Amateur cyclist who tried to outwit anti-doping testers ends up winning an Oscar (+ video)

I watched Icarus last night and it is scary.

Not only highlighting how dangerous a state the USSR Russia still is, but it also changed my mind about the whole Wiggo/ Team Sky debarcle.

Obviously the Moscow AD lab was compromised, but the ease with which the testing procedures were overcome really puts the competency of the system into question. I used to (naievely) think that since the Armstrong days new tests had been develloped to match that era's choice of dope, but Fogel's regimen was the exact same cocktail of EPO and testosterone. It would seem that only an idiot with the most arrogant and brazen approach to the classic obviously PE drugs would get caught.

As it was my belief that the opportunity for those types of drugs to be used had been closed off, I was prepared accept that Brailsford et.al. were exploring the legal but creative avenues of biochemistry. Morally ambiguous, maybe, but within the rules until the exploited loopholes are closed.

I now take the the same view adding a large dollop of cynicism. Were/are team Sky experimenting with unorthodox methods? Certainly. Are they being so truthful about the technical legality of it all? Increasingly not. Are they the only team up to such tricks? Definitely no. Are other sports at it too? Well, obviously...

Sure, it doesn't a good light on cycling, but I'm still in disbelief as to how there's so much denial aroung the use of PEDs in other mainstream sports.

I never thought I would have found a documentary so gripping and so intense. I actually had to take a break half way through to decompress.

Although there was an element of luck in how the potentially self-indulgent premise of the movie blew up into something far, far more interesting, this is a thoroughly deserved win. A top movie that has become one of my "you must watch … " recommendations to all and sundry.