Sarah
Kicking the entire team out definitely ups the stakes and creates incentive between the riders on a team to make sure everyone is clean (or at least won't get caught). I bet Kloden is pretty pissed at Vino...
More importantly, it ups the ante for sponsors - losing one rider is bad, but losing your entire team is quite a blow. By kicking out the entire team, doping may finally be such a risk that it's not worth it.
So, I agree that this could be the "dark before the dawn" where riders start to realize this new situation. Of course, Mao said, "It's always darkest before it's totally black."
Sarah
----- Original Message ----
From: "Malcolm, Gary"
To: Lisa ; obra@list.obra.org
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 4:20:10 PM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] le Tour
L,
It does put a damper on the fun to say the least. However, this really could be the turning point. Vino disgraced, Astana out, Cofidis out, The Yellow Jersey stripped, Rasty fired and Rabobank unlikely to start tomorrow. This could go a long way toward making riders unwilling to dope themselves and more likely to pressure their peers into clean riding. At the very least, the sponsors deep pockets are going to dry up nullifying the root cause of all this stupidity. The glaring spotlight on the problem is the best disinfectant.
My solution would also to include the lifetime banning of support staff for these riders and the subsequent banning of those groups who maintain professional contact with banned persons.
Oh and unlike David Millar - Im glad they didnt stop for a moment of silence to commemorate Tom Simpson (the rider who died 40 years ago due to excessive Meth consumption).
Gary Malcolm
----- Original Message ----
From: Lisa [mailto:karmarenoir@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 4:17 PM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: [OBRA Chat] le Tour
It sucks that each year seems to get worse with all the doping...sure woulda been nice if all this had been examined and released prior to the start like last year instead of making us sit thru all the BS now
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