DOPING IN SPORT ! French Senate Report .

Doping Violations are not a Criminal offence in France , BUT , possession of Doping Products is ! A Doped Athlete is considered a " Victim "  , but i guess possessing the products means that you may choose to distribute rather than use ?  French Law , currently allows the Police , to launch an investigation when they uncover " Product ". Italy & Sweden , both approach this matter as Criminal activity , however no studies are currently at hand , to determine the effectiveness of this approach ?

By now , many are aware that the French Senate Enquiry has published it's Report , since many well known Cycling Athletes ( Previously thought of as Heroes ) have been pilliored by the Media . Laurent Jalabert was the first to dissappear , days before he would have taken up his customery duties as a " Cycling Pundit " at the 100th Edition of the " Le Tour "! Missing were numerous red cars , with his Face plastered on the side , as they roared around the route of the Annual Festivities . Other French Athletes were also named , Jackie Durand , amongst others , but interestingly they were able to make their excuses and then were left alone .

The French Senate originally planned to reveal their report during early July , but because of the " sensational content " , decided to wait until the Journalists had returned to Paris , at the end of " Le Tour ". Jolly decent of them , but then we couldn't have the " Le Tour " pushed out of the headlines , by Events that were already 15 years in the past ? Speculation was rife however as to the contents and thus leaks were in some cases overblown .

Case in point was Stuey O'Grady , he and his Team ,Orica GreenEdge , knew that he would be mentioned . Having started the TDF with an announcement to continue racing into 2014 , the " leaks " must have caused a rapid rethinking , since on Monday in Paris , Stuey announced his Immediate Retirement . Even the Team had put together a press announcement praising his contribution to the Team and Aussie Sport . Of course by Wednesday Evening there was a new spin on the facts and Thursday saw the " AOC " demanding he resign from the " Athletes Commission "that he had been invited to join in 2012 . Fortunately for him , he had not signed the Documents that he had been required to sign as part of the AOC Procedures .

Recent days has seen Eric Zabel step down from many of the activities that have kept him busy since his retirement from Racing . The Germans in the past have been highly critical of their Athletes who chose to dope , so it would appear that he will be treated with a Heavy Hand in their media ?

With the relevations concerning the 1998 Tour de France , Media Pundits that were fully supportive of him in his PAST Endeavours , went ballistic with their condemnations . For some reason most of these people took it personally , thinking they were entitled to be aware of matters , that i doubt he even shared with his familly , let alone his Current Team ?  I guess is that Matt White and David Millar were well aware of the situation but in conformity to the OMERTA Code , stayed Stumm ! Not sure where that word comes to the English language from , but i lived in that village in the Zillertal , some years ago .

THE FRENCH SENATE REPORT , sets out evidence about 14 Sports , having Interviewed many People over a period of Months . In September 2013 , a week has been set aside for Parliament Debate , then in November 2013 there will be Parliamentary Meetings , which will no doubt inspect some of the " Laws on Doping Matters " that may have been constructed in the interim ?

It would appear that the Senate may be in position to introduce New Laws in Early 2014 , in respect of " Regulation of Doping in Sport "? Could it be that the French Government will be framing Laws that will see them at the forefront of the " Fight against Doping in Sport "? The " Rapporteur ( Principal Instigator ) of the Inquiry is a M.Jean-Jacques Lozach and is quoted as saying :

"  Lozach said, “There is the prevention and punishment which are inseparable aspects, it is essential to fight it. This, it seems to me, the heart of the next framework law. And then there’s the wish for France to be the leader of the anti-doping fight in Europe.”

Could it be that before WADA reveals their New Code commencing in 2015 , that the French Government will have enacted Legislation that will cause a rethink of their " ANTI DOPING CHARTER "? Currently it seems to me that WADA , is a " Toothless Tiger " . They mean to do a Good Job , but their Charter prevents them doing WHAT IS NECESSARY , to deter the Criminal elements that seem to have turned ALL SPORTING ACTIVITIES into a Farce! Over the years i continually hark back to the " Donatti Report" which details activities until 2006 . WHAT has taken place since then , is an expotential escalation of the problems highlighted by that report .

So far the French Senate has told us WHAT TOOK PLACE in the past  ! Revealed in their report is information that caused a certain Forum contributor , " Dimspace " to put together this CHART :

 Sorry this came out smaller than i thought .

What the Public need to know is , WHAT DO THEY PLAN TO IMPLEMENT , so as to take the fight AGAINST DOPING into the FUTURE !

Meanwhil i would remind ALL and Sundry that my Petition  to the Governor General is worth consideration , since there are COUNTLESS Aussies out there that failed to survive the pressures placed on them whilst in competition ! They Doped , then they regretted that failing ? Time they were given a chance to clear the slate?
              http://t.co/iA5i79KUNY

Will add more Asap .




Some of the Internet reports :

http://stevetilford.com/2013/07/25/stuart-ogrady-exposed/comment-page-1/#comment-32839

http://gerard.cc/2013/07/27/2682/?blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-5

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2008/04/13/cycling-drugs.html

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/mike-tomalaris/blog/128176/don-t-forget-stuey-s-brilliant-career

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/road/news/50494/french-epo-report-no-shock-to-armstrong

http://roadcycling.com/news-results/lifes-not-fair/page/0/2#.UfdVQ9L0GSo

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/07/news/must-read-ogrady-nearly-signed-anti-doping-pledge_297059



AS A RESULT OF THE IOC Vice President declaration today i sent this comment to :

http://gerard.cc/2013/07/31/8-random-thoughts-on-doping/#comment-4774

IOC Vice President hitting the Media with " Doping will NEVER be beaten "! Bit diff. to nein fordruggen with " Lance NEVER, Never , never Doped "!

When the Top of IOC give up , what do the Drug Cheats think ? Carte Blanche ? Has anyone noticed we have had no " Positives " from the TDF as yet ? Could it be that they are waiting until all the brown paper bags have surfaced ?

Looks like there will be Peace in the Mid east before WADA gets a New Charter allowing them to SUCCEED in the Anti doping Fight ?

Wondering when @Mike Rann , @KevinRuddMP & her Excellency G.G. of Oz will get to read :http://t.co/iA5i79KUNY

This will suffice until SOME Organisation works up a sweat as they decide to do SOMETHING Constructive !

Vince Carter at the Tour de France

Every year i meet people who arrive at the Tour de France for the first time and i enjoy watching their reactions to the " Circus " that the TDF has become during the 14 occasions i have ridden the routes .

One night several of us camped in a field and i got asked once again why i don't write a book , fact is the blogs are not well enough attended to justify the expense in time and monies to rave on about the places i have been and the people i have met .

Some of the experiences i have enjoyed have been right off the scale in that i find myself the guest of so many generous people both in their homes and as a guest at the side of the road . It is impossible to relate the generosity of so many people even if i could find the correct words since in many cases these people have put aside their own commitments to help me ! The spread of nationalities and countries is mind boggling as not only Europeans but Asians have treated me so kindly !

Currently i don't seem to be able to post direct to the Blogs and so am using " Posterous " as the Portal so the stories/blogs are repeated in several blogs and for that i apologise .  Hopefully i will discover the problem and solve it quickly !

TODAY i am copying an email into the blog written by Vincent who has ridden the "Routes of the TDF " these past 3 years .

""   Skippy appeared riding from behind me on my first trip to the Tour de France in Monaco 2009 on the TT course . I had camped for 5 days in my first foreign country and the sound of a friendly Australian accent was welcome and after the usual exchange of details , he proceeded on along the course and shortly after i met another Tour devotee George the cyclist , who informed me of Skippy’s long running involvement with all the grand tours .

The power of the event and the challenge to view it while riding the course as much as you can handle got into my head with some power so i returned to the 2010 edition which started in Rotterdam to meet up with George . It was world cup soccer time and Skippy , George , and a new find of George’s , David the German and i took part in the excitement of a game watching the screen at the IYH where I was staying . The dutch won ,the locals where more than pleased it was a happy time to be amongst the revellers.
Over the coming days as gGorge and i rode the course Skippy would appear always loaded up with Skippy’s Legacy which was a special cycling jersey autographed by all the riders of note in the Pro Peloton. Skippy had plans to auction the shirt with proceeds going to his primary interest “ disabled sports people “. Regularly our paths would cross as the tour stages went by.

2011 came around and again i could not resist the Tour of France atmosphere , after riding to the rider presentation and discovering that it was invitation only i settled back in the car park to watch the Team buses roll up with all the tour Champs and Personalities passing by and i felt my 500 km ride was well worth it.
Then a gentle whack from a passing cyclist revealled Skippy once again , after greetings were done Skippy arranged for me to shake the hands of some tour stars Erik Zabel , Cadel Evans , Danilo Hondo ,Chris Horner , Mark Renshaw and others . Even though i am of a mature age , 54 , just to meet these guys was a great thrill and i doubt I’ll forget it ever, this was all down to Skippy , as he is one of the personalities which add to the whole tour experience .

 

What i should like to do is INVITE others to contribute their stories relating how we have met up  , over the years .

 

People like my friends in Crest , Brussels , Redom , Montigenevre , Torino and so many more places occasionally visit the blog so i would encourage them to contribute their piece to the Blog .

Now that Vincent has set the ball rolling , who will be next ?

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

WORM CRAWLS OUT

AS I start this blog entry the Giro is 87km from the line and they have just shown video of the worm on Deutsche Eurosport in a split section with the race where real racers are earning their living by suffering long distances and for the most part unseasonably cold and wet weather for this section of Italy.


Most of the commentary since the start of this transmission has featured an incident in 2006 which should have been long consigned to the dustbin of history as of no interest to cycling or the encouragement of sponsorship. However ever since a certain Jan was accused of engaging in “Unsporting activities” the Germans in particular have tried to distance themselves from the sport.

Last week in the Cuneo area I was fortunate to ride with Eric Zabel as I have done many other times in past years. One occasion that comes into sharp focus is the Vuelta Rest day in 2001 at Barcelona
Most Spanish teams stayed in the same neighbourhood so the were about 50+ in the group including yours truly. Training on rest day starts out at a moderate pace through the suburbs and as we were going along I got my leg pulled unmercifully as there were any number of the racers who knew my story and wanted to know why I support “Disabled Sport” even though some of them remembered me from the 2000 Olympic in Sydney.

Not sure who started it but I had paper thrust under my nose and the request for autograph, “are you kidding” I asked but the straight face answered their family had seen me on TV so were asked to oblige. Well I went to the back of the group and tried to do the bike autograph, I was then doing like Stephan Roche as I wobbled down the road. This got to be a bit of a joke as some of the Telecom boys joined in as well. Later the group broke up into several sections and together with Telecom I rode up to the observatory behind Barcelona . Returning to the hotel in the traffic a little fat local hopped out of his car with a tyre iron to threaten the Telecom guys, Eric broke out in laughter as did the others , the lights changed and we took off bemused as to what the rabbit was raving about..



Back to the return ride to Cuneo, following Eric was a long haired Italian looking guy in a red uniform letting Eric ride point. I saw them coming towards me and having seen Eric in Savigliano early that morning was surprised so turned as quickly as I could to chase but was 150m behind so was red lining to catch the draft. After I got on I found that the pace was uncomfortably high so with a strong wind in the face decided to draft rather than chat.

Now here’s the thing that stands out, we were easily going faster than I have ever gone with him on “Rest Days” regardless of the head wind, closer to 40kph if not more. This amazing guy is not racing and yet he is pulling us both along quite easily ,and he is not named by the worm as a user. The next day with Moser, Motta, Bettini & Fondriest started out at a lower tempo but the return trip was equally as fast again Maurizio is not named by the worm. Fact is he seems to have a grudge against his countrymen and US Cycling and their connections but then he was looking for attention at the Tour of California and caught the attention world wide.

What a sad day it is when “helping someone” in past years is rewarded with this type of behaviour. As I was growing up I was taken to the beach and would build sandcastles and at home like other kids would throw mud at the wall hoping some would stick , well we all know that Media Circles have deep pockets and access to teams of lawyers so what’s a little mud between reporting on Iraq and World Cup Soccer?

Earlier this week I thought it was “April Fools day “as I caught an article about tiny motors being buried in the frames of bikes. YUP there are those who think that a bike can be assisted by a tiny motor! Where do you hide the batteries that are needed to transform the power of the athlete into mechanised assistance?

Marco Bugnotti made a comment as a member of the UCI that was reported in Cyclingnews.com which I thought summed up their attitude to the Media’s interest in this subject. Looks like it has been overtaken as a matter of speculation by the worm!



Two grand tours on the go and both with Aussies wearing the leaders jersey with 20+ Aussies vying with each other to achieve recognition the rest of this week will be great viewing. Another thing I notice regularly is the Columbia team spends consistently more time on the front of the peleton than other teams, is this my imagination or is this fact.



Perticara has been passed with a 6min lead for the breakaway and it reminds me of Linus running out of steam before the finish in an earlier etappe, disappointing to see someone have “Hitting the Wall(usually in marathons) syndrome” in a bike race and within the final kilometre.

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GIRO 2010 report 1

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WHAT does one have to do to get a result??

Posted comments on “Cyclocosm Blog” in the past days and people are visiting but as to whether they will come again or not I can’t say as they did not “Comment” and they avoided committing by hitting the “Follower” button !

By now many of you know I was skittled last Thursday on the Giro route before arriving in Novi Liguri that day, I made it to 10m from the finish line some hours before the racers but the same “Officious A$$h*L*” turned me away and guess what he was waiting for me when I came in through the back door a while later. When you watch the TV you can see all those people walking around with a piece of plastic on a tape hanging around their neck walking around the same area with no purpose in mind, truth is 90% do it on the off chance they get on TV so their “reli's” can call them on the ’phone to say they saw them on TV!

Bruised up as I was I was in no shape to persevere against 4 retired Carabinere so called it a day and headed off for Piacenza as there were people to catch up with from previous years Giros. On the way there stopped off at a bar to watch the action over the last 20 kms. Don’t think I have met Pineau yet but was talking to Tyler Farrar about his father's condition on Tuesday when I led the Garmin team through Savigliano to the start point for the TTT on Wednesday. Rode through with them to the relief road roundabout where I dropped back for them to do their training run . During the next 5km I was behind the team car and as 5m of space would appear some cretin would pull along side and gradually ease right until touching was a possibility. When alone I would belt the glass with my fist but that could result in their attacking the other riders with serious consequences so I would ease off and the next cretin would repeat the performance.


After the team stopped for a conflab we all set out again and I dropped out on the outskirts of Cuneo when I spotted “Eric Zabel” coming the other way with a friend. Turning around lost me 150m and so it was serious work to catch and hold them and there is nothing wrong with "Z" these days, if anything he pedals harder in training now that he is no longer competing. That 25 km was constant unremitting red line with little chance of conversation so I still do not know who the 2nd guy was. At a guess an ex racer in less good condition.Eric was point the whole time and as The OTHER showed no interest in going point and I was struggling with the wind even though we were drafting effectively i held the rear. On the outskirts of Savigliano I gave a cheer and eased off expecting to find them in the main square having a coffee.

As I was heading out of town later I came across the Milram Team and again led, through the lanes to the main square where we started down the TTT route,

Linus who everybody had been waiting on asked me if I would mind not joining the training. Whilst we were awaiting him I had already told the others of my run with Eric so I was quite relieved to avoid a repeat effort.

Wednesday I joined up with Moser,Motta, Fondriest and Bettini to ride the TTT Route, yes they were all world champions and yes have cycled with them all over the last few years. During the Giro these guys are employed by Bank Mediolanumto ride with their clients, how the clients get selected beats me as they come in all shapes and sizes as well as ages. For any number of years I have been asking them to include “Disabled Riders “ but to no avail, occasionally as last year there is a pretty young lady amongst the group, she had raced in the Italian Ladies Team but missed Sydney2000 much to my disappointment since I had showed that team the race route in Sydney. On the way to Cuneo the pace was relaxed about 36km but on the return trip after dropping half the group and only Maurizio involved the pace went above 40kph and into the wind on another route as the TTT course was one way only.

After lunch I headed down the course to watch a little of the action before heading off to set up for the next day’s effort of Novaro to Novi Liguri.

Following is an extract that i posted to "Comments" on Cyclocosm blog.I follow this blog in recent times as i think this Guy has a good grasp of the Racing scene

"Pascal is a” larger than life Mechanic with a heart of Gold”! Really touched that you have chosen to give him a high profile on your blog as he has helped me so many times in the past years!
Countless occasions he and other mechanics have come through with advice, parts and support, in fact these “Pro Tour Workers" are the reason i can keep going even in the worst conditions.
Thursday evening after the afternoon crash on the race route before it arrives at Novi Liguri i arrived at Park Hotel , Piacenza where 3 teams were overnighting. Many of the racers and support staff saw how badly knocked up i was and were sympathetic and amazed when i got on with the job of putting the bike back into 100% condition so as to be able to ride race route in the morning if possible. Lampre Team guys were joshing me throughout and to them i am called “JOHNNY” a long story for another day.
Friday i was back at the hotel before going to the start of the race where i rode around the parking as i could not walk with the whole right side spasming if any weight was applied to my right leg and shoulder, strangely enough i could bear the pain of pedalling, little choice though.

After greeting Liquigas, Garmin & Lampre Racers the night before i was able to catch up with Carlos,Cadel, Stephano,Vino and of course Lloydie amongst the many i have come to know through the years. Even gave John Murphy the request to say “Aiuto Disabili” when he was on the podium but he has now gone home so i hope he remembers to do so elsewhere!


These past days at “home “in Zillertal have been painful but full of “Aussie Sporting Success” yachting(the pink lady), car racing(Porsche & F1) and Cycling (Lloydie & Cadel ’s Victories ) so time abed has passed quickly enough.TODAY Gossie!!

Next week in the Dolomites regardless of the pain as i ride the climbs since i will be accustomed to it by then and i hope the weather changes for the better as looking at today’s etappe with Vino in skillet at 67km to go tells me i am not missing the unusual may weather in Italy.
AGAIN THANKS TO ALL THE PRO TOUR MECHANICS FOR HELP & SUPPORT !!


WORK IN PROGRESS SO "FOLLOW" AND SEE THE RESULTS !!