Bill C said:I had some of the same thoughts. One of the major conditions was his
cooperation with the investigation. It's my belielf that the cycling
bodies want to prevent this at all costs. It's fine for riders or
independent doctors, and coaches to be exposed, but they sure as hell
don't want senior leadership, team leaders, owners, etc... tied in to
systematic doping, and the questions asked about how much Verbruggen
and others in governing the sport knew about all this as it was
happening.
dumbass,
being a jock-sniffer and torch bearer for the worker your great desire
is to see the bosses punished, even though it's the millionaire
athletes that profit the doping, not verbruggen or any UCI official.
it is true that some riders face the choice of either doping or losing
their job, but it is still a conscious choice. riders make that choice
because they would rather be a top rider than be an accountant or
plumber or engineer - even if they make less money.
i agree that cycling troubles got out of hand because the cycling
bosses in the 90s had a laissez-faire attitude to doping. but what
would you have proposed ?
in 1996 there were no EPO tests, and no test for blood doping. a
somewhat useful EPO test didn't appear until about 2003 and autologous
blood doping still seems undetectable.
if verbruggen wanted to stem the doping in the 90s he would've had to
act on circumstantial evidence based on riders behaviour, who they
associate with and testimonials from insiders.
your reaction would be to call it a witchhunt or an inquisition and
accuse him of persecuting "innocent" riders and trying to destroy the
sport. but verbruggen didn't want to rock the boat.
verbruggen and the UCI don't profit from the doping, the riders do,
the teams indirectly that is why they pay guys like fuentes five digit
fees. stop trying to find a way to not hold the athletes responsible.
bud selig can grant giambi amnesty, because baseball has autonomy,
cycling isn't independent and it doesn't have a commissoner that can
act independently for the best interest of the sport.