Nick Burns said:I think the reason the war was lost was that the definition of victory was unrealistic.
Agreed.
Let's look at a an example or two:
Gert-Jan Theunisse, in his day was a great rider. It was commonly presumed that he was ''taking''
something, namely testosterone.
People even called him ''Mr. Testo''
He was tested on numerous occasions. And came up clean, except, I believe, for the one time at the
Tour de France for testosterone. Several years later, queried on the subject, Gert-Jan asserted that
he did not use Testosterone. Asked what he did use, he replied ''Speed''. (Amphetamines - Davey)
His bosom buddy Steven Rooks, if I remember, was never positive but in 2000 admitted to the use of
Amphetamines and Testostrone throughout a 13 year career.
Those were the halcyon PDM years, when Kelly abandoned the Lemonade merchants and quit winning
sprints on those junky aluminium frames that no self respecting first year rookie would ride in the
local Thursday Night criterium.
There was the ''bad batch of intra-lipid'' I seem to remember, but for a squad where doping was ''de
rigeur'' the lads seemed to be troubled hardly at all by the doping controls.
Then let's look at Deutsche Telekom.
They settled out of court a few years back several claims for damages by former riders. These claims
were based on the continuing deleterious effects of Telekom's mandatory doping programme.
And then again there was the ''Der Spiegel'' allegations against Telekom which seemed to be
impeccably sourced and which stated that doping was compulsory from 1994 on.
''Der Spiegel'' also cited Ullrich as having spent a night alone in another hotel separate from the
team after the squad had been forewarned of a ''Surprize'' doping test to take place sometime during
the night.
Further cited was Walter Godefroot's order to the lads to jettison their ''goodies'' after a certain
mountain top finish at the Tour because he had ''heard'' that there might be a search.
OK, so what about Rumsas? Everyone, including VDB's pet pooch, seem to think that he was ''on
something''.
But did he ever test positive?
And my point in this diatribe?
Doping controls are not worth the time, effort and expense.
SCRAP THEM.
And screw [censored] Pound ([censored] by name; [censored] by nature) and his WADA wankerz.
I bet he only started that gig because me was miffed at not getting Juan-Antonio's job, and figured
out how to kill two birds with one stone.
Firstly he needed to find a new trough in which to firmly plant his snout and both trotters after
being somewhat cut off from the IOC pork barrel. And secondly he figured that by dissing the TDF he
could get even with the ''Froggies'' whom he is sure somehow put in the fix that denied him the IOC
presidency and installed a Francophone, Jacques Rogge, even though he's a Walloon from Belgium.
--
le vent a Dos
Davey Crockett