So, Tom Danielson has failed a doping test.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/08/news/tom-danielson-fails-doping-test_380297

If he’s cheating it’s going to be seen as proof that so called clean teams like Garmin aren’t in fact clean and that nothing’s really changed.

If the B sample is negative then it’ll be a conspiracy/coverup.

If it’s down to contamination (genuinely inadvertent contamination) then it’ll be seen as another dodgy steak

So regardless of the facts, it’s really bad news for the sport 🙁

(sorry, couldn’t resist the spoiler tag though 😉 )

heres his prostats page

http://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/Thomas_Danielson

58.5kg!!!!

That would be very disappointing. Bad news indeed.

I thought his story of regret and reform was pretty believable, especially having read about the stick he still gets over his doping past. Hope it does come down to some sort of contamination issue but I’d guess chances are slim.

Danielson has said on twitter that he is going to send all of the supplements he is taking off for testing.
I guess if his B is positive that his defence will be that one of the supplements contains/is contaminated with synthetic testosterone when it should not be. I wonder if all the supplements he takes are FDA approved?
Shane Stokes has said that JV has suggested in the past that the team would stop if one of the riders was cheating.

this is the same Tom Danielson who took PEDS while part of the ’05-07 Discovery team?

mleh….I’ve given up being bothered about it if I’m honest.

Well, yes, obviously but it’s the bigger picture particularly around a team that paints itself as home to reformed dopers who want to prove that you can win clean.

well, that’s blown that, hasn’t it?

Quite. Or has it…? I reckon it’d be a real shame if it does. I do believe that JV has been trying very hard to ensure that Garmin is genuinely clean.

Why would a previously a convicted drugs cheat who is anxious to prove they are now riding clean be taking “supplements” when they don’t know what they contain?

Ready-made excuse seems a bit obvious. Tainted beef is a much better explanation especially if it came from Spain!

Sure, I think you’re probably right, but short of watching individual riders 24hrs a day, what could they do?

I think if a cyclist wants to take drugs and has the knowledge of how to conceal that, probably easy to fool a team that almost by definition have no experience in dealing with it.

As you say, real shame. Not a surprise, but yeah, a real shame.

Presumably he’ll say that he thought he did know what they contained – I’m pretty sure that almost all top athletes take some forms of supplements even if it’s just your bog standard multivitamin.

But then that’s my point, it now doesn’t really matter whether he actually did intentionally take a banned substance or not. The fact will be out there that he tested positive (regardless of the B sample though it’s increasingly rare that B samples are any different to A samples) and the narrative about cycling doping culture will follow.

Nice effort to take the Heat off their athletics testing programme by USADA…

LOL – could be 🙂 Good conspiracy 🙂

it now doesn’t really matter whether he actually did intentionally take a banned substance or not.

What he takes supplement-wise is entirely his responsibility. doesn’t matter if he did it unintentionally or otherwise.

So, he’s guilty of taking PEDs or he’s stupid (or both). and as forza up there quite rightly pointed out, for an ex doper in a team that’s ‘clean’ is just idiotic Well done that man, eh?

Absolutely – I’m not suggesting he should avoid a ban if it’s come from a supplement. My point is that it’s particularly bad news irrespective of the facts or his potential stupidity/bad luck

yeah, sorry, you’re right, it is bad news. 😕

I do wonder what Vaughters will be thinking right now..

And UCI..

Might just be a good move for Dan martin to head over to Trek.. 😀

If his B is positive I would guess that is the end of him at least at world tour level. Anyone know how long the ban would be for him?
No matter what happens from here the biggest looser is the team, they are already on a low budget and from what I can tell lot’s of Vaughters time is taken up with trying to bring in sponsors which this is not going to help even if the B is clear/Danielson gets off for some reason.

If he’s intentionally doping and those results are all he’s getting he’s as well off calling time anyway. Likewise in G-C are systematically doping then they’d be pissed off with N anonymous tour where the highlight was a couple of 2nd places.

I think the classic problem is that it’s impossible to judge without knowing the levels involved

Testing regimes have become more and more stringent, and the apparatus involved capable of reading and identifying PED’s at such low trace levels that it’s possible that inadvertent or environmental contamination (at well below therapeutic or performance enhancing levels) could be an issue

Perhaps where levels truly are into the ‘trace’ category a rider should be subjected to a higher level of scrutiny and testing for a significant period instead of a ban based on a single failed test?

🙄 Not even vaguely surprising. Having said that, Garmin as a whole have lately been fulfilling the main criteria which strongly suggests a clean team… be a bit sh1t 😆

I don’t believe JV cares about clean cycling any more than Vino, he just seems to have an uncanny knack of being able to play the game and say the right thing at the right time and he knows his sponsorship depends on it. Whatever the reality, a positive would be a big kick in the nuts for the team

he should be ok in the vuelta. thats always a race for the clean riders.

😀

Nibali and Quintana are riding, possibly Froome too, so expect them to get smoked by either an unknown with zero palmares or an old timer 😆 It looks right up Zakarin’s street if he’s riding (well zero palmares before storming Romandie)….

Testing regimes have become more and more stringent, and the apparatus involved capable of reading and identifying PED’s at such low trace levels that it’s possible that inadvertent or environmental contamination (at well below therapeutic or performance enhancing levels) could be an issue

Is there really any evidence that inadvertent or environmental contamination is an issue? There’s always a possibility that a completely blameless individual could return a positive test as a result of some freak circumstances, but if that has ever happened it’s an incredibly rare occurrence. I think it is far likely that more stringent testing and improved testing apparatus are simply helping to catch more people who are intentionally doping.

A “clean team” can say they are not going to employ dopers and they’re not going to organise a collective doping programme, but they are still dependent on the behaviour of individual riders. I have no idea what’s really going on in Garmin, but I think Jonathan Vaughters would have more credibility if he had been up front about his own doping history a long time ago, instead of looking like he was nudged into admitting it because of the fallout from the LA saga.

I don’t believe JV cares about clean cycling any more than Vino

That’s a very cynical view. I won’t suggest he’s a saint – I’m sure the marketing/selling aspect of his stance is something he’s fully aware of and uses to its maximum but that doesn’t have to mean he doesn’t believe in it. There have been several examples of his actions that do actually back it up.

In addition to being married, Danielson has a girlfriend named Kourtney Compton, whom he met in Utah where she was working as a podium girl at the Tour of Utah

He’s certainly a colourful chap

It is a cynical view but here’s a quote that sums up my thoughts

He can make up all the schemes and reasons for what he does as the team director for Garmin, but it is all smoke and mirrors for self preservation of himself and his riders.

He is the master of putting a positive spin on anything and working it to his advantage. “Outing” riders who he himself had introduced to doping to get a better deal for himself is pretty cold not to mention some of the ways he has handled riders in the past.

Never a fan of danielson, Quite good blog about him here cheaty dopey scumbag allegedly

He’s consistently had the shittest dealer in peloton, I was him I would be seriously looking for a refund. 😉

Best to ban them for life first time round…

And disqualify the entire team for the year.

carbonfiend – Member

He’s consistently had the shittest dealer in peloton, I was him I would be seriously looking for a refund

On the plus side he must’ve have a good brief, 6 month ban in the off season

I think Jonathan Vaughters would have more credibility if he had been up front about his own doping history a long time ago, instead of looking like he was nudged into admitting it because of the fallout from the LA saga.

I seem to remember an interview – perhaps with Walsh or Kimmage – where Vaughters all but said that he had doped and had seen doping through USPS. This was well before the Landis outburst. The reason he couldn’t state it plainly it was that Armstrong would have crucified him legally, which he also said. It was the first time I’d seen ANY rider in that saga even hint at involvement. So I disagree – he has a hell of a lot of credibility.

“It was the worst time of my life…” Getting caught AGAIN!

It’s an athlete’s job to know what they’re putting in their body.

A few athletes tested positive to banned substances in the lead up to the CrossFit Games this year and apart from one they all said they should have checked their supplements better and admitted it was their responsibility so they took the penalty that came with it.

Although one guy was cleared when the manufacturers of his supplements admitted to cross-contamination in the factory as they also made supplements with Osterine for another company.

He still withdrew from the competition as it wasn’t fair on the other athletes.

Some interesting things in the comments section here

As much as LA is a giant bellend and deplorable human being by all accounts, I do find it amusing that he is making the most of the opportunity to show the whole “we caught the one real bad guy and cycling has turned a corner” storyline for the wishful thinking it really is

And I think he has the right to do that to some extent but at the same time, I do believe that there are a significant number of riders racing clean these days and it’s pretty tough for them to be constantly tarnished by LA et al making their point.

Very true, but at the same time there are enough riders currently making it easy for people like LA to tar all with the same brush which doesn’t help anyone

Well, JV has spoken – Slipsteam (Garmin) will be continuing to avoid hurting ‘quite a few good people’

Wonder if the sponsors with the doping get out clauses will agree. TD being branded the one bad egg?

And that’s rather bad news for JV – for once there could be a legitimate basis for branding it all the fault of the rider and nothing to do with the team but that’s unlikely to be sufficiently credible for many…