It's not that he's a former pro. ...It's that he's a known doper that has tested positive in his professional career and served suspensions.

Having said that, I don't get all the hate for former dopers. They've served their time and the governing body allows them to race. If you want to get angry, go after the governing body, or go yell at the masses of people drafting (i.e. cheating) right in front of you.

Agree with you.

But please go with the greatest vigour after those age groupers and pro’s that are actually doping today - there are lots of them, we all know that - they are the really the sad cockroaches in this sport, rather than hounding those like Vino who doped in the very distant past, in another life, in another time and in another sport.

Look at his run and swim from a few years ago. Lots of learning there :-)

How is it weak? When handing down the lifetime ban both USADA and WADA said that the doping violations were more or less the same as others, it was the mafiaesque behaviour that shoved Lance over the line to a lifetime ban.

Tell you what, I'll accept Lance was doing the same as everyone else when you can prove everyone else was engaged in the same "extra-curricular" behaviour.

Why do you believe, given his results, that his doping is in the 'very distant past'?

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Given his past he would be a bit naive to think he could still get away with it in triathlon. But OK, maybe he is doping......but so are many, many other age groupers. Let’s chase all the dopers out of this sport and sport generally, rather than just focusing on one or two easy targets.

Apparently he was boo’ed last night at the awards ceremony.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

IMO booing anybody on the roadside or worse at an awards ceremony is really inappropriate and rude.

Laurent Jalabert rocked a 2nd place in the 50-54 with a 9:25. He was apparently an EPO user during his pro tour ONCE years and acknowledged his usage sort of several years ago.

The reality is that Vino and Jalabert were exceptional athletes in a very competitive endurance sport. It is no surprise they are super competitive now.
They are eligible to participate and probably greatly increase the following of the sport of triathlon in their countries.

More importantly does anyone have a picture of his bike setup? What about Jalabert's?

Yeah, he's so incredibly interested in good. He exposed doping in a bike race but helped cover up actual crimes against children. I wish we had more people like him in the world.

Yes, post them if you have them!

he has a video on his instagram. It even shows his adult onset swim technique
There is now a full IM in Kazakhastan. I suspect he will be somehow involved with that.

it also covers "international" races. and it covers any WC championship qualifiers, and almost every ironman races is a WC qualifier. i don't have a thesis here. just clarifying.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

And right after that the announcers went on a tone deaf riff about the amazing and unbelievable performances of the older age groups, how they’re getting faster and not slowing compared to the younger guys, and how we should check their IDs.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Maybe he paid them off beforehand?

...and generally all I hear about drug testing by Ironman, is when Pros or AGers are tested at the event site, which is only going to catch the really clueless individuals. I know OOC testing exists, but it's rarely referenced afaik.

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29 years and counting

Vino was tested OOC last year.

He was having breakfast with the team at the Vuelta and they showed up.

Haha....the Astana team must have had a good laugh when the boss got hauled for out of competition testing while they continued to drink their special cocktails for breakfast. That must have been a really funny event. Vino comes back, "I took that one for the team....now get on the tarmac and put the hammer down on angliru".

Lance was offered a deal that would have allowed him to keep all results that fell outside of the limitations period. He turned it down.

Lance could have contested the charges against him, and if he lost, he could have appealed. I thought the arguments for the lifetime bans and to extend the limitations period were weak and that Lance would have prevailed on those points had he contested the case. He didn't.

That said, I would support restoring at least some of the titles and giving him some form of clemency.

Whereas cheating is the epitome of good manners ?

Not to forget - just like a dawg, doping gains are for life.

Vinokourov on an Argon 18 with Corima 58mm's. Assuming since the team he manages is sponsored by Argon.

Jalabert on a custom painted Look 596 Monoblade with Corima 3 spokes.

Photos on their Instagram pages.

I don't disagree with chasing all the dopers out of triathlon (easier said than done, though) but I don't understand your willingness to defend a convicted doper. If we're going to chase all the dopers out of the sport, wouldn't we start with the ones we already know about? IMO he, along with all the other confessed or convicted dopers, all deserve lifetime bans. The fact that you drag out the "so are many, many others" excuse, when this was the very same excuse that he and all his fellow dopers used when confronted with accusations of doping, is really pretty poor form.

Jalabert looks a bit upright in the few pictures on his Instagram. Vino looks a little less upright, in that video on his Instagram, but maybe his head is a lot lower when he’s actually racing versus the video of him motopacing.

There was never any deal offered like that. Tygart is lying when he says he offered the same terms as the others. He came to an agreement with Vaughters (over quite a long period of time) to basically give JV's riders a free pass; this, of course, included JV. Initially JV's riders were not to have any suspension time at all. Tygart had to backtrack on that but timed the bans to coincide with the off-season. JV made it up to the riders by continuing to pay them during their time off. Tygart never offered any sort of terms to Lance. It was always kowtow to us and maybe we'll be merciful. Given Tygart's long history of twisting the code for his own ends, this was never a good option, as the end result proved.

Tygart thought CAS would force him to abide by the statute of limitations and not go beyond 2005, arguably the 2004 Tour because the SOL ran out after that and the UCI did not sign on to the WADA code until after the 2004 Tour and before the 2004 Olympics. CAS would not have accepted it; and that is why when going after Bruyneel, they did not introduce any evidence into the arbitration that predated the SOL. Lance decided not fight it anymore and expected Tygart would follow the rules, but he did not count on Tygart's long history of ignoring them and, in some cases, making them up as he went along. Tygart seized the opportunity to gain as much publicity for himself and his agency as possible by going way beyond the rules, stripping wins that occurred not only before the UCI signed on to WADA, not only before the WADA code was written, but to a time before WADA even existed, a time where there were no UCI rules whatsoever that would allow wins to be vacated years and years later.

The kicker is that even as Tygart and his right hand man ignore the rules to screw athletes over, they will quote Bible verses to excuse themselves for stepping over the line. That is no joke.