??? 07/11/09 03:23 Modified: 07/11/09 03:34 Read: times |
#167056 - such cynicism I dunno ;-) Responding to: ???'s previous message |
I expected better.
Its true that professional cycling has a long and not very distinguished history of doping, it does still go on but nowhere near as bad as it used to be.There used to be entire teams systematicaly abusing drugs but these days the chances of being caught are higher and it means the end of your career if you are caught. I have seen it myself at local racing levels and I know a profesional rider who who will tell you that some national cycling authorities tried to turn a blind eye in the past, but the vast majority of riders are clean these days. Like the guy who coaches me and used to be a professional says its about self respect. There are always going to be suspicions about people like Armstrong but like he says they keep on testing him and haven't been able to prove anything one way or the other. The thing is you are dealling with a sport which is putting people on the edge of what is humanly possible and the temptation when there where unscrupulous team doctors around must be enormous.To some extent its the fault of the race itself when you are asking people to do the equivelent of three marathons a day for three weeks. It is true that when you see someone going up Alpe D'Huez in 37 minutes you tend to think was it him or was he helped ? I will be surprised and disapointed if teams such as Astana or Garmin are knowingly allowing riders to use drugs these days. |