"RonSonic" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> On Sat, 26 May 2007 19:44:23 GMT, "B. Lafferty"
> <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>
>><[email protected]> wrote in message
>>news:[email protected]...
>>> On May 25, 5:14 pm, "Crescentius Vespasianus" <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Riis just killed the sport known as pro-cycling. The European police
>>>> in
>>>> Italy and France were in the end correct and the people who criticized
>>>> them
>>>> were wrong. I think David Millar was the first to crack under those
>>>> warm
>>>> interrogation lights. In the end he told them all they needed to know
>>>> about
>>>> this cycling-Mafia. Kudos to all of the European police agencies, in
>>>> cracking this Mafia wide open for all to see. All that **** about
>>>> these
>>>> guys going up grades >8% at 26 mph were simply an illusion. Where does
>>>> Carmichael go now, when people now know it wasn't his training, but
>>>> what
>>>> he
>>>> had in the medicine bag. What about Liggett, will he now return to
>>>> being
>>>> a
>>>> shoe salesman? Trautman can now compare his steroid perfected Yankee
>>>> team
>>>> to the EPO perfected CSC team. It was the perfect illusion,......all
>>>> of
>>>> it.
>>>> We should all give them a giant round of applause for this magic trick
>>>> of
>>>> the century called pro-cycling.
>>>
>>> I think it's time for Armstrong to come clean and admit he doped, just
>>> like everyone else. I think Hincapie needs to come clean, as does the
>>> rest of the Motorola/Discovery team. Former teammates like Landis,
>>> Hamilton, and Heras all doped. It's impossible to believe that
>>> Armstrong could have been so dominating without "help", especially
>>> when seemingly everyone else was doping. Hincapie was a classics
>>> rider/sprinter, and suddenly he becomes a super-domestique hanging
>>> with LA in the lead group over the mountains and wins a mountain stage
>>> in the TDF? It's too good to be true.
>>>
>>> Rick H
>>>
>>
>>Not true, Rick. According to Dr. Eddie Coyle (supported by our own Dr.
>>Coggan), it is possible with years of training to develope the efficiency
>>needed to climb mountains at 26 kph. Lose weight as Armstrong and George
>>are alleged to have done, and you can climb even though you're a classics
>>man. Look at Indurain. All he had to do was lose weight and suddenly his
>>climbing and time trialing became world class. It's all hard work, diet
>>and
>>the efficiency created by years of selfless training. You believe me,
>>don't
>>you? ;-)
>
> So, what makes the difference.
>
> Everyone can train hard and lose weight. Everyone can buy drugs. So why
> such
> inequal results. Do you suppose the guys in the back are skimping on the
> drugs
> or on the miles?
>
> Ron
Unequal results?! Please. The difference between Armstrong and his main
rivals was really not that great, particularly when you look at where he
made his time-usually one or two early mountain stages in the tour.
The problem with doping is that it brings many riders to the top level when
they would be just below that tier without the boost of drugs. Boosting a
natural hematocrit in the low to mid-40s up to 50+ (even with the 50% limit
that we know was routinely exceeded), can allow a rider to stay with a
better rider. As an example, Cunego has a natural hematocrit of 53%.
Would a rider of equal size and weight with a hematocrit 10% below his be
expected to beat him in the mountains and content for a tour winners
position. I think not. Drugs may not turn draft horses into thoroughbred
stallions, but they will allow a good thoroughbred to compete with the best.
And if you look to the classics, you now have either massive pelotons long
after the sort out should have occurred, or you have a rider who is probably
a bit better prepared (perhaps willing to risk his health more than some
others) riding off into the wind, holding off chase groups working hard to
catch him--even putting time on the chasers.
So, really, the results aren't "unequal." With the seeming exception of
Armstrong and the Tour, since 1995 or 1996, when virtually all the top teams
had comparable doping programs, no one or a few teams or riders dominated as
in the pre-1990s. That's my take on the situation and it does still exist
from the testimony of present riders. Micro dosing, testosterone patches
and gel---it's all there. Perhaps the latest revelation wall change the
rider's mentality, especially given the ever increasing health dangers,
something Zabel alluded to in relations to his son and cycling.