Froome outraged!

[mr messy]

Wouldn't you be if you'd "stayed clean" for 2 weeks to disprove the doubters and they didn't test you like they were supposed to?

 

[MikeG]

I can tell you from experience that you have to have a good reason for wanting to do a drugs test. It is an unpleasant and humiliating process. Therefore, it would be logical to deduce that the downside of not being tested is worse than the actuality of the test, and of course, it is. It's career-over (or at least, it should be).

If you are clean, and yet know that you are going to be accused of being a drugs cheat, you want all the ammunition you've got when it comes to attempting to answer your critics.

 

[e-rider]

?

 

[Beebo]

?

This should shed a bit more light on it for you.

Interesting. Froome is demanding more tests, saying that Him, Nibbles and Contador are all in Tenerife at the moment and none of them have been drug tested.
Does Froome think the others are taking dodge stuff?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

It's pretty obvious what's going on here - it's part of the psychological warfare that takes place before big races. Froome is trying to unsettle Contador (and to a less extent, Nibali). I'm sure he also really believes that there should be more testing in Tenerife, but that's not really the reason he's saying this.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

It is an unpleasant and humiliating process.

No it's not.

 

[Saluki]

. It is an unpleasant and humiliating process.

Is it? I thought that they just did a wee in a bottle and handed it over.
What actually happens then?

When my horses were drugs tested, the vet assistant just collected a bit of pee and occasionally some blood. Same with us riders. We just did a wee in a bottle.

 

[MikeG]

No it's not.

Yes it is.......

Is it? I thought that they just did a wee in a bottle and handed it over.
What actually happens then?........

You are taken to a room, you strip naked, and attempt to wee into a bottle with the drugs tester watching you from feet away, from the front. I even had one hold the bottle on one occasion. Now, that might seem trivial, but after strenuous exercise, you can spend 2 or 3 hours trying to hydrate enough to produce enough urine (there is a minimum required volume). Sitting for 2 or 3 hours, naked, in the continual presence of a stranger and repeatedly failing to produce enough pee may be something that Marmion would find pleasant, but I found it unpleasant and humiliating.

The reason you had to be totally naked, and observed constantly, was that someone had been caught injecting someone else's urine up their urethra into their bladder.

The one caveat I would add is that this was the regime in my sport in the 1980's and 90's. It may not be the same in other sports, and may not be the same in my sport now, so I should perhaps have used "was" instead of "is"..

 

[Archie_tect]

Tiddlywinks has certainly changed.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

There is an alternative to "humiliating" or "pleasant" - neutral, one of those things, no emotion attached, just get on with it.

 

[NorvernRob]

The tin foil hat wearing crew on cycle clinic would have you believe it's because Froome and co are on some new undetectable wonder PED, all overseen by Sir Dave of course.

 

[mr messy]

I would have thought testing would now be viewed as a normal part of a professional athlete's life.
Would be very surprised if Sir Dave wasn't already analysing every bodily fluid on a regular basis.