Non doping frenchies

paddy no 11

So the frenchies claimed there boys never dope, up until the point where they had a protest at the start of the race about 10 years, holding up the start of the race for about a half hour (unfortunately for them a French rider failed a test a week later and they looked stupid)

However it seems there may be some truth to what they said since the end of the EPO era, their riders Rolland, JCP, Vermullioz, pinot, bardet and riblon have won stages at the tour and finished regularly in the top ten in contrast to a total non event that was French cycling in the EPO era.

Anyone want to put the stage wins/top 10 finishes in the tour in the last 5 years versus 1990 to 2000 or something like that. Ignoring sprint finishes and Richard virenque. (yes I'm too lazy to this myself, and don't have the interest. I reckon the frenchies are good lads and there is some truth to what they say, would like to see if numbers bear through)

Think im trying to make some point about values being the best method to fight doping or something like that.

(not interested in casting dispersions against other countries/riders)

letape

Well the festina affair was in 1998 and many French teams and riders were implicated in that / as were many more French riders' samples found to have EPO when the samples from the 1999 tour were (re)tested last year.

eeeee

Mod Voice: You cannot speculate on doping in here. This thread will remain open for now but the slightest line crossing and it's closed I'm afraid.

ozzy jr

Rather than start a new doping thread, I have a doping question.

Is it possible for an athlete, cyclist or any sports person to prove they are clean? I was reading an article and it suggested that it's not possible.

Surely if a cyclist was to hand himself over to a lab they'd be able to confirm whether he was clean or not?

RobFowl

ozzy jr wrote: »

Rather than start a new doping thread, I have a doping question.

Is it possible for an athlete, cyclist or any sports person to prove they are clean? I was reading an article and it suggested that it's not possible.

Surely if a cyclist was to hand himself over to a lab they'd be able to confirm whether he was clean or not?

You can't prove you are clean. It's like proving the null hypothesis.
You can provide as much evidence as you can to make it more likely though.

ozzy jr

RobFowl wrote: »

You can't prove you are clean. It's like proving the null hypothesis.
You can provide as much evidence as you can to make it more likely though.

What evidence would you need to provide?

wayne0308

ozzy jr wrote: »

What evidence would you need to provide?

I think you'd need to have an independent observer attached to the cyclist (or the team) who could follow their every move. Can't see this ever happening. Even then, it's not hard to get away from that person.

David Walsh kind of did this with team sky for a while I remember. I didn't pay too much attention to it a the time but I remember there being a lot of criticism of it.

diomed

I'm waiting to find out the average speed of this year's Tour de France. With plenty of mountain stages will it be lower?
I calculate it at 39.67 km/hr so far in 2015.

Henlars67

I believe more or less nothing I see at the top level of sport any more.

I've accepted that the vast majority of the top athletes in every professional sport are on something.

Cycling is no better or no worse than the likes of tennis, rugby etc.

Once I accepted that it made watching sport enjoyable again.

Just watch it for pure entertainment, but believe nothing you see

Eamonnator

I'm very surprised, that this thread has lasted so long.

odyssey06

It can't help French riders that they are under intense expectations of the host country of the Tour de France... maybe after all the scandals reduced the profile of cycling in general, some of that was lessened... this year, after last year's relative success, pressure is back on, cue meltdowns like Pinot on the cobbles...