"all the other accusations and evidence against Lance"
i know four things: that i don't know if lance doped; that you don't know that lance doped; that nobody else on this board knows whether lance doped; and that anybody who claims otherwise is a fool.
the evidence you have is that a former rider's wife says that she heard lance say he doped; and that a WADA lab, employing confidentiality procedures that seem to me antithetical to its own rules and protocols, and using an unapproved (for anti-doping purposes), scantily-proven test, allegedly demonstrated that lance doped back in the 90s.
if you search slowtwitch, you'll find that one of the first features i ever wrote, 11 years ago, was about spencer smith's doping positive for nandrolone. the forces lined up against spencer were entirely convinced that you either took nandrolone or you didn't, there was no threshold for that drug. in the intervening decade, we now know that the nandrolone tests had all sorts of problems attached, that threshold levels are now part of the adjudication process, and that chain-of-custody conditions may well alter the properties of the sample.
so, i give scant credence to the french lab's tests. this does not mean lance didn't dope, but you should remember that WADA labs do have skin in the game. when a lab comes up with a test protocol, it's very embarrassing if that protocol is found to be defective. that's intellectual property they're defending and its property that can be monetized by the lab.
again, i don't know who doped and who didn't. but here's what i do know: that winning 3, or 5, or 7 tours de france does not prove doping; that being an exceptional athlete does not prove you doped; that the french lab's results far from proved anybody doped; so what you really have is mrs. andreu.
you can believe her or not, but, i don't think it's unreasonable for me to remain an agnostic about lance's pharmacological habits.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
i know four things: that i don't know if lance doped; that you don't know that lance doped; that nobody else on this board knows whether lance doped; and that anybody who claims otherwise is a fool.
the evidence you have is that a former rider's wife says that she heard lance say he doped; and that a WADA lab, employing confidentiality procedures that seem to me antithetical to its own rules and protocols, and using an unapproved (for anti-doping purposes), scantily-proven test, allegedly demonstrated that lance doped back in the 90s.
if you search slowtwitch, you'll find that one of the first features i ever wrote, 11 years ago, was about spencer smith's doping positive for nandrolone. the forces lined up against spencer were entirely convinced that you either took nandrolone or you didn't, there was no threshold for that drug. in the intervening decade, we now know that the nandrolone tests had all sorts of problems attached, that threshold levels are now part of the adjudication process, and that chain-of-custody conditions may well alter the properties of the sample.
so, i give scant credence to the french lab's tests. this does not mean lance didn't dope, but you should remember that WADA labs do have skin in the game. when a lab comes up with a test protocol, it's very embarrassing if that protocol is found to be defective. that's intellectual property they're defending and its property that can be monetized by the lab.
again, i don't know who doped and who didn't. but here's what i do know: that winning 3, or 5, or 7 tours de france does not prove doping; that being an exceptional athlete does not prove you doped; that the french lab's results far from proved anybody doped; so what you really have is mrs. andreu.
you can believe her or not, but, i don't think it's unreasonable for me to remain an agnostic about lance's pharmacological habits.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman