Doping

This really.

Everyone thinks about the juicers winning races but not about guys like this that maybe do it to support thier leader. Would put you in a situation if you won the tour and turns out your domestiques were pinging when they towed you along for 3 weeks.

No confessions for a few days, I’m getting bored.

Am I right in thinking Preidler was providing his blood for others? I'm not sure I understand what it means by 'blood extraction'

No, you take your own blood out, to reinfuse later, giving you a performance boost. It’s very difficult to detect, whereas it’s much easier to detect the use of someone else’s blood.

Am I right in thinking Preidler was providing his blood for others?

No, it would have been for autologous transfusion. Take your blood out when you don't need it, recover as usual, put it back in later and improve your oxygen transport capacity.

Okay thanks. I can't help but pity the mental state of the people who end up in these situations. The pressure must be horrendous.

Yeah I'd agree I think it's very sad.

It is the nature of professional sport at the top level, when the difference between winning or losing is tiny but difference between the rewards or each are huge. Its a moral choice many fail.

I seem to remember the 1000 day theory. I heard it specifically related to cycling but I am sure it can be more generally applied, that the 1000 days are the ones where you are racing clean and trying to win and failing, and then after you you start to dope to secure your career.

Its the sporting equivalent of lying on your CV to get a better job.

Its the sporting equivalent of lying on your CV to get a better job.

And then continually lying to keep it.

Just watched four Russian skiers Mapei'ing the Nordic skiing on Eursosport lolz

^ this. I dont want to be prejudicial, but really had to believe that the majority of the Russian team is not doping. At least with the Norwegians you assume the majority are clean. I would love to see the VO2 numbers for these animals

Not Gewiss, or did Mapei also have an EPO podium sweep back in the day?

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Huh! They did a Gewiss!

Just watching it now. Why didn’t they duke it out in the end? They just let Museeuw have it. Did they just respect team hierarchy that much?

They knew he was more doped than them and that they didn't have a chance.

Leferve called up Giorgio Squinzi, head honcho at Mapei, and asked him who should win. The order was agreed, then Tafi, quite rightly, argued he should finish second.

Monument count

Tafi 3 Bortalami 0

Sock length, saggy jerseys, no lids, juicing hard - glorious stuff.

I mean that in I still have a certain nostalgia for the sport then. I didn’t know anyone was cheating because I was a kid and it was blissful.

More details starting to come out about this Austro-German doping case;

https://www.euronews.com/2019/03/20/at-least-21-athletes-suspected-of-blood-doping-german-prosecutor

The raid was Austro German, the doping was international.

"Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Hawaii"

and that's just Team Sky.

Possibly, we don't know for sure yet. But what we do know is that the organisers of this doping ring are from Germany and Austria.

We know that the doping was international, unless you doubt the Staatsanwalt. The doctor is German; Kohl, Schuhmacher and Kopp have spoken about him in courts previously.