In the longer term do you think...

[Stick on a Giant]

that the publicity around doping, and the fact that entire teams are pulling out if one individual is caught, will help to clean up cycling?

 

[chris42]

Yes but it will be very painfull to the fans.

 

[Yorkshireman]

I'm not entirely convinced that the 'management' on said teams are totaly ignorant re any 'performance enhancement measures' employed by riders

 

[Blonde]

IMO it will harm it, but only 'cos the media keep making the issue into something huge and ignoring doping in other sports.

I agree with Yorkshireman - if a rider has been found to have access to doping procedures or to drugs, someone with close contact to his team is bringing them in; team managers, team doctors, siogneurs - if one rider has broken the doping rules, you can bet that many on the same team, if not all of them, will also deserve a slapped wrist for exactly the same!

 

[andy_wrx]

Is it really that different to the furore in 1998 ?

Teams thrown out, media circus, people saying it would be a watershed and afterwards all will be clean.

I'd like to think it is getting better, but it's a process that will take time, with many stages, not a sudden bad->good overnight

 

[Steve Austin]

98 was very different. A team was caught doping as opposed to a couple of riders this year being caught doping.

Riders being caught and banned will help cycling.

Riders getting away with doping will not help cycling.

The thing that needs to happen is some decisiveness within the bodies that regulate Cycling. A rider who is caught taking anything illegal should not have the opportunity to appeal and drag out results ie Floyd.
A rider who misses a test should get a suspension.
A team who are found guilty of systematic doping should be banned, and the riders suspended.

drastic action needs to happen

 

[Blonde]

Riders being caught and banned will help cycling.

I don't think it will - because the media always overblow it, so that the more riders get caught and get reported, the more cycling as a sport looks stupid and not credible anymore to the general public. That's what I thought the question was about, so that's why I said 'no, it will harm it' in my first post. I've just realised that other people are interpreting the meaning of the original post differently to me though! Regarding actually 'cleaning up' cycling, I dont think news stories will make any difference as people just find better ways of getting round the tests, or use things that aren't detectable - yet, or find new things that aren't banned - yet. In the latter case they aren't 'cheating' as whatever they use hasn't been banned, but it's a good excuse when it first makes it onto the 'banned list'; 'I took this before it was banned'.

 

[Squaggles]

No appeal ? Are you completely convinced that there are never any mistakes made ? What would you have done in the Petacchi case ? The length of the Landis case is at least in part due to the mistakes made by the testing lab .

 

[Steve Austin]

The irony of getting drawn into a a debate about whether Floyd is guilty or not is unbelievable.

So the labs need to be better. I want folk banned that are using drugs. I do Not want debate or mistakes. I want action.

 

[derall]

I'm not entirely convinced that the 'management' on said teams are totaly ignorant re any 'performance enhancement measures' employed by riders

I wonder sometimes; For example, Phonak in their early days had problems with doping - perhaps having a former member of that Festina squad as the Team Coach wasn't a great idea and really they should have known better. They did try to sort things out after the Tyler Hamilton affair and thought they were on top of the problem. Until Floyd Landis.

So now they have fixed the problem of drug abuse on the team. They disolved the team. Problem is that Phonak AG made big contributions to Swiss grass roots and everyday cycling. Their reputation as a sponsor of cycling generally is shot to hell now. Cycling as a whole loses out.

 

[Blonde]

The irony of getting drawn into a a debate about whether Floyd is guilty or not is unbelievable.

So the labs need to be better. I want folk banned that are using drugs. I do Not want debate or mistakes. I want action.

Nothing is ever that simple though. You're very idealistic, but tests are not 100% accurate, they never can be. Human error occurs on top of the fact that tests are not accurate, results go missing... it's just the same as with tests for cancer or other diseases.

 

[Dayvo]

I still thinks parents will be encouraging their little darlings to hang-out on street corners terrorising pensioners, instead or saying that they should go for a nice bike ride.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

I think there are encouraging signs already:

In '98 the riders had a sit down protest because they believed there was too much testing,

In 2007, there was a sit down strike by riders who want more done to rid the sport of cheats.

The superficial reporting by some media might still looks the same, but many journalists are noting these sorts of differences. And certainly many 'fans' will notice this optimistic sea change in attitudes.

 

[andy_wrx]

A sit-down strike which included Moreni...


What's perhaps more encouraging is
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/jul07/jul26news3

Pineau and Hinault critical of fellow riders

After years of silence riders who dope are being frowned upon by their colleagues, with Jérôme Pineau (Bouygues Telecom)and Sebastian Hinault (Crédit Agricole) joining the growing list of riders to speak out. Pineau aimed his comments at Cristian Moreni. "There are a lot of riders in his team whose contracts will expire at the end of the season," he stated to HLN.be. "Thanks to him they may also be living on the street. If a rider like him was in my team, I wouldn't hesitate to punch him in the face."
Pineau spoke angrily of the Italian on the French team, which has become the second to leave the Tour in as many days. "You really have to be selfish to do something like this," he said. "It just goes to show again that there is a huge mentality issue with in the peloton."
Hinault is also furious with the state of affairs, which is reminiscent of '98 when the Festina team were thrown off the Tour after doping products were found in a team car. "We are not scared to talk about Rasmussen, only your grandmother would believe that you missed four doping controls by accident," he said to HLN.be of the Dane's excuse for not filing his whereabouts to anti-doping authorities. "He is lucky that he has the law on his side and we can't kick him out of the sport. It's a real shame."

I think it's only through riders actually getting angry and active about it, informing their teams (who listen ! and are really genuinely against it ! and do something about it !) or the authorities (ditto) about other riders, or dodgy practices within their teams, including 'grassing' on their team mates/soigneurs/doctors/team management, that things will improve.

There needs to be a lot more 'spitting in the soup'

 

[Keith Oates]

In every walk of life people cheat and try to get the edge over others, tips on horses, insider trading, the list is endless. However the authorities such as UCI still must continue the fight and try to improve the image of cycling whilst knowing that every year something new will come along that has to be found and dealt with!!!!!!!!!!!!