Sky sack Tiernan-Locke

[Graham Breeze]

Am I getting this right.... Committee members of a national sporting body defending the use of drugs in sport?

Shameful...

No.

But neither have I just fallen off the top of a Christmas Tree.

I recall in 2009 an Italian (Elisa Desco) tested positive at the World Mountain Running Champs. which meant a subsequent promotion to Team Gold for the GB team (Mary Wilkinson, Katie Ingram, Kate Goodhead and Sarah Tunstall) and a bronze medal for Sarah Tunstall.

Of course only foreigners do that sort of thing don’t they?

[shaunaneto]

Ah! So for the record:

- since David Millar was instrumental in Cavendish winning the World Championship you feel his win was undeserved?

- you were embarrassed to see Millar in the GB Olympic road team?.

Yes to both. I was equally embarrassed to see Vino win the Olympics too.

As to the OP. Good. But knowing pro cycling it's still possibly a PR exercise.

[alwaysinjured]

If he have broke the rules and been caught then the axe has correctly fallen.

He was showing massive improvements before going to Sky and then bent backwards.

Have a nice day Mike

Actually JTLs career showed massive promise early, then was interrupted by some very unfortunate periods which more or less kept him out of the sport off and on, so perhaps not as unexpected based on earlier promise.

And the science of passports - in as far as I can tell - is still on shaky ground to label people as career cheats. It is evidence, not proof of wrong doing.

Considering the bungling way Mcquaid did everything else, I am yet to be convinced this is better. I want to see the controlled trials data on which it is based. How many people monitored over how long, and how many artificially induced positives, what other factors were tested and how.

See if their stats are good enough.

[Carlos the Jackal]

well graham and i don't agree on almost anything but cycling we are two peas in a pod. and it's good to see those sky boys get their arse kicked in the most exciting tour for years after the boring anti cycling of sky's tatics of froome and wiggins. bravo nibali.

[noel]

I'm really surprised to see someone else doping after cycling cleaned itself up overnight once we all found out about that nasty Mr Armstrong.



Is it cynical for me to assume all the winners cheat? If it is, where's the evidence to suggest otherwise?

[that_fjell_guy]

Could someone one explain, in lay-mans terms, preferably one (or two) lines, what his offence was and what this 'passport offence' is?

Cheers.

[Mike T]

They check your Haemoglobin concentration via a blood test from time to time - they can also look at the age of the red cells - there should be a uniform variation of new to old cells; if the Hb variation goes beyond certain limits it points to EPO or doping - and if the red cells are not uniform the same applies. No doubt they have a program that spits out numbers like "the chances of this being natural variation are 10,000 to one against".

[that_fjell_guy]

Cheers Mike.

[alwaysinjured]

They check your Haemoglobin concentration via a blood test from time to time - they can also look at the age of the red cells - there should be a uniform variation of new to old cells; if the Hb variation goes beyond certain limits it points to EPO or doping - and if the red cells are not uniform the same applies. No doubt they have a program that spits out numbers like "the chances of this being natural variation are 10,000 to one against".

The problem I have been highlighting Mike , is that without a massive amount of controlled trials data over a wide range of both stress conditions , metabolism variations and doping regimes, which is needed to establish confidence intervals , then that 1 in 10000 or whatever is palpable nonsense. Statistics is abused far too often in evidence.

I have looked everywhere for published big peer reviewed / controlled trials, and so far found nothing. It may exist but if it does who funded it and when? The number of UCI tests is pitifully small. JTL may simply be guilty of a four sigma metabolism.

[Mike T]

If they give away too much information about what parameters they specifically look out for the cyclists and their teams will "correct" their Hb concentrations by a combination of venesection - taking off significant quantities of blood - and dilution - infusing saline and/or dextrose. I have no doubt that looking at Hb variations and red cell populations they can be very sure when someone has been doping/EPOing.