darkwave wrote:
I'm honestly in favor of randomized testing at all levels of sport, and a clarity of expectations that it's not just the elites that are subject to the drug rules. There's a concept called "culture of compliance" - meaning that the value of complying with the rules is considered intrinsic to the sport. Testing athletes at all levels supports this culture. So yes, in an odd way catching the occasional BOPer will reduce the temptation to dope closer to the front.Testing at all levels is a waste of limited resources and a turn off to less serious competitors that are just doing some local race. The likelihood of it ever actually happening is super low but testing at all levels is frequently used as a red herring argument against more extensive testing.
Doping is much more rare at lower levels of competition, focus on the higher levels rather than wasting money testing folks that are just in it for fun.
I have no problem if the Cat 3 guy that was popped was due to a tip. If they are sacrificing testing at the pro and Cat 1 levels to randomly test Cat 3 racers, I do have a problem with it as it's not effective use of resources.
It's easy to take a morally superior absolutist position on this but in the real world focusing resources on where the problem is most acute makes the most sense.