Drugs in UK sports....

[Dinny Breen]

Team Sky is unravelling dirty as any of them. Great radio on Off the Ball last night, David Walsh is even putting his hand up saying it got it wrong. This won't end well.

[Minder]

Team Sky is unravelling dirty as any of them. Great radio on Off the Ball last night, David Walsh is even putting his hand up saying it got it wrong. This won't end well.

Well I think he is saying they are all dirty, but somehow Froome is clean 

[Dinny Breen]

Team Sky is unravelling dirty as any of them. Great radio on Off the Ball last night, David Walsh is even putting his hand up saying it got it wrong. This won't end well.

Well I think he is saying they are all dirty, but somehow Froome is clean 

That was throughly bizarre but then when you invest so much and want to believe so badly as many did with LA it can be hard let go even when logic dictates otherwise.

[stew]

No one is so goodat cycling to be clean a2nd competing for tour wins, its that simple folks.

[JoG2]

No one is so goodat cycling to be clean a2nd competing for tour wins, its that simple folks.

That's it. Just recently read the Tyler Hamilton book, The Secret Race. He was famed for having an incredible pain threshold and work ethic. When he first raced in Europe he couldn't believe the power of the riders. He was consistently battling just to finish races and not get cut. When he finally made the 'a' team, and had his first hit of epo, just one hit, he finished in the top 20 the next race. There is not a single rider at the top level 'clean' imo

[gallsman]

I wonder what benny's views are at this stage...

[muppet]

No one is so goodat cycling to be clean a2nd competing for tour wins, its that simple folks.

That's it. Just recently read the Tyler Hamilton book, The Secret Race. He was famed for having an incredible pain threshold and work ethic. When he first raced in Europe he couldn't believe the power of the riders. He was consistently battling just to finish races and not get cut. When he finally made the 'a' team, and had his first hit of epo, just one hit, he finished in the top 20 the next race. There is not a single rider at the top level 'clean' imo

Good book.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/dec/21/british-biathlon-union-boycott-world-cup-russia-doping

Great Britain will boycott the biathlon World Cup in Russia in March, with executives branding Russian athletes "brainwashed" for disowning the McLaren report.

The board of the British Biathlon Union has voted unanimously to shun the World Cup meeting in Tyumen in March......

......."The board has taken the unanimous decision that Great Britain will not compete at the biathlon World Cup in Tyumen," the British Biathlon Union's statement read.

"This follows the brain-washed, deluded and dishonest comments of Russian World Cup athletes that McLaren is about politics, not sport and the unprecedented booing of the Russian female athlete who won the sprint at World Cup Two last weekend in Nove Mesto.


Delighted that the Brits are taking the high moral ground on doping in sports. 

[bennydorano]

I wonder what benny's views are at this stage...

I don't think any different than I did a few weeks ago. The real debate now is what is clean.

Happy that you value my opinion.

[Asal Mor]

Team Sky is unravelling dirty as any of them. Great radio on Off the Ball last night, David Walsh is even putting his hand up saying it got it wrong. This won't end well.

That was a brilliant interview. At first Walsh was trying to pat himself on the back, reminding the listeners that he'd called for Brailsford to resign 2 months ago, but the interviewer (Joe Molloy??) really knew his stuff and absolutely grilled him over all the bad judgement calls he'd made, plus the positive publicity he'd given Team Sky for so long. I thought Walsh was getting very tetchy and defensive at times. For a man whose most lauded book was based on the principle(as he reminded the reader throughout) of journalists not accepting what's taken by others to be the truth, and instead asking the difficult questions, he didn't seem to appreciate facing a few himself. It was a great laugh listening to him squirm actually, and I'm sure Lance will enjoy it thoroughly too.

[Minder]

Kimmage was putting the boot into him last night

[Asal Mor]

Kimmage was putting the boot into him last night

What was that on Minder? Would love to have a listen.

[gallsman]

I wonder what benny's views are at this stage...

I don't think any different than I did a few weeks ago. The real debate now is what is clean.

Happy that you value my opinion.

I wasn't being snarky or anything, just that you're the prominent sky defender on the board. Do you still reckon Froome is clean?

[bennydorano]

Yes. I certainly don't think Sky or Froome cheat in the traditional way - EPO etc... Froome isn't abusing TUEs & has inadvertently been exonerated by the Fancy Bears leaks. Until there's proof of anything you have to give him the benefit of the doubt (I do anyway).

[stew]

Yes. I certainly don't think Sky or Froome cheat in the traditional way - EPO etc... Froome isn't abusing TUEs & has inadvertently been exonerated by the Fancy Bears leaks. Until there's proof of anything you have to give him the benefit of the doubt (I do anyway).

Benny I did the same thing for Armstrong, you have tremendous knowledge in the area of professional cycling, me? Not so much, do you really think Drop me is that good he could compete and beat the best of the best who were doping? I think not, what do you think?

[muppet]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/38413852

Among the other allegations made by Matheson are:

The World Class Performance Programme worked in a "bubble" with "little or no supervision" by British Cycling's management.

A "considerable amount of money" has been spent on financial settlements for staff who were "forced" to leave British Cycling.

Favoured athletes and staff tended to form "enclaves" and those on the outside were "often treated badly and fearful for their future".

Matheson's account of events is highly critical of Sir Dave Brailsford, who joined British Cycling in 1997 and worked under Keen before succeeding him in 2003.