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By the way, how's the foot?
How's your foot, Bill? Let's get pissed soon...
#prioritiesFoot is nearly ready for polo. Might start swinging a mallet again over Easter.
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Just reading "Lanced", a collection of Sunday Times articles going back to 1999.
Regarding Banesto, there was something that I missed at that time from the Festina trial. Thomas Davy, who rode on Banesto during the mid-90s, testified in court:
"At Banesto there was systematic doping, under medical supervision."
"Did everyone in the team use drugs?", asked the judge, curios about Indurain's stance.
"I don't know, I didn't go around all the rooms, but I think so", said Davy.
Testimony under oath.
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Innocent until proven guilty and all that, but it beggars my belief that anyone can think someone who rode for teams run by Ferretti, Riis and Bruyneel and was coached by Luigi Cecchini is clean.
Nailed it again, Andy. Once again, the problem that the sceptical cycling fan faces is that because of the unwillingness of former top pros to finger DSs, doctors etc, our only option appears to be find them all guilty by association.
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the 50% was bollocks, 50% isnt normal even in athletes! it was the UCI allowing riders to raise their haematocrit to 50% when most riders were low to mid 40"s!, so they allowed EPO..
Actually, one of the most notorious user of EPO was Riis, who was apparently known in the peleton as Mr 60%.
I think Jonathan Vaughters said he was around 50 ish before he started doping so he was only able to 'bump' a tiny bit when his numbers dropped low enough.
If you were naturally low you could pile on the EPO as long as you stayed below 50% and get a bigger % boost. This is the source of the old 'level playing field' lie; different starting point but the same upper limit.
In 'The Secret Olympian', the writer gives the example of one of his team-mates (reading between the lines, I suspect the writer was part of the 2008 rowing team) who had natural HCT of 50%.
According to the sport scientists, it's uncommon to have natural HCT at 50%, but not physiologically impossible. However, it is physiologically impossible for your HCT level to stay the same, or even increase, during a 3 week GT.
FWIW, the Secret Olympian is a very good read, featuring interviews with a wide range of Olympians. Not too much about doping in there, apart from the author's opinion that his sport was pretty clean, and some discussion of other sports (not just cycling) which had doping problems.
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Booked hotels last night for the stage finishes in Saint Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel. Planning to cycle down to Portsmouth to get the overnight ferry. Not the most exciting stages, sure, but couldn't justify spending loads on getting down to the Alps. Another year perhaps.
Anyone else planning to head over? For those stages or any others?
Polo crew expedition to Ventoux and onto Alpe d'Huez.
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He had one positive for testosterone I believe, in the early 90's, which is common knowledge. He talks about 'health additives' and other coded language quite openly in a few interviews in which he frames it as a health thing in restoring natural levels but he doesn't openly say he knowingly doped.
The 'rebalancing' that he talked about was unquestionably hormones. I doubt that he was on the Poe, as he was nearing the end of his career, and I doubt that he would have been willing to risk his health. However, only he knows the answer.
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Wenger on doping in football
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-arsene-wenger-slams-doping-1594892
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Beckham (David this time) is once again training with Arsenal, Wenger say's it is only for fitness but lets speculate about the poseur turning out for Pisti's local team.
He's trained with the Arsenal before, more likely to find him turning up in Pisti's local than turning out for a game.
Ha! He's only at London Colney 'cos it's within gelling distance of his house.
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Yeah, we're going to the Ventoux and Alpe d'Huez stages. Thread is here:
https://www.lfgss.com/thread96367.html