Oldroadman - these were your words @
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/yates-and-de-jongh-also-booted-from-sky.116462/#post-2124533
"How quick are the majority of posters to condemn, when we are talking about history which happened before some were even out of school, in what was a very different world. People had mouths to feed, no excuse I know, but often the team domestique rider (average pro career maybe 4 years) needed to make what he/she could to try and secure a better future than a job in a factory."
So I think many would offer a translation to that as: " it is ok to cheat and rob others (this dumb idea that doping is a victimless crime is moronic) to avoid working in a factory. No excuse I know but can't you just understand it. I would do it if I was in their shoes ! "
Sadly, just as it appears you wanted to excuse Yates, presumably because you spent so many years admiring him, rather than recognising what was so obvious, for so long, to so many, as his past links makes it nearly incredible to believe he did anything other than rob and cheat others of their livelihoods, like the rest of his buddies on US Postal and elsewhere, you want to excuse the attitudes you have harboured for many years, during your engagement in cycling towards females, in their use as decoration to men in a man's sport.
I know of a young girl who helped me out with some youngsters for a few months in some very worthy work. She worked, during her undergraduate days, as a lap-dancer. I was very saddened to learn of this. She had access to funding, far greater than I had when I was an undergraduate and did not need to demean herself to that extent. She took a view that , why work for many hours stacking shelves or some such other minimum wage activity, when she could earn more in a few hours at a night club. There was some bizarre logic she offered (something of the style oldroadman would not doubt approve) about how doing this gave her more time to study and so she could get a better degree. Just think about the next step in that chain, shelf stacker, podium girl, lap dancer, ......... . She got a degree. Maybe she will marry one of her punters ? Perhaps he will write in 30 years time about the form of his partners mammary glands and how their preserved shape and their exposure at critical moments, has enabled her to advance through ( a male dominated ) life, to her advantage.
All of this is just a sad reflection on those who have managed our sport for the last 20 or 30 years. Someone will no doubt be able to recall the idiot UK promoter in the 1970's who hired a bunch of girls to ride topless on bikes. We desperately needed to move from that position to one matching say, triathlon. Certainly those at the top in the last 10 or so years have done very little.
