Basso to Liquigas

thunder

fake tits, no thanks

earth_dweller

Ivan Basso has fake tits?

how does that help cycling? no really aerodynamic...

Crankyfeet

Of course. Bruyneel is a closet gay. No wonder he made allowances for pretty Ivan...

thunder

busy at races

Crankyfeet

That's no excuse. We should be his top priority. We are the Cycling Forums Mafia. Ignore us at your peril...

earth_dweller

damn - now it all makes sense.

TheDarkLord

I'll echo Edie's sentiment. The efficacy of the "Bruyneel test" for whether a rider is clean or not makes perfect sense now.

limerickman

..............and whether we like it or not, Joe Public and the cycling industry allow good PR (doing work for charities etc etc) to mitigate the fact that all of these guys (Basso is only one of many) to cheat.


Good post PP.

__________________
.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

plectrum

Dude, we live in a society of forgiveness. He committed a 'crime' has been punished and now should be able to cycle. I think this is the basis of a fair and free society.

Any other solution is too extreme and would not be possible to run justly as it is impossible to catch all so life bans are just not plausible.

TheDarkLord

Except that protour rules of UCI say that he cannot ride for a pro-team for another 2 years. If they are not going to enforce that rule, then at least scrap it!

RdBiker

Yes they should be forgiven, but considering it is VERY likely they will continue cheating it puts a very nasty look on their return. It is clear that when there is a crime for something, once you've served your punishment (what ever that be) you should be able to continue living/doing things the way you used to.

But let's take an example: a guy you know from work is sentenced to jail for two years for murder and then after the two years he returns to the same work place to work. Wouldn't you look at that guy differently? And if the guy is caught of pickpocketing someone, you'll surely look at him in a different way than if he hadn't. So that's one reason why many of us here take Basso's "purity" with a grain of salt. It's ok to let him race again (though actually he shouldn't ride in the ProTour) but it's just normal to be a bit suspicous about him.

He's done just what he needed to do: associate himself with all those good things such as helping children. That way the public especially in Italy forget his wrong doings pretty quickly and some even start to believe he just "attempted doping". Fortunately people more into cycling see straight through his trash talk. But it's questionable if a guy who still lies about his doping use is going to be honest when he comes back to cycling. And I am certain that the guys at Liquigas know very well what Basso has done in the past - and they still hired him. No is unethical or what...

__________________
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Crankyfeet

I defended you before against an ad hominem attack... but I probably won't be anymore. 80% of the peloton dope to varying degrees. Why is he going to continue doping? Is Millar still doping? Quite often people who have been punished go the other way... like a reformed smoker. And in any case... there are rules there... it's just going to be interesting to see how it plays out. You're are talking about a person's thing that they do that defines them. Sure he doped. Everyone farking did. Let's just give these cyclists a chance to compete in a newer, hopefully cleaner era.

It's the guys in suits who I want to see get punished. The ones that usually dish out the punishment and criminal judgment... but are themselves immoral corrupt cheats.

fscyclist

I understand your argument, but Basso still DENIES doping. He is still sticking to the ridiculous story that he only thought about it!! Does that not seem ludicrous to you? To use RDBiker's analogy, if your coworker was caught red-handed stealing from you or the company but the guy continued to deny it, was fired for two years, then was allowed to return to the company but still stuck to his story, you would be crazy to think he was 'reformed'. You would know at the very least he is a liar and cannot be trusted, and furthermore reformation requires acknowledgement of your crime or wrongdoing.

Crankyfeet

Point taken.