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Giving up with pro cycling, maybe
the past two weeks have shown frankly unbelievable results and times if you believe the peloton is clean.
Seeing a 35 year old win so many times, better than he was doping and younger riders being blasted out are for me clear warning signs. I love watching the cycling, I love the coverage but I am lose to giving it up because so many seem gullible. The latest is this nonsense ....
the Inner Ring @inrng
Fabio Aru tells La Gazzetta Dello Sport he got dysentery, 5kg weight loss no figure of speech, went from 62kg to 57kg, now at 60kg
dysentery, oh FFS what a lie
then the case of Kittel disappearing with a 'virus'
the reluctance to kick out Astana
Is it really back to the EPO days ?
I had so many hopes for Cookson
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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- SimoninSpalding 6 min 42 sec ago
Indeed, best not to tell them about the temperatures and pressures involved in refining crude oil to produce the wax...
- brooksby 10 min 5 sec ago
How long ago had his licence been revoked due to his epilepsy? AIUI you can apply for your licence back if you haven't had a fit in two years.
- brooksby 15 min 53 sec ago
I read this article - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/12/fremont-california-unhou... - this morning. There's a quote in it...
- GMBasix 35 min 27 sec ago
It also needs some better communication from DVSA about the changes. Very few drivers seem to know about them or care to follow them.
- wtjs 41 min 38 sec ago
I think you're both wrong- this post is so bad that it's not even one of the standard trolls, it's a troll mocking the opinions he claims to...
- chrisonabike 1 hour 13 min ago
I'm gonna guess something like "front wheel skids always throw you off but not rear wheel ones"......
- JMcL_Ireland 1 hour 24 min ago
SBS in Australia. They have the Tour, Vuelta, Giro, and a bunch of other races - all free and live. I think they do catch-up as well
- jayinjapants 4 hours 55 min ago
Mine takes 38s but the clearance on the front derailleur is rather tight.
- Simmo72 11 hours 1 min ago
TNT can sit on my seatpost and swivel. Not giving a penny to the vile bean counters.
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44 comments
My first job after leaving school involved making sausages for a local butcher. Now, fifty years later, every time I'm faced with a sausage I still think of those hours spent pushing fatty off-cuts of gristle through a mincer.
But hey, I'd sooner have a sausage than be hungry.
I'd prefer to go hungry for a little longer and find something rather better.
I have to ask do cycling fans care about doping ?
I care about it but I don't let it stop me enjoying the sport I love. I enjoy the racing and if they get popped, they get popped. Anyone thinking cycling is any different to any other sport needs to wake up. Football, athletics, tennis, rugby, baseball, basketball etc etc. All have drug cheats in their ranks. Cycling has been the fall guy but you watch ANY sport and there are drug cheats on your TV.
The one thing that really irks me about doping in cycling is 'fans' of specific teams claiming that their 'team' must be clean as a whistle because that team say they are. Whilst some teams may be dodgier than others, they all have majorly suspect stuff going on and you'd have to be seriously ignorant not to accept that. The Johnny come lately Wiggo revolution tub-thumpers are by far the worst for this.
I'm all for PED testing, I'm all for riders getting lifetime bans when they get caught, but in all sports it still goes on to this day. And, contrary to many beliefs, in all teams. Cookson is on the right path though and change is slowly coming but you'll never get rid of cheating. Ever.
Chill out and as I've said, just enjoy the racing.
Because 20 years ago it was watching the TDF on C4 and ES that got me into this great sport.
Not something I can give up despite all the reservations
Because 20 years ago it was watching the TDF on C4 and ES that got me into this great sport.
Not something I can give up despite all the reservations
Why waste your valuable time watching such a farce? Don't get angry. Just give up on it. Stop following it. Honestly, I've loved cycling so much more since I gave up on the morons that run and participate in the professional cycling racket.
It makes me angry because I WANT to believe they are clean. I do believe the younger riders are, I think they have grown up knowing the dangers and want to be clean.
It is the older riders, with teams full of dopers as helpers that concerns me.
I WANT Froome to be clean, I WANT to believe he does what he does by his own talent and hard work, I just find it so damn HARD to believe it.
Completely agree. Its like the world wrestling federation, a complete fantasy. I find it difficult to believe there are still adults that are actually interested in professional cycling.
It used to make me angry, but I don't even care anymore.
Is Aru not at 6.5w/kg now? I think it was that which set the alarm bells ringing.
If Cookson was really serious he could introduce start line testing. Or he could publish the test results from the 2008 CERA tests and sanction anyone caught with bans.
He probably looked at that, but then realised he'd have no peloton left and would have to look to the Surrey League and CTC to find his next crop of rider to fill the races!
I understand people lose weight to illness but dysentery for a pro athlete ?? that is what makes it so unbelievable ...
We tried the presumed innocent before 'I have had never failed a test' and that proved to false. For any pro sportsman, be it Contador, Aru, Valverde, Nadal, Gatlin, Bolt, Farah etc I now have presumed guilt if they are associated with known drug cheats or have doped themselves.
I am sure few are stupid enough to use EPO now etc but we are seeing new techniques all the time and doctors associated with them ...
Yes bikes have got lighter more aero etc of course that is true but power output is different and the guys now are matching the power of the dopers, does that not make you think ?
At a certain point in time there needs to be a line drawn in the sand and an attitude change from the media and fans of the sport.
Moving away from the 'presumed guilty' thought process to 'presumed innocent' will benefit the sport massively. There are riders out there now that have zero direct relationship with the dark days of the sport yet are still hassled and quizzed about doping.
Obviously Aru rides in a team with a history and the management of that team have been proven cheats, but what about Aru himself? Noting a weight change as grounds for being a cheat is dangerous. I know a couple of guys that lost large amounts of weight due to illness when they were already very light.
I myself lost 2.5kgs after a Majorca bootcamp in the spring when i was already 7% body fat. These things do happen.
Cookson did a huge job in turning round British Cycling when there was an overall desire to change. There appears to be some within the UCI that still want to run the sport like the old days. Changing the UCI and cycling as a whole may take a bit longer but we are well on the right road.
All sports have cheats. We need to trust the processes in place that are designed to catch them. Branding athletes as cheats due to hearsay and rumour is damaging for everyone.
Dude, wait til summer, we can still believe in Froome, especially now his Bilharzia is cleared up and he is ok to use his inhaler for his asthma during events. He will be the picture of health and tearing up all the dodgy dopers come Le Tour.
As a rule of thumb for the other races it always makes me wonder when the Eurosport commentators cry out with an exclamation at a big attack "Look at him go, what an unbelievable attack from....(insert foreign name here)"
I think Cookson means well but has found out that the problem is so entrenched he's got a much bigger problem on his hands than he had hoped.
Dopers will always been front of testers of course and Cookson is not the like his previous incumbents either, I have faith in him. However the press on the other hand, where is Walsh nowadays, he was spot on about LA etc why is he not questioning others ?
He of course did himself no favours be embedding in with Sky of course.
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