So how would you clean up pro racing?

[Smokin Joe]

I wouldn't. I'd bring them all together in a large marquee and say "Well chaps, seeing as you are all at it like knives, from today, anything goes. Dope away. Nay bother. We've lost the battle and the war. If you want to kill yourself, go ahead, after all it will sell cycling magazines and newspapers and TV adverts if you do and make me even more millions of € than it does today."

And end up like the old Eastern Bloc countries where children as young as nine who showed a talent for sport were put on a doping programme, often without their knowledge. The consequences for them in later life were often catastrophic.

 

[totallyfixed]

Sack the current members of the UCI who have the backbone of an amoeba and morals of politicians.
Much longer bans with [as pointed out by OP] lifetime ban for second offence.
Doping offences to be ruled on in a much shorter time scale.
Stop employing dodgy Director Sportifs
Shoot anyone else who is an Armstrong fan boy.

 

[dellzeqq]

Put Jeff Novitzky in charge?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/sports/baseball/30novitzky.html

According to Matt Seaton, he's now investigating cycling.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/may/23/lance-armstrong-tyler-hamilton

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Insofar as sports people are used as / become role models - then I would say that it does.

(Super injunctions aside)

misuse as role models more like. why is a professional sports person any better a role model than a professional banker/chef/lawyer/politician?

Society chooses its role models to reflect its aspirations... largely I fear to do with money and fame these days.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Unfortunately we can't 'put aside' the question of minors and the vulnerable, because that's the starting point and the baseline for the culture of professional sport.

You have to start as you mean to go on.

How so is that the starting point? vulnerable adults and minors are rarely professional sports people ime.

 

[yello]

According to Matt Seaton, he's now investigating cycling.
http://www.guardian....-tyler-hamilton

Sorry, where does he say that?

I read he says he's investigating Armstrong which, in my point of view, is not quite correct. The FDA's investigation includes Armstrong but the remit is broader. It's more about the misuse of US public funds to buy drugs. That is, specifically, the USPS team of which Armstrong was a member. Okay, that statement deliberately underplays Armstrong's roll but you get the drift! I'm not aware the the FDA's (or Novitsky's) remit has broadened to US cycling let alone cycling in general.

I certainly can't see that the USFDA would have any authority over world cycling or the UCI... but it'd be interesting if they did! Novitsky is, by all accounts, an extraordinarily diligent investigator!

 

[philipbh]

Why is a professional sports person any better a role model than a professional banker/chef/lawyer/politician?

I would say the role is traditional and based on visibility of the individual

In this "celebrity age" - anyone can be one I suppose (good or bad)

 

[biking_fox]

One interesting thing, Ryan Giggs has lasted a very long time in a tough position, and looked after himself quite well. No real excesses. I don't hear anyone even suggest he has done anything wrong

hahahahhahahaha

I do hope that was deliberate. If it wasn't then you need to read Hansard, Twitter or google. Or even the BBC today.



Life bans. It is the only way. If you're caught you're out. Make the punishment so harsh that people won't cheat. But a culture of testing and the bio-passports is a good way to go.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

And end up like the old Eastern Bloc countries where children as young as nine who showed a talent for sport were put on a doping programme, often without their knowledge. The consequences for them in later life were often catastrophic.

I'm not sure how deregulating the use of pharmacutical technology in professional sport leads immediately to child abuse in liberal democracies but each to their own.

and if you think the amateurs, the wannabees and the up and coming ain't stuffing themselves full of, or doing, stuff likely to have catastrophic consequences in later life then.....

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Life bans. It is the only way. If you're caught you're out. Make the punishment so harsh that people won't cheat. But a culture of testing and the bio-passports is a good way to go.

Is David Millar clean these days?

 

[Ludwig]

If we all stopped watching cycle races in protest whether it is at the roadside or on TV they would soon clean up their act.

 

[rich p]

Put Jeff Novitzky in charge?

http://www.nytimes.c...30novitzky.html

According to Matt Seaton, he's now investigating cycling.

http://www.guardian....-tyler-hamilton

Keep up Dell! Novitsky has been investigating Armstrong and USP for almost a year!

 

[dellzeqq]

Keep up Dell! Novitsky has been investigating Armstrong and USP for almost a year!

whoops!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

How so is that the starting point? vulnerable adults and minors are rarely professional sports people ime.

I didn't think it was that difficult to understand. Minors and those in positions where they can be taken advantage of by older coaches and teammates are the base of the sport - they are where the future professionals come from. If you start by creating a culture where doping is totally unacceptable then this can feed foward. The problem now is that we have older riders and coaches who basically got away with it, and these are the people bringing on the younger riders.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I didn't think it was that difficult to understand. Minors and those in positions where they can be taken advantage of by older coaches and teammates are the base of the sport - they are where the future professionals come from. If you start by creating a culture where doping is totally unacceptable then this can feed foward. The problem now is that we have older riders and coaches who basically got away with it, and these are the people bringing on the younger riders.

impossible to achieve I think.

sports people, especially professional sports people, will always try to cheat, especially when vast amounts of spoils go to the victors, and the 'guards' are, at best, enfeebled and, at worse, actively collude with the cheats.

amateurs/juniors/minors in other sports often play within different rules/laws, often designed to mitigate the risk they are exposed to by their very taking part. why can't cycling be the same?