Doping

Shane Stokes lol

I'm sorry but that's the usual Stokes' bullshit. Sky are, whether fairly or not, judged differently to other teams simply because they are perceived to be British.

They've made three major mistakes in their time, adopting the zero tolerance stance, which was never going to work, hiring Leinders (although the idea he was some doping Svengali akin to Michele Ferrari bears no scrutiny) and hiring Tiernan-Locke, when they failed to apply due diligence.

Part of it is becasue they pushed a holier than though attitude, and have fallen foul of this multiple times. They brought it upon themselves.
And then Dave B, just being unable to just tell the truth. Hammering on about being transparent, and then dodging questions and answers like the best of MPs can.

He brought it upon himself. And he's dragging down good riders into the mud with him.

The idea that you could implement a zero tolerance approach in 2010 was ludicrous. That they then hired the likes of Sean Yates and Brian Nygaard showed they weren't really serious about it. But my understanding was that it was foisted on them by James Murdoch, so they had to go with it.

Brailsford should be kept away from the press, he clearly likes the limelight too much and his "I'm the smartest guy in the room" approach doesn't work.

But why they have to be transparent when it is not demanded for all other WT teams troubles me. All teams should be treated equally under UCI rules.

I blame Fran Millar

And Sky should hire a new PR manager who can keep Brailsford focused on his job.

Indeed, I agree. The issue with Team Sky is setting their own, above the standard level, standards; and then failing to meet them.
They don't need to be transparent, or anything other than other teams. However, if you set out a mandate to be clean and transparent; and then fail to meet that, judgment is fair.

Very much this.

Sky's current team manager is Servais Knaven.

Who rode from 1994-1999 with TVM, which folded because of endemic dopic being revealed in the team, before joining Domo Farm Frites to ride with the less than clean figureheads Johan Museuww and Richard Virenque.

They should have just kept Sean Yates because replacing him with anyone with those team associations under the guise of zero tolerance is pure lols.

And that their doping is somehow worse than some Italian riders getting pinged, demonised like Armstrong rather than ignored like Pantani. Those double standards wind me up.

If Lance wasn't such a bullying arsehole I'd almost feel sorry for him being made to carry the sins of a generation whilst other riders get off scot-free.

Edit - Obviously not (tragically) Pantani

You can pretty much associate anyone from that era with known dopers. But not everyone doped, I.e. Bassoons, Boardman and others, and maybe Knaven was one of those? He survived the Sky purge after the 2012 Tour, so either he's a consummate liar, or he rode clean.

My problem isn't with Knaven, it's with SKY's idiotic PR strategy

Ah, I misunderstood. I agree entirely, they would have been better served adopting an approach similar to Slipstream Sports'.

I don't get the 'holier-than-thou' accusation ppl throw at Sky. There was a huge debate before Sky was launched internally at British cycling. IIRC elements, probably namely Brailsford, wanted to use the success on the track and move into the road, but Cookson and others were doubtful, because of the drug problems within the sport. To get the sponsors on board they had to very overtly anti-drugs, hence the ZTP and the marginal gains guff. They had to try to prove that there was a way of winning on the road without using drugs, and so that is the narrative they created.

Basically it came back to bite them in the arse but I think the 'holier-than-thou' is something that has been foisted on them by Twitter and the clinic, who believe Brailsford is the spawn of Satan, and Froome not far behind.

That is certainly the victim-card that Armstrong has repeatedly tried to play, that he has been singled out when everyone was doping.

But he was such an irredeemable cunt about it, and he clearly lacks the self-awareness to acknowledge that.

Another inconsistency.

It might not be Fluimucil after all as the meticulous keepers of records can't find any records or prescriptions for it.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/dave-brailsford-face-questioning-claims-misled-mps-304918

...and in other news, although this may only be linked to management 'styles' Ken Matheson is about to talk.

https://twitter.com/kenem/status/811600821842571264

@andyp

judged differently to other teams simply because they are perceived to be British

Really? If they would have been Flemish, Dutch, Spanish or Italian, I don't think it would be any different.

El Pais stating about 20 riders with links to Dr Fuentes in Operation Puerto will be announced shortly after WADA closes the investigation

Mo Farah's Rio medals have been removed from the Olympics website.

1 Attachment

https://www.olympic.org/athletics/5000m-men
https://www.olympic.org/athletics/10000m-men

Nothing from the rumoured Soccerballers or Tennis players then ?

http://www.themercury.com.au/sport/olympics-2016/mo-farah-and-other-athletes-olympic-medals-missing-from-ioc-website-amid-potential-hacking/news-story/13c505bc32a1b4f21be6a4fa6ac4b44f

I read it on a cycling news website ;-)

It doesn't look as though the page has been updated since 2011

Although the 2012 10000m has a note about the result not being final due to re-testing, and the 2016 10000m page had no gold awarded...