The Lance Armstrong Case

Originally Posted by HoreTore

So, Lance Armstrong has just been formally charged by USADA.

What's your opinion on this? Is the sport completely ruined, if its greatest hero was drugged the entire time? And if Armstrong was drugged, how many of his buddies have been drugged as well?

my personal opinion is that doping is completely prevalent in road cycling, you just don´t perform day after day climbing mountains like that just on steak and pasta.
the question if you get busted or not depends were you are placed in the "race" between dopers and the testers.

does this harm Armstrong's reputation? not to me, I look at it like this:
If everyone is doping, the guy that comes out on front time and time again is still the best guy out of the group, the only thing is that the baseline is not where they pretend it is.

I disagree with doping in a drug free competition. So allow it or don't.

But if you think it's okay to use drugs then why not allow mopeds into the competition? After petrochemicals are just a different discipline in chemistry and that's what is competing in drug takers not human performance.

Little more seriously why not have a drug free version of cycling and a drug one.

However the drug inclusive one will have a category similar to formula one manufacturers award.

So you could have Pfizer and other legit companies competing and sponsoring their pharma. Let's see alternative medicine perform in this environment.

They really should have waited until after the tour.

I find myself completely unimpressed by Carl Sagan now, as all I can think about is when he'll be busted.

Originally Posted by Ronin

my personal opinion is that doping is completely prevalent in road cycling, you just don´t perform day after day climbing mountains like that just on steak and pasta.
the question if you get busted or not depends were you are placed in the "race" between dopers and the testers.

does this harm Armstrong's reputation? not to me, I look at it like this:
If everyone is doping, the guy that comes out on front time and time again is still the best guy out of the group, the only thing is that the baseline is not where they pretend it is.

However, it seems that there would be enough of a variety of drugs that differences would be more of a result of different drugs rather than cycling ability.

Policing of sports needs to me smarter than merely random tests. Although not always the case, after some have been caught there has been a massive spike in the individual's performance in the past. As if a new regime knocked 20% off their times... Even then suspicion is not proof of course.

Sports can either be one of two things:

Purely a freak show where only oddities compete against each other.
A designer drugs show where competitors load up on substances to win.

As others have said, it is taking drugs in a dug free sport that is the problem. It might be more sensible to embrace this rather than deny it.

Originally Posted by rory_20_uk

Policing of sports needs to me smarter than merely random tests. Although not always the case, after some have been caught there has been a massive spike in the individual's performance in the past. As if a new regime knocked 20% off their times... Even then suspicion is not proof of course.

Sports can either be one of two things:

Purely a freak show where only oddities compete against each other.
A designer drugs show where competitors load up on substances to win.

As others have said, it is taking drugs in a dug free sport that is the problem. It might be more sensible to embrace this rather than deny it.

I don´t think testing is completely random....on a major race after each state the winner is always tested, along with a group of randoms.
so theoretically a guy with a boost in performance that started winning races would be tested every time he won.

Unfortunately, drugs are common in sport especially in those which are based on purely physical ability, like cycling, running, swimming etc...

I would be more surprised if he wasn't doped...

Cycling and weight lifting are two sports where I assume anyone on the top level is doped. I have yet to see anything contradict that view.

Originally Posted by Kadagar_AV

I would be more surprised if he wasn't doped...

Cycling and weight lifting are two sports where I assume anyone on the top level is doped. I have yet to see anything contradict that view.

Indeed, it's pressing the body too far. That is why I think i should just become a pharmaceutical equivalent of thr Formula 1. They all do it.