Doping: why this year?

Triathlon Forum
1

Have the tests gotten that much better in a year? seems like all-of-a-sudden, they’re able to catch anyone for anything. I don’t believe for a second that these guys just started doping this year. Why now are they all getting caught? They obviously were able to skirt the tests somehow before. I know they were catching a few here and there, but there’s been a bit of windfall this year. Many of the big names (Jan, Basso etc.) weren’t testing positive before, but there’s lots of evidence to suggest they were doping.

EPO. Blood transfusions, Testosterone…

2

Keep in mind that Jan and Basso haven’t tested positive actually…

3

I know, that’s part of my point… They weren’t able to catch many of the big names before, now they’re catching lots more.

4

Well, they didn’t catch Ras actually “doing” anything, just failing to report his location and/or lying about it.

Vino did the ultimate in stupidity - blood doping, which is pretty easy to detect when you use someone elses blood.

So, you have Mayo for EPO. What other “big names” were actually caught this year?

5

I think it’s a mix of several things:

  1. they actually have gotten more aggressive with testing (and the tests may have gotten better, though the Floyd case calls a lot of that into question)

  2. without Lance, many more riders believe “this could be MY year to win,” so they take many more risks about what they take and when

  3. with operation puerto and also the crackdown on the teams doping may have become less centralized, meaning the riders have to do more of it on their own, without the guidance of team doctors or a “clinic,” meaning they make more mistakes, which means they get caught. Look at the athletes that used BALCO for doping and how few got caught. A good lab that knows the protocols of testing, etc. can clearly help these athletes avoid detection. It is scary, but money obviously buys results, both in terms of performance, and in terms of beating the tests.

I think if you add all those things together, it helps explain why doping seems to have suddenly come to a head this year…

6

I’d say regardless of whether its stupidity or not, Vino and Mayo are 2 pretty big names.

7

I’d say regardless of whether its stupidity or not, Vino and Mayo are 2 pretty big names.

I agree, but, you asked whether the tests have gotten that much better b/c 2 big names were caught. My only point was that what Vino did was so detectable, that it would (or should) have been caught any year. I do not think that anything that happened this year has demonstrated that the testing has improved or that substances previously undetected are now being caught.

Look at last year, Jan, Basso, etc. out b/c of Operation Puerto. This year Ras went out based on the same level of suspicion (but no failed test). Vino got caught like Floyd. So, absent Mayo, I don’t think we have seen anything that could support the conclusion that the testing itself has somehow improved to catch previoulsy undetectable substances.

8

yawn
.