BREAKING NEWS: ASTANA & HIGH ROAD BANNED FROM GIRO !!!!

Bro Deal

It's probably that High Road has been trying to clean up their team for a couple seasons now. They actually got rid of Honchar because his blood values were strange. Sinkewitz torpedoed them last year, but they have been trying. Astana on the other hand has not only their history but is now run by an unapologetic doping supporter who no one trusts.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

TheDarkLord

Maybe it is that the old T-Mobile had a publically disclosed "anti-doping program", while Bruyneel's idea of such a program is to look at your eye and then judge that you are clean?

C'dale Girl

Yeah, I got the thought process behind Astana, but I didn't understand the distinguishment between the two teams really, given the history of High Road.

C'dale Girl

I dunno. Maybe I'm just way too cynical, but I look at these teams with a "known anti-doping policy" with the same raised brow really. Sometimes rules and systems are put into place for the sole reason of furthering your ability to get around them. But, admittedly, I don't know the details of these teams' "anti-doping programs" and how effective they really are or will be.

TheDarkLord

That is why I enclosed it in quotes (I'm as cynical as you). But the point is that one has tried to paint an image of trying to clean up, while the other doesn't attempt to do even that.

C'dale Girl

And one could argue that the teams that have a face-time, "be cool in school", anti-doping PR campaign (if they are really still doping and using their campaign merely as a front) are more culpable, egregious and offensive than the ones that don't.

But, of course I don't know of any of the anti-doping campaign teams being busted either and it is not my intent to claim they are in fact doping. I'm just saying . . . things aren't always as they appear . . . so I personally look at them all in the same light and approach it broad-brushed with an "I'll believe it when I see it" mentality, team anti-doping program or not. The fact that a team claims to have a stringent anti-doping policy/program in place doesn't give them any more or less credence with me.

TheDarkLord

I think we need some inside information from someone like cyclingheroes. I don't know to what extent riders dope in teams with anti-doping programs. If they do dope, is it an organized team effort, or is it the rider himself doing it more covertly with the team manager looking the other direction? The hope is that teams with some sort of anti-doping program at least want to try to clean up their act to some extent.

Crankyfeet

Doping will continue as long as its possible to dope and get away with it. All the rest is PR bullshit.

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C'dale Girl

Amen bro . . . er, we actually have someone named Bro here so I guess it's confusing to say that . . . Amen Crankmeister . . . . Your statement is so profound I might even quote it in my siggy line.

I mean, really, team HIGH ROAD . . . . team High Road? How ridiculously over the top that is. It makes me want to stick my finger down my throat and puke every time I see reference too it. What an arrogant statement . . . the day somebody flunks a test off that team will be the day I really truly lmao!

helmutRoole2

This is all just business as usual. This really only solidifies the position of the team, which is, "Oh my god. Do you mean to tell me that someone on our squad was doping?"

Please. It's a joke. This just gives teams an ironclad out.

David Millar? What the fuck. He was working with Ferrari before he even got off his suspension? And we know anyone on the 1999 USPS Tour team was using EPO -- Vaughters included. He knows the deal. This is all just more of the same: a dog and pony show.

I wouldn't put it past Astana to be running a systematic doping program with the unwritten caveat given to their riders that, if something goes wrong and you piss hot, you're on your own. Hell, if I was a pro rider, I'd take those odds. What is it now? Eight Tour champions and not one positive? I mean, really. That is fucking impressive.

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Casa

You are right, but this thread is grand proof of the obsessive hate filled individuals that post here. The big story about who the Giro left out is not Astana or High Road...but discussing it would be getting away from their obsession.

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Drongo

It is natural that people focus on what is close to them. Apparently, Paceline fans have transferred lock, stock and barrel to Astana. It is the heir to Discovery with its huge US fan base. Likewise, High Road is now a US team. So that is the focus for many here, and the reasons for exclusion of those teams can't be that they aren't good enough. People look for other reasons.

In France, I am sure, there would be considerable disquiet at how Credit Agricole were left out when they wanted to go, rather than, say, Euskaltel or that Swiss team. In Italy, people might be saying, 'Jeez, how did A&S not make it when all these other teams did?' That's not so much the focus here because there are other teams, more prominent to Anglo-US eyes, who have missed the cut.

The real story is that the Giro organisers are back wielding arbitrary power and heaven knows what you have to do to get an invite, which will scare the shit out of some sponsors. That is what the PT tried to ameliorate, but they went in with too many teams and so on and so forth. So cycling takes a retrograde step instead of coming to a sensible compromise.

TheDarkLord

Well, that is really the UCI's fault. But anyway, the way things are, I think the best course of action is to leave the GTs out of the ProTour, and building up a decent ProTour race circuit outside the GTs. That way, the sponsors at least know that sponsoring a ProTour does not mean an automatic invite to the GTs, but have enough good races within the ProTour network to get their names out. Either that, or abandon the concept of ProTour completely.

Casa

In France, I am sure, there would be considerable disquiet at how Credit Agricole were left out when they wanted to go, rather than, say, Euskaltel or that Swiss team. In Italy, people might be saying, 'Jeez, how did A&S not make it when all these other teams did?' That's not so much the focus here because there are other teams, more prominent to Anglo-US eyes, who have missed the cut.

You honestly believe that is why this crowd are focused on Astana and High Road and even ignored Cranky when he tried to discuss the other teams. Wow.

Very obviously.

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