julian D wrote:
Fuentes bringing a cooler full of EPO to the Vuelta suddenly becomes a transfusion. Riis invented a story about transfusions in the 96 Tour to put Tyler at ease with doing transfusions. We get it. You are butthurt by Armstrong so much so that you feel the need to pretend that Armstrong was doping more than anyone else and is responsible for cycling's doping culture, even though it existed for a hundred years before LA turned pro. You have the urge to dismiss everyone else's doping.
Telokom's doctor, Lothar Henrich, experimenting with transfusions in 1998. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
Fransesco Moser using transfusions in 1984 to set the hour record. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
Team Gis using transfusions in 1984. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
Blood bags found in the investigation of Dr Conconi in 1999. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
Dr Fuentes, a man who had been doping riders since the mid 80s, flys into the Vuelta in 1991 the day before a critical time time trial with a cooler on his lap, tells curious journalists that inside was the key to the Vuelta, and his rider wins the TT and Vuelta. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
Cipollini using transfusions as soon as the EPO testing began in 2001. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
Riis telling his riders that he used blood transfusions. Dismissed. Does not involve evil Armstrong.
Joop Zoetemelk admitting to use of transfusions in the 70s. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
Admission that transfusions were used on PDM in the late 80s. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
Dr Conconi explaining to Sandro Donati 1981 how Italian Olympic athletes Conconi was training were using transfusions. Dismissed. Does not involve the evil Armstrong.
It could go on and on but let's just leave transfusions in cycling with the words of Bernhard Hinault: "Moser made use of auto-transfusion. So he was playing with his own blood. He did no more no less that the Finnish athletes, Lasse Virén and the others. It suffices to take some of one's own blood during the Spring when it is rich, hyper-oxygenated, and to re-inject it when one is fatigued. Is that really doping? Maybe not, except if the blood is placed into a machine to re-oxygenate it to the maximum."
This whole thing would be laughable if it were not so pathetic. The hater crowd is actually trying to make a distinction between blood doping with EPO and blood doping with transfusions, not only trying to blame Armstrong for transfusions in cycling but portraying EPO users as doping less than transfusion users.
This sounds too much like Betsy Andreu's dodge, where she tries to play down her husband's EPO doping by saying he did not dope with transfusions. Thanks, Frankie. You are a saint. Clean athletes everywhere will rejoice that you doped with EPO instead of your own blood.