OT: Drugs/ Cycling

[ancientnloyal]

Being a firm fan of Le Tour and Giro etc... todays news that Alexandre Vinokourov has tested positive for a banned blood transfusion has really made me dislike the cheating going on in all sports.

Being behind Kloeden going into the final stages, im gutted Astana (his team) have pulled out of the Tour. As a fan i'm sick of this by 'professional' sportsmen who spoil it not only for themselves but for their team mates, fans and the sport.

Just hope we should have drug testing on the spot, without warning in any sport, including League as it makes it safer for everyone from players to fans.

im gutted about this news.

[WiganWarrior]

Should this be in off topic rather than having it marked OT, one for the mods i think!

My dad is a fan of the cycling and i have to agree with you, it just shows that it goes on across all sports

[cpwigan]

Just as a secondary question, how does a blood transfusion help the athlete?

[JIMH]

i could talk all night about this topic ancientnloyal, i'm also a big cycling fan and i have a few opinions on this matter, have you ever read a book by paul kimmage called rough ride? he is a former pro who talks openly about the use of drugs in cycling. I am totally against it BUT where does it stop? there are many food supplements out there that are legal and used in sport, are they cheating?

As far as vinokorov is concerned i'm disapointed in him but after yesterdays result i was expecting to something like this to come up, i'm actually suprised its a positive test after the saturdays time trial.

as for kloden, i feel for him, team borat have not been interested in him winning the tour, vino should have been supporting him yesterday rather than racing off for glory.

my msn address is on my profile if you want to talk about this in more depth

[JIMH]

cpwigan posted:
Just as a secondary question, how does a blood transfusion help the athlete?

i will take an educated guess at this question cpwigan.

I would think a blood transfusion would give a cyclist more red blood cells which would mean a cyclist would be able to carry more oxygen round his body and would recover quicker. The cyclists drug of choice which was EPO (the drug that crested the festina scandel in 1998) produced the same results, EPO is a drug used by cancer patients to aid red blood cell grouth to help recovery from treatment, cyclists used it to help their bodies carry more oxygen to provide more endurance over the long stages. now EPO is detectable they have moved onto blood transfusions to do the same.

p.s. i think thats right, its my understanding of it anyway

[cpwigan]

Sounds right Jim. Thanks. The brief report I read said they had found 2 types of red blood cell in his sample.

[cpwigan]

Where do you guys stand on Armstrong? Clean or cheat?

[JIMH]

thats right morph, high altitude training promotes the body to create more red blood cells to carry oxygen due to the reduced oxygen in the atmosphere at high altitude. Your body would keep the higher level of red blood cels for a couple of weeks until your body re-adjusted back to normal sea level amounts

[JIMH]

cpwigan posted:
Where do you guys stand on Armstrong? Clean or cheat?

Lance Armstrong is proberly the most tested athlete in the history of sport, he has never failed a drug test. so for that reason i have to say he is clean(or too clever for them)

p.s. he never married cheryl crow, they got engaged but split up a couple of years ago

[ancientnloyal]

Sorry, forgot to put it in Off Topic section...

I guess allegancies lie with Cadel (being an Ozzy) but Vlad is still in there.

It's a shame, got home from work at half 12 this morning and stayed up for the re-run of the highlights on ITV, Now we have Wiggins' team (Cofidis) dropping out due to Moreno testing positive for testosterone (and being arrested at the finish line by police) - so for one person being stupid, a whole team of say 8 riders have to go home without finishing the Tour.

The big news though was Rasmussen being dropped by Rabobank over the mess pre-race over his whereabouts over drug-tests... even though he has had 14 tests during the race all negative.

I say it again, it is messy for the fans, the teams and the sport... BUT cycling is still number 1 when it comes to testing. Simply, dont take drugs? What'd it be like if Feka was high on Ketamine - he'd bloody kill the defender, crush him.