How stupid can people be? Moisés Dueñas of the Barloworld team was found positive for EPO from a test from stage four of the Tour, the individual time trial stage. A pro since 2002, Dueñas has never garnered big results, like Manuel Baltran, the other Spaniard who has tested positive for EPO in this year's tour. These revelations point to the fact that cycling is still a very dirty sport, with much work to do in the fight against doping.
Most concerning about Moisés Dueñas and Manuel Baltran is the fact that neither are high profile riders. Both are known more as team workers, not leaders. The fact that they are doping suggests that many riders still are. If a lesser known gregario is willing to dope, surely the team captains are tempted as well. Hopefully the Tour won't be faced with any more positives, as 2008 is starting to look more and more like 2007.
And what about those Spaniards? They seem to be constantly caught up in doping, while other countries stay out of trouble. Perhaps if there had been punishments from Operacion Puerto, Spain wouldn't have such a big doping problem. Meanwhile, one of the pre-race overall favorites Alejandro Valverde has lost large amounts of time and seems out of the hunt for the overall. Associated with Operacion Puerto documents, valv. piti. seems to be dope-free in this year's Tour.
One final point to ponder is why were there no positives at the Giro or any other early season races? Is the Tour the only race that riders dope for? Or is it that the Tour is the only race doing vigorous testing? Surely there were doped riders in Italy or at the classics this past spring, but the fact that they were not caught is disconcerting to say the least. With another positive test in this year's Tour, things may well start to spiral out of control for the sport of cycling.
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1 comments:
If you read Willy Voets ("breaking the chain" fame) stories on doping in the peleton he comments that domestiques are often more apt to dope as they have heavier racing schedules then their team leaders. They are often just sent from race to race with very little time in between to allow the body to recover, and grow from the effort. They are doping for reasons other than winning, but rather just for surviving the races.
Is Moises stupid? Maybe. Since racers have been pulling the wool over peoples eyes now in a grossly neglient way since 1992 (maybe the last clean tour with out the spectre of EPO...steroids and other stimulants were/are benign compared to EPO) it probably hard for them to think that THEY WILL get caught.
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