Vayer uses power to repeat his accusations Antoine Vayer, former trainer with the ill fated Festina team, has repeated his claim that doping is still prevalent in an interview with French language website, Sport.com "The question does not even arise. It is time that they (the senior riders) admit it, because what they do on the Tour de France is physiologically impossible. Everyone knows it," Vayer says.
Vayer thinks that by bringing in a retrospective pardon, could go some of the way to bringing honesty back into cycling. "The first thing that the authorities should do is to give the option for the riders to say "I do not dope myself more" without them being made to feel guilty," says Vayer.
Vayer goes on to say that the power output of today's top pros is not possible without doping. "A study of the power developed by the rider and its evolution over the years delivers the key to the question." Vayer says that power outputs of today's top pros, is not medically possible without drugs. "Moreover, the progression of the power figures year power by year follows a completely upward increase -- around 20%." "When it is known that EPO makes it possible to improve the performances from 15 to 20%, that small undetectable amounts of growth hormone increases the power by approximately 20 Watts, the explanation is very clear," he says
Vayer believes that the Tour has lost its magic due to the influence of doping. "Since 1998, one cannot look at the Tour the same anymore. There is no more passion, no more dreams. This year, all was completely artificial. The Tour was summarised by business, cinema, and a soft belly which does not say anything."
Do you think cycling will ever be clean? [poll] [opt] 1 NO[/opt] [opt] 2 YES[/opt] [opt] 3 WHO CARES[/opt] [/poll] cheers!
In all honesty, I don't think any sport will ever be truly "clean". There's just too much money to be made out of it now, and hence the pressure to gain any advantage possible will always be there. Heck, when I was in my last year at school (1995 to be exact), footballers used to sit there and take steroid pills in class (I am not joking), so I can only imagine what it is like at the top level.
And when you look at the rest of society, one has to ask whether it is really all that unusual anyway. Personally, I don't think there are any truly "clean" sports. It amuses me the way some of the other sports who do less drug testing than cycling (virually all of them) can claim that cycling is riddled with drugs. Do they really think that all their competitors are totally honest?
Frank Vandenbroucke plans to appeal his suspension for dope, I hear. The sap apparently misread the paperwork. He's being suspended for being a dope.
This guy puts the "loon" in "Walloon." The badges find everything from EPO to morphine in his crib, his homey Bernie Sainz gets popped with a car full of crank and spikes, and Frankie's [censored] about six months off and a four-figure fine. If he were black and from Watts, instead of blond and from Belgium, the yardbirds at San Quentin would be calling him Francine for the next few years.
The real howler is that VDB was widely reported to have claimed that the dope was for his dog.
