Quote (balrog66 @ 16 Jul 2018 07:58)
I strongly believe that cycling is one of the sports where doping is the most difficult to get away with. If you compare the amount of testing that cyclists have to go through, it really adds up.
If they ever did that with football at least 80% of top squads would be SoL. Don't forget that Dr. Fuentes had many football clients, and the Spanish govt just hushed him up.
and i strongly believe that cycling is one of the sports that is the most difficult to get away FROM testing, but certainly not the sport where it's most difficult to get away WITH doping.
just take armstrong for example, probably one of the most tested athletes ever: mysteriously he didn't fail (or at least didn't get suspended from the tour due to it) a single test related to the tdf!
i mean, just let that sink in for a moment: everyone knew he was a cheat, and the testers did everything within the rules to catch him, yet he was only stripped of his titles after HE admitted to doping (or rather didn't legally fight the charges anymore, first claiming he just was 'tired' of fighting, and eventually publicly confessing to it) during every single one of his wins - and that all was AFTER he retired.
same with froome, everybody knows that this really just pretty average amateur cyclist with (still) awful form, who suddenly dominated the most talented cyclists of the planet - and all of that within just a couple of years, isn't clean... but he keeps getting away with it anyway.
sure, he recently tested positive, as is history in team sky which has been offensively promoting clean cycling while at the same time aggressively suing everyone doubting it publicly (very reminiscent of armstrong and us postal). the tdf organisers contemplated banning him, but magically just days before the start, the uci clears him anyway.
what good is testing when athletes, who against all odds (testers always being one step behind compared to cheaters, as new testing methods have to be developed and approved based on new methods of doping) have been caught still get away with it because money, connections, politics, and lawyers can easily get them back on the road with just a slap on the wrist (except they were caught with a sringe still in their arm or a testosterone patch still sticking on their balls)?
and while i wouldn't at all be surprised if there was a massive amount of doping in football as well, and won't deny the benefit of almost unlimited stamina for example, the skill to physical ratio favours the former significantly more in football compared to cycling. that's not an excuse, illegal is illegal, i'm just trying to put things into perspective...
This post was edited by fender on Jul 16 2018 09:53am