retired riders or change results from 10 years ago. No one cares anymore. Just get your act together. Make the doping testing system transparent and free of the sloppy crap that plagued the Floyd case.

On rasmussen, most interesting to me is the following (from this velonews article):

Bergsma said the team officials learned that when Rasmussen had said he was in Mexico - where his wife lives - he had actually been in Italy, working with an as-of-yet-unnamed doctor.

Oh please please please please let it be the Notorious Cecchini! I am tired of Ferrari getting all the negative press lately. Sheesh.

What else? I am glad they kicked him out before he was standing on the podium in Paris. I wish they did not let him or Vino start. The boulder report had a nice Vino article yesterday, I think he is way too cynical, but he did say the following of rasmussen during todays live stage blog:
...does his stage win podium ceremony and shakes hands and chucks the bouquet into the crowd. I'd spit in my hand before shaking his.
Word.

More random thoughts. i think kicking the teams of doping offenders out is a pretty reasonable way to increse anti-doping peer pressure amongst riders. I am pretty sad that Cofidis left though. Of the vocal anti-doping brits, I much prefer Bradley Wiggins than Millar. I really do think it is a good thing for riders to be vocally anti doping. But Millar was so vocal and whiny pre doping positive, his zeal of the recently converted leaves me sour. But, really, keep on shouting down the dopers, fellers. Even a few short years ago no one in the peleton would dare say anything, lest they become shunned.

Stopping the tour would be a mistake. We don't have to watch, but it would be nice if there was a strong antidoping statement as the tour ends leading to the mostly drug free Vuelta/world championship/2008 grand tours...

Finally, the best page on velonews is the reasonably quickly updated roster of riders in the tour, with strikethroughs on the abandons, here If all the riders get struck, I will declare myself victor in the 2007 tour.

From the comments, comebacks =doping?

Welp, quite a firestorm of comments on the Vino post below. But I have to hand it to my brother who had the following to say:

I am completely cynical: any 'miraculous comeback' must mean doping. Think Armstrong, Landis, Vino. The next big doping scandal? Two words: Harry Potter. Man, he came back from death itself! Impossible without 'assistance'. And I hear Skeeter's book has a section about Dumbledore's youthful friendship with Ferrari.


I Knew it: Harry freekin Potter, boy doper!

the Vinokourov post

If you are a new reader, you might not know that I wrote about doping extensively last year in the wake of the Hamilton decision and up to and through the tour last year. See all the posts under the label doping Keep on scrolling down to the bottom. Then what happened? I got tired of writing about it, thats what.

The thing that fired me up in the first place has been the incredible degree of ignorance in the press about doping practices. Especially the non-cycling press. I still think most of the baseball and football press think that dopers are people juicing with "roids" in the weight room with Cansenco and the pro wrestlers. Ignorant. Some day we will learn the extent of doping in baseball and football, and trust me, it is not journeyman relief pitchers getting steroids from the internet. I am betting there are tens of eufemiano fuentes type servicing the doping needs of the big three american sports.

Golf still does not test. Also ignorant. Of course they are doping. I wrote about it here last year. Just this month Gary Player claimed he knows people on the mens pro tour are doping. The reaction has been mostly disbelief and denial. I can't wait until they start testing positive.

Anyhow. I was tired of doping writing. I also sensed goodness in cycling. Slipstream and T-mobile had instituted comprehensive anti-doping programs within the team. Lots of retired guys were admitting doping and attempting to move on. Basso claimed he was coming clean. It was a new day in cycling. I don't think it was all better. But it certainly made it over the hump and was heading for a new generation of cleaner cyclists being mentored by older cyclists that may have doped but don't anymore.

The cycling press was much more realistic about it as well. There are people who get paid to write that were covering the issues far better than me. My doping posts were getting repetitive and eerily predictive (see this post pre 2006 tour) I just wanted to watch my classics and tour and get on with it.

As for Vinokourov, I recommend some perspective. Go get the spectacular book Lance Armstrong's War. Read it. Tell me if you have any other conclusions other than the following:
1. Ferrari and Checcini understand human performance so well, they do not need to dope their charges.
2. Ferrari and Checcini understand human performance so well, that it is inescapable that they would use doping to get to the next level.

Now go ahead and factor in that Ferrari was a convicted sporting fraudster in 2004, and was coaching Vino THIS YEAR, and that Checcini (the notorious Checcini) was coaching Ulrich and Hamilton immediately prior to their suspensions. Now which conclusion is likely? Hmm?

Clearly there is a disconnect between the new guard and the old guard. It is hard to believe they let Astana race after Vino admitted he was working with Ferrari a week before the race began. It is hard for me to believe that David Millar or anyone else is so surprised that he was doping. It is hard to believe they could not figure out that Rasmussen was warned for missing controls 4 times total, twice by the UCI and twice by the Danish cycling federation, yet they were unable to suspend him...

Did I know Vino was doping? No. But I was not rooting for him this year after his ferrari link was exposed. Levi is much too boring to dope (probably). Go Levi!

And what of the poultry jesus?. Go ahead and read this illuminating post at Flahute, still rooting for Chicken?

The only thing that surprises me was that he tested positive for homologous blood doping (excellent article on blood doping here). Did he run out of his own blood and hope that they did not test him (after he won the stage?). Did they screw up and give him the wrong blood? Has he been doping consistently for years this way and had never gotten caught? I am baffled here. He just blew a 10 year Astana sponsorship commitment and a probable Director Sportif position for the length of the sponsorship.


Anyhow, I really think the Vino and Sinkewitz positives are emblematic of the positive direction things are taking. The doping tests worked. I think it is better for Vino to get kicked out mid race than to get arrested with a bag of blood in his hand mid-August after he won 4 stages and clawed his way back up to the podium, no?

I am still up at 5 or something tomorrow to see if our flawed heros crack badly in the last of the Pyrenees. It is still a good race.

The real tragedy is that this scandal might end the T-mobile sponsorship and screw up the long term Slipstream sponsorship. I will be very very angry if the two teams most committed to racing clean disappear.

P.S. David "Gimp" Millar please shut up already, you doped and lied and lied and lied about it, see his slanderous response to being implicated by a teammate here. Then he got caught a few months later. Now he is a doping avenger? Just shut up and do your job.

im in ur internets, haxxoring ur dope tests

A few weeks back mark sent me a link to this ridiculous floyd landis video parody. Pretty silly stuff.

But is it sillier than this:
An associate of Tour de France winner Floyd Landis...was reported Tuesday to be under suspicion of hacking into the computer system at the French national doping testing laboratory (LNDD) of Chatenay-Malabry near Paris.

See the velonews article here.

Ok either floyd landis has a genius for a lawyer who has successfully shown that the lab is not to be trusted, or he hangs out with people who are as dumb as he looks:


Cripes. I wish I could make this up. Maybe his menonit hacker homies are sweeping the internets changing all truth to lies and vice versa.

The doping news is too fast and furious to keep up in the offseason. I just plain old gave up. I read the landis powerpoint defense. i now robotically agree with whatever his lawyer said. Yes. the Lab is wrong. He is right. I applaud he and his lawyer for going public with the info, rather than the no comment approach of tyler, but we will see what happens when things go south with the UCI.

Speaking of the UCI. They decided to suspend 4 piddly US pro MTBers for missing post competition tests that they did not know about. See Jason Sagers blog for his take on his situation. His main post on it is here. I agree with him that it is his responsibility to be available for the testing and thus it is his fault. But I also agree that it probably would have been pretty easy for the drug officials to call him when he was not there after the race to say, uh, hey, where are you? The riders do need to be within two hours of reporting to doping controlls at all times, so what is the big deal about calling them? This Bart guy also got dinged, see his blog for details.

mark also forwarded on this NPR interview with Dick Pound . Pretty good interview, he does not come across as the reactionary footinmouther that he has been in the papers and cycling press. He does say "aboot" alot, but other than that there was not too much in the interview to object too. I am not sure I learned anything though, but it is worth a listen.

The cofidis affair has actually made it to trial this past week. Significantly some riders may actually face jail time for sporting fraud. David "gimp" Millar probably will not face time as he apparently is too big a name to send to jail, and he has repented and now lives clean. A nice turnaround for millar, after he took the deny and slander others route before finally admitting he doped.

Finally it looks like Tyler may be racing on the Tinkoff team, possibly with der Kaiser ya and Daniello Hondo, also a quasi banned racer. It appears that tyler's re-investigation in the operation puerto affair has fallen off with the rest of the case. Should be a interesting team dynamic. There are also rumors of Tinkoff being interested in Francisco Mancebo. Reminds me of the "all steroids olympics" sketch on saturdaynight live.

Anyhow, like I says, there has been too much to keep up with.
I am agog that Saiz was given a pro tour license despite being caught (allegedly) with bags of blood in hand, I am suprised that basso was signed by discovery without a guaranteed DNA test to clear his name from the disintegrating Operacion Puerto investigation. Sheeesh. Who knows.

I'm an EPO man for doping

Well a long overdue doping update.
First he was fired, then he appears on a starbucks cup talking about fries and then a short time later, Frankie Andreu decides he has to come clean about EPO use in the 99 tour. A NYT article (PDF here via scott) quotes Frankie Andreu and am unnamed mystery cyclist from the US postal service team saying they both used EPO to make the 99 tour team. They were using to finish the tour to help lance. The implication is that Lance was involved in this. Although both cyclists are quoted as not having seen Lance dope, and as Lance points out in a rebuttal to the article that Frankie Andreu testified, under oath in court, as such:

Q: Did he (Armstrong) indicate to you that he was going to use EPO or consider using EPO?
A: No.
Q: Was there any discussion between you and Mr. Armstrong regarding EPO or the use of EPO during that time period?
A: No.
Q: '94, '95 time period?
A: No.
Q: Did anyone on the team tell you that they knew Mr. Armstrong was using EPO during that time period?
A: No.


Hmm. What is the point here frankie? His statement in velonews claims that he is doing it for the future of the sport, he also acknowledges that this won't help much. I agree. It is pointless. I think before the development of EPO testing (2003) use was pretty rampant in the pro peloton. I am glad pro cyclists are coming out of the woodwork with admissions, but at this point, no "I doped, but did it alone" admissions are going to help. I think the path foward is people who were part of large scale organized doping by teams or doctors need to come foward (a la Jesus Manzano) to make a dent in the problem. Frankie and his wife, especially his wife if you read the NYT article, seem to have some sort of grudge developing with armstrong. Betsy Andreu testified that she overheard Lance, in his sick bed, admitting to doctors that he used EPO, steroids and growth hormone as performance enhancers. This was roundly denied by all others present, including the doctor. Who knows. The timing of this announcement is odd. the Boulder Report does the usual good level headed analysis of the consequences of the admission and of pissing off Lance. Wild speculation gleaned from the internets says that this is Frankies revenge because LANCE got him fired from Toyota-United as revenge for the testimony. I disagree, if you want wild speculation, here is my take:
I believe starbucks impelled frankie to confess in exchange for his fame on the coffee cup quote and perhaps starbucks has it out for Lance as well, there I said it. Now armstrong AND starbucks are out to get me.

The big question is who is the other mystery cyclist. Assuming it was another retired american, it had to be either Kevin livingston or Jonathan Vaughters. I think odds are on Livingston. Bobke strut and others go into details on the Livingston Probability (good movie name, eh? I just trademarked it and will sell to Matt Damon, Jake Gyllenhall or highest bidder).

Finally circling back through doping news through Mr. Andreu's statement, which read in part:
We need to make some steps to make things better. If DNA sampling and testing is required then that is the way we should move. I understand the invasion of privacy and no other sport requires this, but if you put the truth out on the table then perhaps something good will come from it.

Good point, the problem is that most pro cyclists who have been implicated in the operation puerto scandal have refused to give DNA evidence to the prosecuters on the grounds that it would be an invasion of privacy. If Ivan Basso and Jan Ulrich complied with DNA requests, they could be exonerated if the investigators realize that their blood was not among that seized from Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes' lab. Of course, it could be that they are refusing as it would completely incriminate them and definitively end their careers. Or that they are highly principled individual who do not want to comprimise their right to privacy. It is a complex issue. But aparently not too complex for the German legal system. Apparently, while Jan was on his honeymoon, German authorities raided his home AND snatched samples of his DNA. Well, so much for the sanctity of privacy. Did I mention that his home is in Switzerland? Can the German "authorities" actually raid homes in Switzerland? Did they pick hair out of the drain of his tub? Or seize a dirty spoon? Or worse? The mind boggles.

Meanwhile in Spain, the Vuelta churns on with a spectacularly eventful week including Tom Danielson claiming his first grand tour stage win and the Kazachs attacking like mad. Great stuff, not doping, or at least not yet, but great stuff.

More Doping musings:

bwa bwa bwa more tyler hamilton

Tyler hamilton and the squashed comeback

Ignorance is Bliss on golf?!?!

Doping Law Clarified

Manzano Speaks

Blah blah blah floyd landis... On the initial stages of the Floydtosterone scandal.

Tour predictions, immediately pre 2006 tour

best tour ever

Liberty Seguros Quits cycling

dopingpalooza on the beginning of the Saiz/Seguros scandal

Tyler, Doping and baseball

On the IGF-1

Tyler riding in a race

Huge post on Tyler getting suspended with lots of doping links

Early post on the dealy