I am under no illusion that either Sean Kelly or Stephen Roche were clean. To the contrary there have been many reports about both of them. To be honest my comments about Lance are mainly tongue in cheek, but... BUT, we are talking about a guy who beat everyone for 7 years. Try as they might the best cyclists in the world who prepared in many cases in similar ways to Lance have all been caught for some sort of infringement of the doping rules.
Now look at the facts, Lance has never been tested positive. But, he raced mainly only one race a year. During his tour years many of his "preperation" races were lack lustre. So we have someone that didn't need to perform early in the season or even shortly before the tour. No questions would be asked about poor performances early in the season, very easy to remove a pint or two of blood here and there. Suddenly we are at a competition where as it turns out everyone was doping... Pop back in a unit of packed red blood cells, instant increased oxygen carring capacity, and guess what... There is still no test for it!
I am actually fairly non commital as to whether Lance doped or not, but I wanted to believe in Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Micheal Rasmussen and many others too. I am a realist, and I have a pretty good understanding how the body functions in these situations. I think Lance had some sort of help, exactly what it was I am not sure but the scenario I posted above is certainly possible.
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| Yes it's quite likely that Lance may start the Tour of Romandie as a warm up race for the Giro. He won't ride with any intention except for preparation and he may well not intend to finish. I'll be going anyway, to watch Mark Cavendish win a sprint.
Eire, It's a real shame that you are convinced that Lance was on drugs. It would be like branding everyone, including yourself, of being a murderer because no one has managed to find you guilty. Lance has been tested more than any living athlete. People are still testing his blood, from years ago, right now. He has always tested negative. Imagine how many people there are out there, that would love to find a positive test for any banned substance in one of Lances hundreds of samples. We are all innocent, until proven guilty, otherwise, we have to believe that all of our other heroes, including the Brilliant Stephen Roche. And What about Sean Kelly, surely you cant think that he wasn't clean. I know that keener eyed cyclist will see that my avatar, is of Tommy Simpsons Memorial. Things were different in those days. And I whole heartedly support all measure to clean up the sport, that has been the love of my life. Ban all guilty athletes for life and sequestrate all of their earnings to date. But lets not condemn the innocent. | |
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