If I understand your position then, it is you policy to never believe a 'whistleblower' even if he were a 5-time Tour de France Champion such as Merckx & Anquetil were? You believe advertisers but not whistleblowers?
If this is so, then you have few doping worries, the truth can be easily denied and witnessses easily discredited in your fancy world.
Lance Armstrong has been caught up with doping on at least four separate ocasions, five if Michele Ferrari's guilty verdict applies to his best customer.
1) Lance's junior teammates all were injecting steroids and corticosteroids in 1990 & 1991. Four of the 'A' team admit it. Strock, Kaiter, Francis, Latta.
Three of this group got sick, Lance, Greg & Erich. Only Lance recovered to race bikes.
A lawsuit is still being battled and Chris Carmichael has conspicuously been released from it, leaving Rene Wenzel & USA Cycling as defendents.
Strock is barred from using 'Chris Carmichael's' name. Sounds like a private cash settlement eh? Carmichael & Wenzel were the Junior coaches.
2) Before Lance became a TDF winner, but immediately post Festina, Lance went positive for a corticosteroid after the prologue TT. He retro-actively TUEed his way around that.
3) In July 2000, Frech TV-3 discovered Actovegin and insulin disposed by USPO staff in a small town dumpster in the Maritime Alps. They video taped it.
Lance denied it. Then suddenly in December admitted to it and this was confirmed by Tailwinds boss Mark Gorski. He then threatened a boycott and refused to discuss it further. Instead moved from Nice to Girona and away from French Police.
4) Emma O'Reilly (the heart and soul of USPO) claims she fitched drugs for Armstrong in Spain and delivered them to him in the Netherlands. She claimed he needed EPO---just like the other guys.
5) Lance's 10 year relationship with Michele Ferrari was sidelined by the good doctor's doping conviction of malpractice. Advising performance hormones for professional cyclists.
And insofar as 'direct effects' go in cellular biology, when you flood your blood stream with synthetic homones, you help one area whist damaging another.
The athletes do it willingly in order to get paid and to suffer through the madness of pro-sport.
Hell even Roman Gladiators were juiced for the same reasons as todays athletes are.
Mansmind said:I never agreed, I only agreed that the percentage would be more than the percentage actually caught. I have no idea what the actual percentage is, nor does anyone else. I do feel extremely comfortable in saying it's not 99-100%. We're dealing with humans here, how often can you get that large a group of humans to agree on ANYTHING??? Much less something that's harmful to them, or causes death as you imply. For the record, I DO agree that it's higher than 1%, probably even greater than 10% but 50% or more? That's where I start doubthing your theory.
You're spot on, I doubt them. I doubt the intentions and motivations behind their supposed "revelations". They're as likely to lie about everyone else as they were about themselves. When found out for what they were (according to your posts), I'm sure there was some desire to discredit everyone else also. You bet I doubt them, just like you doubt Lance when he tells you he's not doping. Same thing.
I have no specific knowledge of him enjoying either item, so how would I know. Evan Swartz only "thinks" so.
Shooting yourself in the head with a gun, has a direct effect, you bleed and likely die. I've known people that used steriods, and they don't have cancer, etc. (imagine that, I use to weight train with people that used, yet I never have). Getting back to the point, you don't know what caused any of those illnesses, could have been drugs as you say, could have been something else.
I agree completely.
None, I'm convinced doping exists.
As I've stated before to you Flyer, I don't doubt your facts, what I doubt are the conclusions you draw from them. Also as I've stated before, when you draw those conclusions you should indicate that it's you opinion, not that it's fact. YOU may believe it's fact, as well you should since it's your conclusions. The truth is however, that whether something is fact or not doesn't get to be decided by you specifically, or the rest of us for that matter.
In my opinion, it's absolutely ludicrous to assume that 99-100% of all riders are doping. I've competed against people using drugs for various things, and I assure you I didn't need drugs to compete with them.
The way you arrive at your conclusions is analogous to never buying a red car again, because the first one you bought was a lemon. It just isn't logical.
You're favorite whipping boy, Lance, has never been caught if indeed he's doping. You have indicated that's due to the things he's using being ahead of the curve (not detectable). If you're going to use that logic, then I suppose I'm doping also...because you wouldn't detect anything in me either. As I've stated before, you're entitled to your opinion just like the rest of us. You're also entitled to express your opinion, and I respect that. What I find very difficult to respect is that you express your opinion as fact....and fact it's not. If he ever gets caught, fine, that means you're one hell of an (investigator?) or have great intuition, whatever. In the meantime, it's opinion and nothing else.
John