“Recovery is possible?”
Not based on my experience with bicycle racing, it isn’t.
OK, I’m bent, twisted, more than a bubble off plumb.
I know this about myself, and I came to terms with it long ago.
But I can’t be the only person who finds this “dose of reality” amusing.
Tags: Doping, Just say what?, VeloNews.com
Mad Blog Media 
February 13, 2020 at 6:21 am |
I find Outer Line generally…..well……dumb. They have all kinds of IMHO goofy suggestions and solutions to all of pro cycling’s problems. This is another one. I remember reading an account of a theft years ago where an entire warehouse on an island was cleaned out of EPO, etc. one weekend. Nobody was ever prosecuted for the theft of so many doses the writers asked how it could not have resulted in a massive shortage for patients who really needed the drug? The drug makers know damn well and good a huge portion of their production is used for nefarious purposes – they get paid either way, so why should they care about controlling diversion? While I wouldn’t argue against fighting illegal diversion of these medications, the idea it’s going to solve the dope-cheat problem is kind of laughable.
February 13, 2020 at 6:45 am |
I refer you to the Operación Puerto doping inquiry, which remains ongoing after … 14 years.
“Whadda we want? Answers! When do we want ’em? Uh, sometime?”
Meanwhile, have you noticed how many early retirements due to unspecified heart issues we’ve seen over the past several years? Nothing to see here, move along, move along. …
This is one of the many reasons I’m glad I don’t have to draw editorial cartoons for VeloWhatsis anymore. How many jokes can a guy make about dope fiends, inept governance, and blinkered fanboys?
February 13, 2020 at 4:17 pm |
I had such high hopes for that Travis T. Tygart fellow (professional wrasslin’ name, Tee-Cubed!), but talk about your slow walks on everything he touched. Thought he was waiting for everyone to die of old age so he could apply some napoleonic estate code technicality on them.
February 13, 2020 at 6:28 am |
Doping is impossible to stop. Control, maybe, but stop, no. I find some cyclists, especially older ones, to be so competitive that I no longer want to be around them. They suck the fun out of riding bikes. And they are the type that would stoop to chemical means to show everyone that they are still more healthy and stronger than everyone else their age. Money is not the main driver of doping. Ego is. Kinda like Uncle Joe and Bernie.
February 13, 2020 at 6:49 am |
“Business is business and schnapps is schnapps,” as Mittelstaedt tells Kantorek in “All Quiet on the Western Front.” If it’s sport, it’s all for fun, or should be. But if it’s for entertainment, it’s business, and all bets are off (or at least queered).
February 13, 2020 at 6:31 am |
I gave up on following pro bike racing when it became pro dope racing. The idea that people dope themselves so they can ride stock modified production for the Tour de Industrial Park is laughable.
February 13, 2020 at 6:59 am |
Ayuh. The search for the Fountain of Youth never ends. Wigs, implants, facelifts, tummy tucks, and drugs drugs drugs.
What a drag it is getting old. …
February 13, 2020 at 8:06 am |
“..when it became pro dope racing. ” Can I assume that was when the oxygen-vector drugs came in, moving a ” at best a top 30″ guy (according to Greg LeMond) into the yellow jersey for 7 years in a row? It was tough to watch but I feel ignoring the whole thing cheats the ones who are not cheating while rewarding the cheats.
The big question is whether any progress on the anti-doping front is really being made? Sometimes I wonder.
February 13, 2020 at 12:47 pm |
Its definitely unfair to tar the whole bunch nowadays, but I got pretty disillusioned with the whole thing after cheering on TCWSNBN for several years in a row and then finding out he had spiked the punch. Then I just lost interest. Maybe due to old age?
February 14, 2020 at 12:51 am |
I guess if you thought the guy was somehow not doped-to-the-max, finding out he tops the list of greatest sports frauds was a serious shock. My frustration with the sport was how long it took to out the cheating bastard. If he’d stayed retired my guess is he’d still be popular and famous…but hubris is a tough thing to control. Meanwhile the anti-doping fight continues – does each new scandal mean they’re doing a better job of catching the cheats these days? I wonder.
February 13, 2020 at 9:46 am |
Medication is available, if you can afford it. Amusing and tragic at the same time.
Kinda like the stock market is booming while pension funds fail. How many 1% folks do you know on a pension? Plus, double trouble, it’s a newspaper company.
https://www.npr.org/2020/02/13/805571783/miami-herald-kansas-city-star-publisher-mcclatchy-files-for-bankruptcy
PS: Sorry for the temporary detour, and now back to our previous program, ” Crucifying The Cancer Jesus” again. And, as far as LeMond goes, I’m sure his team mates were winning on bread and water. LeMond, the 3 monkeys rolled up in one.
February 13, 2020 at 9:54 am |
Yeah, I saw that. An old pal was a McClatchy boy Back in the Day®. You want to keep an eye on Neiman in general and Ken Doctor in particular if you want to follow the decline and fall of my former line of work.
Funny, Herself and I were just discussing pensions last night. I have some bucks in a Roth IRA that I haven’t tapped yet, and of course Socialist Insecurity is right around the corner. We’ll probably only have to fight the cats for dinner a couple nights a week.
February 13, 2020 at 4:21 pm |
The good news, if you can tread water for another dozen years, we’ll all be harvested for our organs so Bezos and Musk can live forever as we unass ourselves from this doomed biosphere and head to Mars. No need to worry about finances at that point!
February 14, 2020 at 3:52 am |
They can have my liver when I and Barrio Brewing are done with it.
February 14, 2020 at 5:51 am |
In other news, in this case from The Washington Post, it seems that even the e-sports types feel compelled to dope. With Adderall.
There apparently is some sort of anti-doping code in place. So far, says The Post, “there have been zero anti-doping rule violations since testing began.” One player observes: “It’s not some magical pill that instantly makes you amazing at a game. You still need the skills to compete.” Sound familiar?
February 15, 2020 at 6:03 am |
Andy says adderall use isn’t unusual in the software creation, system administration, and data management world.
February 15, 2020 at 6:53 am |
Nor is it odd in politics (Hi, Donny, sniff, sniff, sniff!) or journalism (Paging Dr. Thompson. …). We’re just kinda dopey folks. …
February 15, 2020 at 7:22 am |
I never thought about donny and his 2am tweets. No wonder the asshole is goofy. Wonder who his candy man is?
February 15, 2020 at 8:04 am |
Ye Olde Rumor Mill says The Tangerine Terror has been horning the Adderall for the better part of quite some time.
Some speculate that this is what sent him off the rails; others, that it’s the only thing keeping him on them.
Where’s Human Resources with the little plastic cup when you need ’em?
February 15, 2020 at 1:15 pm |
White rabbit