Doping

This is the heart of the matter: the testing process is a long way from fullproof as it is. There is no guarantee the cheats will get caught, as the retro-testing of 2008 and 2012 Olympics demonstrates. If you start missing tests then your confidence in an athlete is only eroded further. At the end of the day I view people that have missed tests and been sanctioned, like Bauge, like Ohurunga (Sp?), like Rio Ferdinand as drug cheats. It's hard then to see what has happened with Lizzie and view it any other way, rightly or wrongly.

her reasons for the missed tests may be legit, but the manner it has come to light, the involvement of BC, the statements from her, the timing, it just feels all wrong.

She has only missed one test. Of the other two, one was due to the fault of the tester, as recognised by CAS, and the other was found by an administrative check after the event.

Would be better if she said i was shagging x y and z all night and did not here the phone . Honestly is the best policy . Go out with a bang and stop pussy footing about like your rassmusen .

Ohurunga (Sp?)

Uhura

(or did you mean Ohuruogu?)

She does mention a psychiatrist's report in reference to the family stuff... sounds more traumatic than a broken arm or a pet getting run over and not quite the same as saying you're racing in Mexico when you're actually banging back EPO shooters with your pals in Italy a la Rasmussen.

Yeah I felt proper Nigel Farage writing it, but was also too lazy to actually look it up.

More traumatic that Kevin Van Impe being taken out of his baby son's funeral?

Is that the standard that athletes have to meet to be able to have an excuse? That sounds unjustifiable under any circumstance.

So pleased Armitstead made her own statement, hope she can now focus on Rio.

He wasn't excused - he took the test.

You serious? FML... I'm all for out of competition testing etc but that's indecent.

It's awful and really should never happen.

But, it makes any other excuses for not taking tests seem pretty weak.

I get what you're saying, but equally if something happens like your sister is raped, father has heart attack etc is it really fair to doubt an athlete not being able to update their whereabouts records if they are able to prove the (unexpected) event with hospital/police records and statements to the effect that you were there from some kind of trusted third party like a police officer? There's few professions or people beyond presidents that have that kind of demand put on knowing their exact location at all times.

Armitstead doesn't dope.

It's one of those situations where if she's telling the truth, it's perfectly understandable and acceptable. If she's lying, she's doping. I hope that CAS and UKAD have done their jobs, and that the reasons given have been proven to be legit.

Problem is you just can't say that as a definite, just have to go on instinct. And situations like this must raise question marks, especially coming after a dominant couple of seasons.

Pretty heartbreaking interview with her on Sky Sports, she looks a mess, even admitting she doesn't know where her head is at and that she hopes when she gets in her bike her racing instincts will kick in. She even says she has no idea how it would feel to have a medal around her neck after all this.

heartbreaking interview

^repped

https://twitter.com/SkyCycling/status/761480853037907968

Lizzie has been deleting every tweet she made during the "family crisis" period when she didn't update her whereabouts. The day before the she was mostly booking her wedding party band.

can the tweets be retrieved?

Only screenshots unfortunately, unless she gave twitter her explicit permission to do so or there was a court order which this hardly justifies.

Lizzie has been deleting every tweet she made during the "family crisis" period when she didn't update her whereabouts. The day before the she was mostly booking her wedding party band.

Seems legit. There was defo a family crisis when arguing with Mrs Hefty over wedding music.