See I thought Nibbles was clean.

So he’s clean but his support riders have been doping ? That’s not OK either.

That Cookson interview is very interesting – looks like he’s ready to play the long game here and make sure that any action will stand up before CAS

And that’s the problem for a governing body – they can’t simply act on hearsay, newspaper stories and a gut feeling.

But the ASO can – it’s entirely up to them who they invite to the Tour. They declined to invite Astana in 2008 and may well do so again. And I suspect they’ll get less flak from Cookson than they did from McQuaid

And the list of Astana old boys is terrifying – Armstrong, Bruyneel, Contador, Leipheimer, Kessler, Kreuziger. You’d have to be naive beyond belief to think this was a good team to join if you wanted to ride clean.

Look at the history and personnel of pretty much any pro cycling team and you’d be naive entertain the idea of a clean peleton.

Even SKY turned in a positive test this season and got their first maillot jaune with the help of backroom staff with a very chequered past…

Sure there has been an attitude shift towards an openly anti-doping sentiment which is a step in the right direction but Astana are hardly unique amongst the other ProTour teams. They aren’t the only team being naughty in the latest Italian doping investigations and even then cycling hardly seems unique amongst other pro sports. I do love watching road cycling and in an ideal world everyone would have morals and play fairly but all the gossip and nonsense around the racing is more like Heat magazine for MAMILS. Take it for what it is, hope it is better in the future, but there’s no point in berating one particular team or rider

Cookson knew this was coming and did nothing in his first year to reform the rules. The main hope here is the Ferrari-Astana training camp photos are real (lets be honest, the Gazetta has published some spectacular bullshit in the past) because if it is, they will be a continental team soon. Next up, Saxo-Tinkoff home of Riis and all of Sky’s former doping DS (apart from Yates as obviously he didn’t dope or see any doping at Discovery/Postal).