I,d be more shocked if they could find anyone clean!!!!.

He was not shocked by the amount of doping that was going on he was shocked by the amount of evidence USADA have.

Ashenden Interview

AS: The other thing that struck me about these results, which I was surprised never came up before, was that if you take away those 6 positives, you have 7 remaining positives out of 81 samples. That’s 8.6%. Does that say to you that at that time the peloton was relatively clean?

MA: Yeah, it’s an interesting observation, ’cause you cast back to the ’98 Tour, obviously it was a debacle. And, I’ve heard anecdotal or off the cuff remarks, that ’99 was a new beginning. It had gotten as bad as it could possibly get, or so we would’ve thought, and ’99 was, “Ok, let’s start again, we’ve really got to make an effort to be clean this year.”

Well, obviously, based on Lance Armstrong’s results, he wasn’t racing clean. But for the rest of the samples collected during the Tour, relatively speaking there wasn’t a very high prevalence of EPO use in the rest of the peloton, at least in the peloton that was tested, which was your top 3 place getters, for example.

The prologue was interesting. First race of the event, every one of those samples had EPO in them. So it seems a little odd, the first day of the next year’s race, and all of your place getters have got EPO in their urine. On the one hand, yes, it seemed less prevalent than you would’ve otherwise thought, but on the other there’s still evidence there was doping in the peloton. Not just by Lance Armstrong.

Seems like things aren’t as bad as everyone is assuming they were. Obviously a fair amount of EPO usage, but unfair to assume everyone was on sweeties….

Another thing about this.

Sean Yates rode with LA, and worked on the US Postal team. he would of had first hand experience of doping, he would have seen it and assisited the riders in doping. He would have known Barry doped within US Postal when he was hired to ride for Sky.

If Sky and Brailsford are serious about Sky being a ‘clean team’ Yates needs to leave, or if he told Brailsford Barry doped, and Brailsford hired him anyway it makes a mockery of the whole team Sky ethos.

If Sky and Brailsford are serious about Sky being a ‘clean team’ Yates needs to leave, or if he told Brailsford Barry doped, and Brailsford hired him anyway it makes a mockery of the whole team Sky ethos.

I’m pretty sure the ‘clean team’ ethos related only to the riders? I seem to remember that when Sky started up Dave Brailsford said they didn’t want anyone who had been associated with doping but it became apparent that it would be near impossible to have a support/management team that had not been linked with doping in the past.

I think it’s fortunate for Sky that Barry is retiring.

I think if you have a clean team in a field of competitors who may not be so clean then you’ve got to address that handicap as best you can. With your strategy you need to be aware of how and when your competitor will try to cheat for advantage and plan to mitigate that.

If i designed burglar alarms it wouldn’t make a mockery of my ethos to employ a former cat burglar. More useful than employing a nun.

I would think things were pretty bad given the top three tested positive. Given the budgets and money involved its fair to assume that things have moved on in terms of detection.

I would imagine EPO is old hat now, I would think the likes of hem-assist and other more sophisticated enhancers are currently in use. Its ony a matter of time before the next high profile rider is caught.

I’m pretty sure the ‘clean team’ ethos related only to the riders?

It didn’t. I remember Brailsford saying they would not work with any ‘cycling doctors’ as they wanted to be sure that the advice given to riders was all above board. then they hire Rabobanks doctor, who has got massive doping connections.

Would this be the same Wiggins who was riding for Cofidis when they were asked to pull their team from the tour in 2007 over doping? And the same Brailsford whose dinner was interrupted by the police detaining the rider he was discussing “preparation” with to take the rider (Millar) to his room and find the syringes? I’m sure they are bricking it shocked!

Jesus, how many threads do we need on this, can’t people just keep it to one thread? 🙄

Sky’s clean attitude related only to the riders as DB said at the time that it just wasn’t possible to get the support experience and talent without employing people with what might be termed tainted pasts. They were still pretty strict in their criteria and they had (and still do have) procedures in place to ensure that doping isn’t an option so even if Mr Support Staff was a doper in their past career as a rider or doctor, they’re clean now, they’re not riding and they’re not encouraging or allowing others to dope. It was why he didn’t employ Millar although he would have been perfect for the team.

As for the restaurant episode, DB didn’t know up until then that Millar had doped.

Barry had already retired (a couple of weeks ago) but more significantly, he was clean while riding for Sky, it’s not like he was still doping in spite of the teams ethics. And as said, no-one knew. No-one suspected Michael Barry, he’s never been linked with anything like Operation Puerto, never failed a test. Not that that means anything…

never failed a test.

Heard that one before somewhere……

Heard that one before somewhere……

Yeah but there are some riders you think “Hmm, probably doping” and there are some you’d just never even think to point the finger at. Barry is definitely one of the latter.

Really Crazy legs?

Christ, if a rider has ridden for USPS, Astana, Saxobank or Rabobank I pretty much think ‘definite doper’. A couple of exceptions but not many

And the same Brailsford whose dinner was interrupted by the police detaining the rider he was discussing “preparation” with to take the rider (Millar) to his room and find the syringes?

Ahhh but aren’t you forgetting that Millar was clean by then and had only kept the syringes as a ‘memento’ and forgotten all about them! 😆

If you read what George Hincapie says you cant win the TDF without drugs so is he saying Bradley Wiggins is on them????

And of course Barry won his 2003 tt world championships only after Millar was found to be on the juice.

Heard earlier on R5 that only Fernando Escartin was the only rider on a podium in Paris with LA that was never implicated in doping. He rode for Kelme…..

only kept the syringes as a ‘memento’

Is EPO any use as a one-off thing? Or does it need a ‘course’ or extended use to be effective?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01kt7d3

Or does it need a ‘course’ or extended use to be effective?

Yep, the rise in red blood cell count will reduce naturally as your body won’t maintain it at the elevated level, so you keep topping up.